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Patrick OShaughnessy @patrick_oshag
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Thread on owning risk

I just spent a week learning to track animals on foot in the South Africa. The most intense aspect of the experience was sleeping outside on the ground with no tent, taking turns on night watch to ensure leopards, hyenas, and other animals left us alone...
A bull elephant stared us down before deciding to push down a 70-year-old tree instead of mauling us, a nearby leopard’s saw-like growl kept us nervous, and I had to chase a hyena out of camp on my watch.
The most striking thing about these animals is that they just do what they know how to do. They act in accordance with their needs, do almost nothing that doesn’t have value, and don’t fret about the past or future.
We watched a pack of wild dogs sleeping, then stretching, then playing, then hunting for an hour (which terrorized the entire camp), then eating their kill in a matter of seconds with incredible intensity.
They have an 80% kill rate because they work together. The next highest is 20%. It was remarkable to watch the way they changed energy states so effortlessly and so in accordance with the moment.
When tracking, you sit in the morning darkness in silence and listen. You hear a roar, or a bird, or a call, and you choose what to pursue. You find one track, then more. You lose the track. To pick it back up, you have to guess and experiment.
You backtrack, work your ass off, and always keep going. The metaphor is obvious for life and business here, but what is most amazing about tracking is the places it takes you that you would NEVER have found otherwise. Those places are often better than the payoff of an animal.
Watching and tracking these amazing creatures raised many questions. With no ubiquitous social eye watching and judging, what would I do differently? How much more would I rely on an inner compass vs. an outer one to make decisions and act?
When I carefully consider my own choices, I realize how much I am still influenced by the desires of others. I realized sitting in silence that great progress and great pleasure (feeling alive) comes when you own your risk.
When you follow a playbook, when you mimic others, you are de-risking. You are handing off your risk to someone else.
I get that we cannot help but look to others for answers. It is human nature. But when you own your own risk and figure things out for yourself, you commit to progress without a playbook, and great things start happening.
I bought a bronze sculpted wild dog to put in the most prominent position on my desk as a reminder: stop ignoring what you know is right. Sleep, play, be very aggressive when need be. Do what you are good at doing, not what others think you should be doing.
Thanks to @BoydVarty for setting the example and for hosting us in the coolest place on earth.
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