We're not designed to handle bad news on a global scale.
We can barely organise our own backyards.
And some of us much worse; we still have messy rooms.
We enter the working world from a relatively peaceful academic life. And are thrown head-first into the whirlwind of negativity.
Endlessly flanked by global crises on top of daily social pressures and personal daily catastrophes.
We learn very quickly that our world; our personal world, at the time that we entered the workforce is such a mess.
Must be bad luck!
We take it in our stride...
But as we continue to work and grow, we pick up on more bad news, and even more tragic global changes.
Some of us are lucky enough to get jobs that require us to keep up with all this trash.
You're not naive anymore.
At first, this knowledge shocks you into halting any grand financial plans you once had as a young adult.
Your dreams can be sacrificed, "because it's the wise/adult decision."
Slowly, you turn into every conservative fuddy-dud; doomed to repeat what you saw growing up.
Stay safe, save money.
Don't overspend, keep to yourself.
Budget your earnings.
Congratulations, you've convinced yourself you're old and therefore wise.
I was always a risk-taker; almost to a fault at first. Then there were a few years where I stopped myself and watched as others took risks...
My introduction to risk began when I had to start my own business selling copywriting and web services.
When you're in-charge of new clients; you don't get the luxury of avoiding risk.
Out goes your marketing budget into the ether, because you have no other choice.
Save the capital and wait for clients to see your worth? Good luck with that!
You quickly learn that risk is only a matter of perspective.
Risk is relative to the individual.
In my case, risk only increased if you didn't know how to market yourself well.
If you did know how to market yourself effectively, you'd view your marketing expense as an investment instead of risky business.
Over time, with practice and repeated success, you only become more certain of your decisions...
You'd become "convinced."
At this point, you start to see the opportunity and value in every last of your encounters.
You start to see risk differently.
Risk is now only 'other opportunities'.
Today, I don't get to read the bad news anymore.
Because all I see is right through the bad news, into the opportunity, directly fitted for my next move.
Some of you may not even be young and reading this.
But you may still feel the very real danger of looking through risk face-first.
But risk has always been there...
The Asian Financial Crisis, Energy Crisis, 9/11, SARS, The Financial Crisis, Swine Flu, Ebola, Lehman Brothers Collapse, COVID...
OPEC Oil Price Shock, World War II, World War I, Spanish Flu, Shanghai Financial Crisis, The Great Depression, Cholera, Measles...
The Panic of 1873, Post-Napoleonic Depression, The Black Plague, All The Panics of the 1800s, Great Tabacco Depression...
[List of Epidemics]
[List of Economic Crises]
And we really think our pain is special...
Hindsight may be clear as day.
But we look back not to let ourselves be swamped by massive amounts of bad news.
If I wanted bad news, I'd just say "hi" to the next 5 strangers. It'll show up; likely unprompted too.
If you feel new to risk, it's normal.
But who wants normal?
You can leverage on people who see risk differently.
People who've jumped then learnt to fly.
People who don't just see opportunity in things. But people who see opportunity when others don't.
Because most others don't.
Throughout history and in every diseased economic crisis and epidemic; there are always winners, and then, there are those who stop winning...
