Risk Is a Privilege

2026-02-24 · letter vlog · John · 5:11 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Global development (also: Economics) · mode: Personal essay · tags: timely hook, fundraising ask, heavy topic

With the Maternal Center of Excellence now open, John tells Hank that risk-taking is a privilege: the brothers' careers rested on a safety net and on luck, while few would risk anything on Sierra Leone's health system, so the community's bet on it, already paying off, is the one worth making.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Recent news: Complexly goes nonprofit, P4A raises over $4.2 million, the Maternal Center of Excellence opens

• ★★ John recaps that Complexly became a nonprofit. — 00:00:00 · Complexly
• ★★★ John says the Project for Awesome raised over $4.2 million. — 00:00:00 · Project for Awesome
• ★★★ John says the Paul Farmer Maternal Center of Excellence finally opened at Koidu Government Hospital, radically transforming infant and maternal care in eastern Sierra Leone. — 00:00:00 · Maternal Center of Excellence, Koidu Government Hospital, Sierra Leone
• ★★ John says the MCOE contains Sierra Leone's first NICU. — 00:00:00 · Maternal Center of Excellence, Sierra Leone
• ★★★ John says the MCOE will see the birth of some 5,000 babies every year, hopefully for decades. (hedged) — 00:00:00 · Maternal Center of Excellence
• ★★ John says the MCOE will serve as a teaching hospital, training the next generation of Sierra Leonean midwives, nurses and doctors. — 00:00:00 · Maternal Center of Excellence, Sierra Leone · first in: 2021-04-20, Breaking Ground!!!

00:00:29 — Risk is a privilege: the brothers' early risks, safety net, luck and hard work

• ★★ John calls the MCOE a real game changer for maternal and child health in the region. — 00:00:29 · Maternal Center of Excellence, maternal death, child mortality
• ★★★ John says the brothers could start YouTube videos in 2007, an expensive hobby with no prospect of paying off, because they had professional flexibility. — 00:00:29 · Hank Green, YouTube
• ★★ John says that flexibility came from earlier risks: in his early 20s Hank started the blog EcoGeek, which became profitable. — 00:00:58 · Hank Green, EcoGeek
• ★★ John says in his early 20s he wrote a novel at night and on weekends that was eventually published and won awards. — 00:00:58
• ★★★ John says those risks were only possible because of good educations, professional stability, low debt and other things uncommon in the world. — 00:00:58
• ★★ On luck, John says a different Printz committee in 2005 might have chosen another book over Looking for Alaska, and his career would look very different. (hedged) — 00:01:27 · Looking for Alaska (novel)
• ★★ John says if YouTube had not featured a song Hank wrote in 2007, the channel might not have survived to 2008. (hedged) — 00:01:27 · YouTube, Hank Green

• ★★★ John says risk-taking is a privilege, luck only sometimes its byproduct, and the brothers have been exceptionally lucky. — 00:01:27

  “Risk-taking is a privilege”

• ★★★ John says it drives him bonkers when successful people do not acknowledge that risk is a privilege or imply a risk paid off mostly through hard work. — 00:01:56

• ★★ John says he could only take risks because he had a safety net, which became more secure as he got older. — 00:01:56
• ★★ John says success is not just hard work: he worked exactly as hard on unread novels in metaphorical drawers as on ones that sold millions. — 00:01:56

00:02:26 — The MCOE as a different kind of risk: Sierra Leone seen as too risky, the 'unfavorable risk profile' email, the community's bet and the ask

• ★★ John says his safety net lets him risk writing a novel that might not work out; since The Fault in Our Stars he can do pretty much whatever he wants with his time. — 00:02:26 · The Fault in Our Stars
• ★★★ John says the MCOE was a different risk: their own money was the smallest part; they risked the money of thousands of people who trusted them. — 00:02:26 · Maternal Center of Excellence
• ★★ John says Partners In Health wanted to help Sierra Leone's government because everyone else called the country too risky: fragile systems, fear of war or economic collapse. — 00:02:55 · Partners In Health, Sierra Leone, maternal death
• ★★★ John says the reluctance to invest in impoverished communities is the main reason maternal and child mortality were so high in Sierra Leone. — 00:02:55 · Sierra Leone, maternal death, child mortality
• ★★★ John says more than one in 10 children in Sierra Leone died before age five and more than one in 20 women died in pregnancy or childbirth. — 00:03:24 · Sierra Leone, child mortality, maternal death
• ★★ John calls this unconscionable and unacceptable, but says addressing the crisis is risky. — 00:03:24
• ★★★ John recalls an unfathomably rich person emailing him to decline investing in the project because it had an unfavorable risk profile. — 00:03:24
• ★★ John says the man meant the only upside was distant people's lives improving while failure would make him look a fool, and on that level the MCOE did have an unfavorable risk profile. — 00:03:53 · Maternal Center of Excellence
• ★★★ John is tired of a world where many take risks on him, with the funding that started Crash Course or educational opportunities, and few on Sierra Leone's health system. — 00:03:53 · Crash Course, Sierra Leone
• ★★★ John says that as a community they made that bet, and so far it has worked. — 00:03:53 · Nerdfighteria
• ★★ John credits the success to hard work by Partners In Health and Sierra Leone's Ministry of Health. — 00:04:22 · Partners In Health, Sierra Leone · first in: 2019-10-01, Why Are Poor Countries Poor?
• ★★ John says the bet might still go sideways: this is not the end of the MCOE's story but the very beginning. (hedged) — 00:04:22 · Maternal Center of Excellence
• ★★★ John says they need viewers' support at pih.org/hankandjohn, just as five years ago. — 00:04:22
• ★★★ John says hard days lie ahead and the risk remains, but if there is one thing to bet on, it is children having the chance to be healthy and grow up with healthy parents. — 00:04:22

00:04:52 — Thanks on behalf of the 13 babies born on the first day; sign-off

• ★★ Thanking Hank and everyone who took the risk, John says 13 babies were born on the MCOE's very first day. — 00:04:52 · Hank Green, Maternal Center of Excellence
• ★★ John says taking that risk has already paid off on a level none of their previous risks ever could. — 00:04:52

In the description and comments

• ★★ The description asks those able to donate $2,000 or more to the effort to join the matching fund. — video description · Partners In Health · first in: 2020-07-21, Somebody Once Asked . . .

Threads in this video

• looked back · Complexly: the brothers' production company, renamed from EcoGeek (2016) — John recaps that Complexly became a nonprofit. (00:00:00)
• outcome · P4A 2026 edition — John says the Project for Awesome raised over $4.2 million. (00:00:00)
• outcome · Maternal Center of Excellence: the brothers' Partners In Health project in Sierra Leone (2019) — John says the Paul Farmer Maternal Center of Excellence finally opened at Koidu Government Hospital, radically transforming infant and maternal care in eastern Sierra Leone. (00:00:00)
• predicted · John: the Maternal Center of Excellence will see some 5,000 births a year for decades (2026) — John says the MCOE will see the birth of some 5,000 babies every year, hopefully for decades. (00:00:00)
• repeated · John: as a teaching hospital the Maternal Center of Excellence will train the next generation of Sierra Leonean health care workers (2019) — John says the MCOE will serve as a teaching hospital, training the next generation of Sierra Leonean midwives, nurses and doctors. (00:00:00)
• repeated · John: the Maternal Center of Excellence will dramatically change the quality of care for women and children in its region (2020) — John calls the MCOE a real game changer for maternal and child health in the region. (00:00:29)
• looked back · EcoGeek website: growth and milestones (2007) — John says that flexibility came from earlier risks: in his early 20s Hank started the blog EcoGeek, which became profitable. (00:00:58)
• mentioned · John: how Looking for Alaska was written, revised and won the Printz Award (2006) — On luck, John says a different Printz committee in 2005 might have chosen another book over Looking for Alaska, and his career would look very different. (00:01:27)
• restate · Do people get what they deserve, or do luck and privilege decide? — John says risk-taking is a privilege, luck only sometimes its byproduct, and the brothers have been exceptionally lucky. (00:01:27)
• looked back · Maternal Center of Excellence: the brothers' Partners In Health project in Sierra Leone (2019) — John says that as a community they made that bet, and so far it has worked. (00:03:53)
• reminder · John asks viewers to donate to Partners In Health at pih.org/hankandjohn (2019) — John says they need viewers' support at pih.org/hankandjohn, just as five years ago. (00:04:22)
• restate · Which causes deserve the most support? — John says hard days lie ahead and the risk remains, but if there is one thing to bet on, it is children having the chance to be healthy and grow up with healthy parents. (00:04:22)
• reminder · John asks would-be donors of $2,000 or more to join the PIH Sierra Leone matching team by email (2019) — The description asks those able to donate $2,000 or more to the effort to join the matching fund. (video description)
• restate · What makes charity or aid work well? — John says the reluctance to invest in impoverished communities is the main reason maternal and child mortality were so high in Sierra Leone. (00:02:55)
• restate · Is it acceptable that how long people live depends on where they live? — John calls this unconscionable and unacceptable, but says addressing the crisis is risky. (00:03:24)
• thanks · John asks viewers to donate to Partners In Health at pih.org/hankandjohn (2019) — Thanking Hank and everyone who took the risk, John says 13 babies were born on the MCOE's very first day. (00:04:52)
• looked back · Partners In Health maternal health project in Liberia funded by DFTBA profit (2019) — John says taking that risk has already paid off on a level none of their previous risks ever could. (00:04:52)
• came true · John: the Maternal Center of Excellence should dramatically accelerate progress in care at Koidu (2020) — John says the Paul Farmer Maternal Center of Excellence finally opened at Koidu Government Hospital, radically transforming infant and maternal care in eastern Sierra Leone. (00:00:00)
• proved wrong · John: the Maternal Center of Excellence is on track to open on schedule (2021) — John says the Paul Farmer Maternal Center of Excellence finally opened at Koidu Government Hospital, radically transforming infant and maternal care in eastern Sierra Leone. (00:00:00)
• came true · John: the Maternal Center of Excellence will complete construction in October 2025 and begin opening to patients in January 2026 (2025) — John says the Paul Farmer Maternal Center of Excellence finally opened at Koidu Government Hospital, radically transforming infant and maternal care in eastern Sierra Leone. (00:00:00)

Where the stories that moved here went next

• John: the Maternal Center of Excellence will see some 5,000 births a year for decades (2026) — unresolved; last: predicted, 2026-02-24
• John: the Maternal Center of Excellence should dramatically accelerate progress in care at Koidu (2020) — came true
• John: the Maternal Center of Excellence is on track to open on schedule (2021) — proved wrong
• John: the Maternal Center of Excellence will complete construction in October 2025 and begin opening to patients in January 2026 (2025) — came true
• Maternal Center of Excellence: the brothers' Partners In Health project in Sierra Leone (2019) — completed; last: looked back, 2026-09-01
• P4A 2026 edition — completed; last: milestone, 2026-07-08

Mentioned

Central: Maternal Center of Excellence · Sierra Leone · social privilege

Also: Projects: Complexly · Crash Course · EcoGeek · Project for Awesome

Works: Looking for Alaska (novel) · The Fault in Our Stars

Organizations: Koidu Government Hospital · Michael L. Printz Award · Ministry of Health and Sanitation (Sierra Leone) · Partners In Health · YouTube

Concepts: child mortality · Luck · maternal death · meritocracy · neonatal intensive care unit

Also centred on social privilege: Neck Beards and Fitness Challenges · Time for AWESOME · Started from the Bottom: Benjamin Franklin and Drake Compared · Deserving · Should I Feel Guilty? · How I (barely) Passed 11th Grade English

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