Taking Risks
Hello, I hope all is great on your end.
I recently read Nate Silver’s latest book, “On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything.“ The book is about people who take risks for a living: gamblers, investors, entrepreneurs. He contrasts these risk-takers with those who work in academia, media and government, typically more steady and stable environments. One of the points that Nate makes is that most people take too little risk in their career, and that most would benefit from being a bit more edgy.
I have agreed with that perspective for years. I left a high-paying corporate job to co-found a dot-com startup in 2000 that totally flopped. So that risk didn’t work out. But I was 25 years old and recovered over the next number of years. I eventually became the CEO of an education company when I was 30 that was acquired 4 years later.
My risk profile only went up at that point; if you’re 34 and have a nest egg, why not do what you thought was right and take big swings? Plus, at that point I was still unmarried and didn’t have a lot of obligations. I started an entrepreneurship organization and, after concluding that massive changes were needed for the economy to work for most people, ran for President. At each stage, I thought I could leave it all out there and still be fine. Entrepreneurs are optimistic by nature.
And things have worked out! Still married.
One thing I’ve grown to realize though is that I’m wired to be unusually accepting of certain risks; a thought that plagued me when I was young was the risk of looking in the mirror and wondering why I didn’t do more or put myself out there. I’ve tended to be motivated by things other than money. That might not be the priority for a lot of other people in different circumstances. Plus, now that I have a family I have a more nuanced perspective.
This week on the podcast I interview Gunjan Banerji, a Wall Street Journal reporter who spent months visiting with people who have developed a gambling problem on cryptocurrencies or options trading. “I would see these groups of men, many of whom have had their marriages or relationships destroyed due to their becoming addicted to these trading apps and lost their savings. Mind you, I’m talking about investing apps, not gambling apps. Investing has this sense that, ‘Oh, this isn’t addictive like gambling,’ but for many it is, and options trading has similar dynamics to sports betting.”
Gunjan details how she became an options trader for a week for her reporting. “It affected my mood. I became fixated on what was happening to my positions. At one point, I had a trade pay off and it seemed to other people I was high I was so elated. Of course, I had lost on other trades.” Gunjan interviewed dozens of men – it’s almost always men – and believes that this problem is going to get a lot worse. “There is now a very thin line between gambling and investing, and it’s getting thinner all of the time. More and more people are falling prey to it.”
I agree – I think we should regulate sports betting more rigorously. And I believe people should be wary of chasing short-term highs by aggressively investing money that they might need for another purpose. It’s always hard to know when to take it off the table.
Do I still think that people should take on a bit more risk in their own lives? Generally, sure. Life is short and we should go for the gusto. We are more resilient than we think. But I’m much more into risks taken with one’s time than with one’s money. I’m more like, “Ask that person if they want to hang out with you!” or “Try something new!” rather than betting the rent. After all, life is off-screen, not on it.
For my conversation with Gunjan Banerji, click here. For Nate’s book, click here. To see what Forward is doing in your state, click here – we are up to big things.
