This was one of the first sentences that faced me when I started my finance course at the Kogod School of Business in the American University, Washington DC.
I do not try to be optimistic or pessimistic, instead, I go after learning how to become a realist. Take both extremes (best and worst) of any situation and strive for the best case. Keep in mind, you have to know where your current position is on that scale.
To demonstrate my point, here is a live example of an extreme optimism : Remember the mortgage crises?
How do you think it all started?
I can answer that question: it all stated with the optimistic person. This person was so optimistic that he/she gave a lot of money to a lot of people with "bad credit" as loans. Bad credit means : this person has a history of not paying a loan on time or not paying at all. In this case, the loaner (optimistic person), took a big risk by lending to people with "bad credit".
Another example is one that exists every day. A gambler. Specifically, addicts. Those people have an addiction to risk. They will not stop until they lose their shirt!
The following part is a famous dialogue between a failing student and a teacher:
Teacher: Why are you failing school?
Student: I tried but did not succeed!
Teacher: Try again.
Student: I'm afraid to fail again.
Teacher: Try harder!
Finally, the student succeeded and achieved goals !
I'm not suggesting that you take risks and gamble is Las Vegas. From my experience, taking risks wisely taught me a lot of lessons that I would have not learned otherwise.
Marketers acknowledge risk takers. In fact, consumers are divided into 5 groups based on their appetite for risk. The group with the most appetite for risk are labeled as innovators. In general, I fall in that group but it all depends on the product or service that I'm interested in.
How thirsty are you for risk?
My characteristics would be: I like taking risks. I do not wait for the reviews about a product and I would like to be among the first to own that particular product.
Again, depending on the product, I could be an innovator or not. For example, I have confidence in Apple products and I trust the brand. Therefore, I would be an innovator.
Please play the following video and let me know your opinion. I look forward to reading your comment.
Thank you for taking the risk to view my post
Yooousif
first picture: http://www.penelopeironstone.com
second picture: http://wilderdom.com
Video is from YouTube
1 comment:
Interesting post. I agree about the need to take risks, although I'm not sure where I fall in the spectrum. Most of my risks are calculated and the serious ones involve a lot of thought. You seem to be a risk-taker, but how risky is too risky? You mention gambling addicts, but some of them lose very little or wind up winning big in the end. What criteria do you use to assess a risk?
Post a Comment