There’s a line in No Country for Old Men that I’ve been thinking about lately.
Sheriff Ed Tom Bell is talking about a world he increasingly doesn’t understand. He says he doesn’t want to push his chips any farther and go out and meet something he doesn’t understand.
I understand that feeling.
I recently watched a video essay about No Country for Old Men that looked at the movie through the lens of risk, uncertainty and chance. The author focuses on the coin toss that appears throughout the story. You can make all the rules you want. You can try to play things safely. But ultimately, there are no guarantees.
Watch the video essay that got me thinking about this.
What stuck with me wasn’t really about the movie.
It was about life.
Yesterday, I submitted an offer on a home for one of my real-estate clients.
Today, I’m doing filing work for $80 a day.
Those two things probably don’t sound like they belong in the same story.
But right now, they do.
Real estate has a much bigger potential payoff. One transaction can produce more income than weeks of filing. But there is no guarantee when that next transaction will happen.
The filing job is almost the exact opposite. The upside is limited, but when I show up and do the work, I know what I’m going to earn.
So I wrestle with safety versus risk and reward almost every day.
I suspect most people do.
Maybe it’s staying in a job instead of starting the business. Keeping money in cash instead of investing it. Waiting another year to buy the house. Not making the phone call. Not putting yourself out there because rejection is possible.
We tend to describe those decisions as choosing risk or choosing safety.
I’m beginning to think that’s the wrong way to look at it.
There is no option without risk.
Playing it safe has consequences too. Years pass. Opportunities disappear. Inflation eats away at money. Someone else makes the call, buys the property, starts the business or takes the chance you kept thinking about.
That doesn’t mean pushing every chip into the middle.
I’m 52 years old. I have a wife. I want to buy a home. I’m trying to build something that lasts.
Recklessness isn’t a strategy.
That’s part of why I’m willing to do an $80-a-day filing job while continuing to work in real estate.
Some chips stay protected.
Some chips get pushed forward.
The challenge is knowing which is which.
That’s one reason the idea behind Summit 65 matters to me. I’m not documenting a straight line from Point A to Point B. I’m trying to figure out, in real time, how to build greater financial security without becoming so protective of what I have that I stop taking the risks necessary to get somewhere better.
There will never be a moment when every variable is known.
At some point, you still have to call the coin toss.
And maybe the bigger danger isn’t losing.
Maybe it’s reaching the end and realizing you spent your whole life refusing to call it.
Live a good life. Fight the good fight. And behave like we have something in store.