Wealth & Money Quote by Barbara Sher

Safety is supposed to be the grown-up choice, the responsible choice, the sane choice. Barbara Sher flips that assumption with a clean rhetorical judo move: the “safe” path is the real gamble. The line works because it attacks a cultural default - that risk is something you take only when you’re reckless, young, or already cushioned. Sher’s claim is harsher: caution can be a slow-motion form of self-sabotage, a way to spend your life without ever really placing a bet on it.

The subtext is less motivational-poster and more indictment. “Too safe” isn’t prudence; it’s fear dressed up as planning. It’s the career you can explain at dinner, the relationship you don’t leave because it’s “fine,” the idea you never ship because you’re still polishing. Sher implies that this kind of safety isn’t neutral. It has a cost, and that cost is paid in hours.

“Time is the only wealth we’re given” sharpens the knife. Money can be earned back, status can be rebuilt, even health can sometimes be repaired. Time is the one asset that only depreciates. In the context of Sher’s broader work as a self-help and career coach (and more accurately, a writer and speaker than a “businessman”), this isn’t abstract philosophy; it’s a tactical reframing meant to unstick people. If you treat time as your real currency, then playing it safe stops looking responsible and starts looking expensive.