Risks & Returns: The Thrill Of The Unknown

Life is a risk! A mother births and loves her child without knowing if the child will turn out to love her back or not, it is still a risk she would take over again. A student goes to the university with the knowledge that it is whole new world out there but still think it is a risk that would be worth taking for the dreams to be achieved someday.

Even those who refuse to do nothing are taking the risk of missing out on opportunities and losing out on places or situations they would have gained a lot from. Every living being is a risk taker and it can not be overemphasized, but the kind of risks taken and the results expected from the risks taken are what should matter more.

I remember there were the times I thought I couldn't be called a risk taker because I easily run away from where choices are hard to decide, what I didn't realize was that "not making choices was also a risk I took". In countless ways, I have taken risk and even the ones I didn't want to or didn't realize I did. And this is same for others.

Aside different aspect of life that I have taken risks in, I'll like to focus on the financial aspects of life where I've made a lot of risky moves that had their own stories and lessons to learn. One fact with financial risk, no risk can be made if there are funds and that is what happened to me. I wouldn't dare risk if I didn't have the money to.

So the main temptation in financial risk is seeing the money is available and then comes the thrill of the unknown, "I could make it big if I do this" and then I fight all the possible negative thoughts that could come along with it. Honestly, it's not easy taking financial risks but it is the one with most risk that I've learnt so many lessons from.

There are a lot of stories I could share but I'll share the most recent and biggest risk I've had to take that didn't end well but taught me an important lesson I'll remember for a long time. This happened about a month ago when my younger Bro got introduced to a new skill and somehow, he was proceeding so fast in learning.

Watching the whole learning process, I got really excited and I can remember I had started buying so many things in my head with the returns he would gain if I should invest in the skill for him. It was a mistake and I learnt not to be too excited because every beginning tend to be like that. Well, I decided to push through with investing.

For a skill that took people years to master, I felt luck was with my Bro so I decided to take the leap of faith that luck would work for a real investment and so I deposited a $100 for him to work with. I bet you can tell the end of the story from here already but I'll point it out that my greed got me for not depositing a little first.

I wanted to risk it all and get bigger returns if luck would work at least once, and it backfired and left me with no crumbs from it. It was a sad experience but I learnt a lifetime lesson from it and that made the whole process thrilling. My Bro is still learning and mastering the skill, in the future, I'll get back my losses in a healthy way.