The safe option has a price too; it is simply charged quietly, over years.

Risk is easy to see. The failed venture, the money lost, the embarrassment at a family gathering. Nobody counts the salary you accepted for a decade of work that never stretched you.

Both paths cost. One bills you upfront and visibly. The other deducts small amounts monthly from your ambition, and you will not notice the withdrawals until they total something.

So do not ask which option is risk-free. Ask which risk you would rather carry, and which regret you could genuinely live with at fifty. Both answers are respectable.