New Delhi, Aug. 16 -- There are decisions that feel risky in the moment but become stories we are grateful to have lived. Then there are the decisions we never make-the job we never applied for, the place we never moved to, the idea we never pursued or the conversation we kept postponing.

That tension between action and regret is captured in a quote that has become one of the most widely shared pieces of advice about taking chances:

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

The passage is commonly attributed to American author Mark Twain. Howe...