No not like that, except maybe a bit.

Defense versus Offense in the game of life.

I remember Warren Buffet saying that there are only two rules of investing, one is not to lose money and rule two is never to forget rule one.
In a large part in life I agree, the second greatest opposition to progress is going backwards.
Where I differ is that I think inaction is one of the greatest forces in the Universe and some people mistake procrastination for consideration.

Me? I am a balanced risk taker, I would never bet everything, but I will make considered bets.
My criteria is all risk based: The greater the risk, the greater the reward must be.
In terms of actual gambling, I never do it....
But my over reaching strategy in life is to never be in a position where I can lose what I already have.

I had some friends who I thought made poor choices with some financial decisions and they over-extended themselves.
The market moved the right way and they did way better out of the market than I did.
They didn't know or suspect that was what was going to happen, they were just lucky and I am totally happy for them, but if it went the other way they would have lost everything, that's not a risk I would take.

There are things in life I would never do, bungee jumping or skydiving, for me the risk profile just isn't worth it when I have a family I am responsible for.

In life though, I think people are too risk adverse when they shouldn't be... ask the girl out, apply for the job, start the business... None of these are decisions you can't come back from... Have a crack, if you're going to fail do it quickly.


What about you, where do you fall on the spectrum of risk?

Sober me is risk adverse, but can be impetuous. Mostly with my finances. I try not to but honestly, I am terrible with money. Other than that, I tend to not take many risks.

Drunk me plays Russian Roulette. She's a lot more fun, but has almost died a few times due to poor drunk decision making. 

I know this is awfully nitpicky, but I thought it was "risk averse" and not "risk adverse"?

Anyway, I like the theory of "The Luck Factor" as written by Richard Wiseman. The idea is that people create their own luck by giving themselves more opportunity for positive outcomes. For example, someone who attends many different types of social events or talks to strangers is more likely to find a best friend or a life partner than someone who doesn't.

I became conscious of this in my mid 20s and so I started creating more opportunities for myself with regards to my social life. However in general I consider myself a conservative person. Especially financially. I've never gambled and never will. The house always wins, as they say. Investing is a more interesting one, the reason I shy away from investing is because I don't understand it, and truly understanding it to be able to exploit it will take a lot of time and work, and I already spent a lot of time and work working which makes me good money.

Feb 26, 2024 22:57:09 GMT Emperor said:

I know this is awfully nitpicky, but I thought it was "risk averse" and not "risk adverse"?

Anyway, I like the theory of "The Luck Factor" as written by Richard Wiseman. The idea is that people create their own luck by giving themselves more opportunity for positive outcomes. For example, someone who attends many different types of social events or talks to strangers is more likely to find a best friend or a life partner than someone who doesn't.

I became conscious of this in my mid 20s and so I started creating more opportunities for myself with regards to my social life. However in general I consider myself a conservative person. Especially financially. I've never gambled and never will. The house always wins, as they say. Investing is a more interesting one, the reason I shy away from investing is because I don't understand it, and truly understanding it to be able to exploit it will take a lot of time and work, and I already spent a lot of time and work working which makes me good money.

The best book on this concept is "Think and grow rich" by Napoleon Hill, I think most books since are just a retelling of the same idea.
Of course like everything, it has all become blown out of perspective by people who take things too far.
There are people all over Social Media selling themselves as influencers and life coaches telling people they can learn to manifest their ideal life by just wishing for it really hard.

My approach is (I suspect) more like yours, you can have a mindset of abundancy or scarcity, if you have a mindset of scarcity you miss a lot of opportunities through fear.
If you have a mindset of plenty, then you are more open to opportunities.
I did this before I even knew it was a thing, give first not for getting something back, just because you can and then see what happens.

I will get accused of survivor bias, and it is not that I am doing amazing or anything, but every good thing in my life came from saying yes to an opportunity without knowing where it would lead.
Quite often it included learning something in my own time or doing something I wasn't paid paid anything in addition for... But it all lead to other opportunities.