What’s Harder: Starting Again or Never Trying? with Ryan Pyle

Starting again is hard. But what is waiting costing you?

Ryan Pyle knows which he’d rather do, though he hasn’t always found it easy to follow through. He moved to China out of curiosity and built a photography career. When that work dried up, he decided to make adventure television. Broadcasters said no. He paid for the first production himself—and eventually sold it to one of the channels that had rejected him.

But reinvention doesn’t get easier just because you’ve done it before. When COVID shut down his television business, Ryan spent years trying to preserve a life he loved before accepting he needed to build something else.

We talk about taking rejection personally when your work is wrapped up in who you are, the persistence behind an apparently enviable life, and the difference between struggling towards something you want and struggling to stay where you are.

Ryan’s adventures involve motorcycles, mountains and deserts. Yours might mean trying a different kind of work, reviving an ambition or taking a few days away to think. There’s a familiar tension underneath: earning a living, meeting responsibilities and still making room for a life that feels like your own.

How much longer does what you want to do stay on the “one day” list?

Find out more about Ryan: https://www.ryanpyle.com/