I was about to get a degree in economics when I accepted that I’d be a lousy businessman, and if I didn’t give acting a try I’d regret it for the rest of my life.

Gallagher frames a pivotal early-adulthood choice as a confrontation with aptitude and future regret. The economics degree represents a conventional, credentialed path toward business success; his self-assessment—“a lousy businessman”—signals an honest reckoning with temperament and talent rather than mere ambition. The decisive factor is not immediate reward but the long horizon of identity: he imagines the lasting cost of not attempting acting and chooses the riskier vocation to avoid lifelong remorse. The quote thus elevates “trying” as a moral imperative in creative callings, suggesting that fulfillment depends on aligning work with one’s genuine capacities and desires, even when that means abandoning a safer plan.