All I know is this: One month after I saw the first episode of 100 Foot Wave, a documentary series following big wave surfer Garrett McNamara’s quest to surf the world’s largest wave, I was being towed on the back of a jet ski in the very spot that these big wave surfers thought the 100 foot wave was surely to come.

Why Nazaré?

Apparently Europe’s largest submarine canyon lives there, creating the biggest waves in the world—the Everest of surfing if you will.

The problem? Not only can’t I surf, I can barely swim. So why the hell would I go to the Everest of surfing? Bad idea.

On paper I went because I signed up for an activity on a conference agenda that I didn’t fully understand. But when we actually arrived at the port that morning, all but me and a VC chickened out. And for good reason! The ocean there is crazy, terrifying, and positively screams DON’T COME NEAR ME as loudly as possible. Go pet a King Cobra if you want a sense of the experience.

But “jet ski tour of Nazare” was an option on a sheet, so I said yes. And the reason I was at that conference was because I was invited to a conference in Portugal a few weeks back (a place I’d never been) and I said yes. And the reason I was invited was because I met one of the most successful entrepreneurs I’ve ever encountered recording a podcast. And the reason I recorded that podcast was because another successful entrepreneur friend introduced me to that entrepreneur. And the reason I met… you get the idea.

So by a series of saying “yes” to seemingly random and unrelated events, I found myself on a jet ski surrounded by the craziest ocean I’ve ever seen.

That’s how experiences stack up when we change our default state from “no way, that’s scary” to “Screw it, let’s do it.”

You never know where saying “yes” today will lead you tomorrow.