The Privilege to Compete

It’s difficult to conceive of how improbable the emergence of humanity is. Just think of all of the parameters that needed to be in place for us to develop as a species. Human consciousness is such a mystery that despite the extraordinary work of leading neuroscientists, we have yet to answer David Chalmers’ simplest questions about consciousness: What is consciousness and why does it exist? Why does it feel a certain way when we’re in a given state? How is it that we have a subjective perception of the signals being processed in our brains? Can an inorganic collection of atoms, like a computer, be conscious?  

With all of these improbabilities and questions in mind, how inexplicably lucky are we to be alive and aware?

Taking this idea a step further, how lucky are we to have the opportunity to pursue our hopes, our dreams, and our passions? If we love running, we’re privileged to participate in marathons. Hitting a PB time is just icing on the cake. If we love building businesses, we’re privileged to get meetings with interested investors. If we love to travel, we’re privileged to live in an era in which air travel makes the entire planet accessible. Yet sometimes we lose sight of all the tremendous privileges we have in life. Our baseline becomes our status quo, and our expectations—or the expectations of others—become our benchmark for success.

As a CEO of a venture capital firm with 60 active board seats, not everything works out perfectly for me. Our businesses are formative-stage startups taking on enormous challenges like cancer, infectious diseases, and protein sequencing. Amid this panoply of challenges, I try to never lose sight of the privilege of doing what I love. If I didn’t keep this in mind, I would be in a perpetual state of disappointment. 

I think about it this way: I don’t always win, but I relish the privilege to compete.  

I appreciate the latitude to go out in the world every day and focus my efforts on something worthwhile, impactful, and stimulating. Yes, sometimes things do work out for me—and it’s fun. Other times, I walk away slightly bruised but with a new lesson learned. Underlying all of these various outcomes is the journey itself, and the privilege of being on it.

It is the privilege of being a writer and sharing ideas with others that helps so many great authors persevere after being rejected by a long list of agents and publishers. It is the privilege of being an inventor and translating great ideas to real life that kept Edison iterating on his vision for an incandescent light bulb. It is the privilege of being an athlete and bringing a crowd to its feet that drives field goal kickers to spend hours perfecting their form and increasing their distance. 

If you see the process—and its challenges—as a privilege, rather than a burden, you are more likely to make the investment needed to succeed. If you are on a journey that you love, the bumps and bruises, the clanks off the goalpost, the falling short of a target are just part of the ride. It might not work out perfectly, but the privilege of showing up and having a chance to try is something you shouldn’t undervalue. It’s something you can’t replicate or replace.

It’s a privilege to be alive. It’s a privilege to go out in the world every day and compete in an arena you find meaningful. If you can maintain an awareness of the extreme privilege of being in the game of your choosing, you’ll be able to better maintain equilibrium, contextualize challenges along the way, and enjoy life’s great—and improbable—journey.