What’s the worst thing that can happen?

http://leostartsup.com/2012/01/whats-the-worst-thing-that-can-happen/

by LeonW • 15 years ago

51 14 15 years ago

You can do lots of seemingly crazy things if you're willing to do this analysis. It's surprisingly, almost shockingly easy to get meetings with top decisionmakers if you're tenacious and don't mind being rejected, knowing that you've really got nothing to lose.

LeonW• 15 years ago

Absolutely, I couldn't agree more! It's just that reaching this state of mind is often hard to get into, when you reach it is incredibly powerful.

akg2• 15 years ago

I think to get to that point one needs to be comfortable with discomfort. That is when you push the boundaries you are capable of, grow, and accomplish amazing feats.

akg2• 15 years ago

We place too much onus on considering and evaluating potential outcomes of our actions and inactions. I find that most things that we are involved in are not make or break situations. Losing a customer, getting rejected, failing at a project, are all pretty minor speed bumps and most times they will not impact your life/business in any drastic way.

Life is composed of small incremental steps. It's important to keep an open-mind, learn, grow, and tread forward. As long as you do that it doesn't much matter much if you miss some steps, there will be plenty of opportunities to correct course when you stop to introspect.

jodrellblank2• 15 years ago

If happiness is what you want to practise, why is the exercise you do "imagining bad things"?

I put it to you that the exercise you really do is misleadingly named and that it is actually "what's the best that could happen, given this setback".

The worst that could happen includes losing a paying customer who then finds his business in trouble when he can't get a stable alternative, blames you, sues you under an obscure law which you didn't know of and you lose your company, job and go to jail. Or your site goes down and you can't fix it and your company sinks and your friends ostracize you and your cofounders rubbish your image publically. Or a disgruntled user hunts you down and murders you in your sleep.

You're not doing "worst that could happen", you're doing "least worst that could happen" or maybe "most likely thing that will happen" to get away from the above thinking.

dodo53• 15 years ago

Exactly, I always thing 'what's the worst that could happen?' as a motivational exercise is for people who lack imagination.

Cushman• 15 years ago

True, it's not a great example-- I honestly think the author has missed the point of the exercise. "We might be down for thirty minutes" is not actually that bad of a thing, as you point out; he's just practicing avoidance, which is not the path to happiness.

However, Buddhist mindfulness really does predict that the only way to be happy is to contemplate, and accept, your most secret and horrific fears. Try, "No matter how hard I work, what I make will eventually fail and be replaced." Or maybe "Everyone and everything I love will die and be utterly forgotten in a few hundred years."

This is, in fact, practicing happiness. It seems absurd, but if you can't be happy and productive while accepting these thoughts, you weren't ever really happy; just in denial.

grannyg00se• 15 years ago

"Everyone and everything I love will die and be utterly forgotten in a few hundred years."

That one isn't really that bad though. Unless you are obsessed with leaving some kind of significant mark on humanity. For most of us, what is remembered and forgotten in a few hundred years is hardly relevant since we will be dead.

itmag• 15 years ago

It seems absurd, but if you can't be happy and productive while accepting these thoughts, you weren't ever really happy; just in denial.

Sure, acceptance can lead to happiness. It can also lead to madness.

For an example of "dark buddhism", see Thomas Ligotti's "The Conspiracy against the Human Race".

http://www.amazon.com/Conspiracy-Against-Human-Race-Contriva...

ryanwaggoner• 15 years ago

Sigh. We nerds are difficult to talk to sometimes because we're so literal and we get bogged down into the semantics and completely miss the point.

No matter who asks it or at what time or because of what, the literal answer to "what's the worst that can happen" is some variation of either the universe being annihilated instantly, eternal pain and torment, etc, etc. Even your little examples pale in comparison with the worst that could happen.

So maybe that's not really the point that he's trying to make, and instead of quibbling over the semantics, we should think about what the real lesson here is.

To me, the point of this exercise is that we often get incredibly stressed out over little things without stopping to ask whether they're worth the stress we're affording them.

jodrellblank2• 15 years ago

I'm not really arguing whether he's using "worst" in the right way, because it can always be worse.

I'm pointing out that what he does, and what he says he does, are opposites.

Perhaps we miss the point because he's not clear about it and isn't describing it accurately?

abhaga• 15 years ago

I find the advise useful for certain situations. For example, hesitation is contacting a prospective customer for fear of rejection.

But this has the potential to lead down the path of mediocrity if applied in a company. Just one more lost customer, just another half an hour of down time, just another customer support call missed. They pile on.

The key is to know your core values as a company and be paranoid about them. If your USP is amazing customer service, you should feel like the world ending if one support call is missed. However you may not worry about occasional downtime of half an hour. The situation would be opposite if you offer an infrastructure service and your outage affects your customers' business.

The paranoia in these cases is not rational but that element of irrationality is your edge.

richardburton• 15 years ago

One thing I have noticed about a lot of the most successful entrepreneurs is that they all have a stable home to fall back on. If the worst thing that can happen to you financially is going bankrupt and living with the parents, I think it instils a certain confidence in you. It is a level of confidence that someone who has to support their parents or siblings cannot afford. The entrepreneurs I am thinking of range from close friends up to Branson, Gates, Jobs et al. All of these guys have come from good homes. I feel lucky to have a safe base to fall back on if it all goes to shit. Thanks mum. Thanks dad.

truth_dude• 15 years ago

Shitty app

What’s the worst thing that can happen?

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