"Make sure what you risk is yours to lose"
About this Quote
A warning that sounds like finance advice but lands as a moral boundary: only gamble with what actually belongs to you. Heroux compresses an entire ethics of ambition into a single line, and the sting is in that last clause. “Yours to lose” implies there are losses that aren’t rightfully yours to offer up - other people’s stability, trust, time, safety, or dignity pressed into service as collateral for your big move.
The phrasing does quiet work. “Make sure” isn’t inspirational; it’s procedural, almost parental, the voice of someone who’s watched confidence masquerade as responsibility. “Risk” is framed as a choice, not a fate, which shifts accountability back onto the person hungry for transformation. In an era that increasingly romanticizes the leap - quit the job, chase the dream, break the rules - Heroux plants a stake in the unglamorous reality that risk is often outsourced. The entrepreneur risks investors’ savings; the politician risks communities; the artist risks family income; the thrill-seeker risks the bystander.
Context matters: a 20th-century writer who lived through the long shadow of depression, war, and institutional mistrust would have seen how quickly private wagers become public damage. The line reads like hard-earned skepticism toward heroic narratives that treat consequences as proof of daring. It’s not anti-risk; it’s anti-theft-by-adventure.
The subtext is a demand for clean accounting. If you want the freedom to bet big, earn the right to lose cleanly. Otherwise, it isn’t courage. It’s convenience dressed up as destiny.
The phrasing does quiet work. “Make sure” isn’t inspirational; it’s procedural, almost parental, the voice of someone who’s watched confidence masquerade as responsibility. “Risk” is framed as a choice, not a fate, which shifts accountability back onto the person hungry for transformation. In an era that increasingly romanticizes the leap - quit the job, chase the dream, break the rules - Heroux plants a stake in the unglamorous reality that risk is often outsourced. The entrepreneur risks investors’ savings; the politician risks communities; the artist risks family income; the thrill-seeker risks the bystander.
Context matters: a 20th-century writer who lived through the long shadow of depression, war, and institutional mistrust would have seen how quickly private wagers become public damage. The line reads like hard-earned skepticism toward heroic narratives that treat consequences as proof of daring. It’s not anti-risk; it’s anti-theft-by-adventure.
The subtext is a demand for clean accounting. If you want the freedom to bet big, earn the right to lose cleanly. Otherwise, it isn’t courage. It’s convenience dressed up as destiny.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
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