Achieving by a point-of-no-return

This is a pretty debatable method of achieving a really ambitious goal, even I am unsure how healthy of an option it is. But no denying that it is a risk-reward trade that if it works, the returns are insanely exponential but if it goes wrong then it goes REALLY wrong.

Origin

The idea of this essay originates from Vise founder Samir Vasavada’s story on his Anthony Pompliano interview, where he mentions how dropping high school and couch-surfing in Tenderloin, he HAD to make his startup work. Of course, you only drop-out when you have some kind of validation combined with your own conviction, but this move by Samir was purely conviction based. But he did end up making it and Vise is now a unicorn.

Self-Bet

However, at the end of the day, it is the self-bet that putting himself in this position meant he had to make it work (scale startup successfully) and there was no other choice (would be too old for college, cut-off by parents, etc.)

Debate

But the whole debate around this is two different arguments. One argument is that you risk the small percentage of things going wrong as a possibility to some extent, and then it takes an unhealthy toll on you to achieve your goal while you “maybe” could have done it without putting yourself in that situation.

But on the other side, if you really do put yourself in that position and try to achieve the goal, giving you absolutely no option but to make it work, you would in some way or the other warp reality with sheer will on achieving the goal and be able to do so.

The Bonus story

And the other bonus is that you also get to tell a cool story : point-of-no-returns are usually very low points, where no one but the person doing it only fully comprehends how required of an action it is for eventual rewards. To the outsider it just looks like a dumb, unnecessary move.

Samir dropping high school and moving to zombie-land was seen as dumb and unnecessary until Vise raised from Founders Fund and Sequoia. Putting himself around the heart of Venture Capital, and in a position where he was able to constantly work on his product and setting a deadline, it actually led him to make Vise successful.

Speed vs Comfort

But again, the other side is, could this have been done without setting up a point-of-no-return and just make it from a comfortable situation anyway. Maybe, but definitely not as quick as setting a point-of-no-return, because the important thing is it introduces comfort. And this speed that comfort hinders is all that matters in today’s world.