You can fail at what you don’t want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.

Jim Carrey delivered this line during his commencement address at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, in 2014. In the speech he reflects on his family’s financial insecurity and his father’s choice to pursue a “safe” career rather than his preferred path. Carrey recounts that his father, whom he considered talented and capable of comedy, became an accountant for stability but was later laid off—an experience Carrey uses to argue that security is not guaranteed. The quote functions as the speech’s pivot from personal anecdote to advice: since failure can occur even on a cautious path, one might as well risk pursuing meaningful work.

The quote reframes risk by challenging the assumption that practicality protects us from loss. Carrey’s logic is comparative: if failure is possible in an unfulfilling, “safe” pursuit, then the rational choice is to invest one’s effort in what feels purposeful. It also implies that regret is a distinct kind of failure—living according to others’ expectations rather than one’s own values. The line’s appeal lies in its blunt inversion of conventional advice: it does not deny hardship, but insists that meaning is a better wager than mere caution. In a graduation context, it encourages agency at a moment when life paths feel newly selectable.