Risk is very difficult to understand because it is SIMPLE
I am sure the title has confused you. Totally, I hope.
Recently a friend posted on FB his achievement of running 30km on a hot and humid day without drinking any water.
I just did not understand what he was trying to prove, and to whom! When you take a risk you need to get a reward, right? For many people it does not seem to be necessary. To me that is stupid. If you are hanging out of a running train the chances are you are getting a nice breeze and you are sweating less than the guy who is standing inside the train.
HOWEVER THE QUESTION TO ASK IS: “IS IT WORTH RISKING YOUR LIFE?”.
When a neighbor locked herself outside her house, I asked her ‘where are the spare keys’. Was shocked when she said ‘Inside the house’. WHAT IS A SPARE KEY DOING INSIDE the house, dammit?
Know the case of a guy who was in Paris when somebody flicked his pouch. What did he have in the pouch? His passport AND all his credit cards, money, etc. When his colleague asked him ‘Do you have a photocopy of the passport’ – he said ‘Yes, in that pouch’. And he was just out for a walk. Why not leave the passport in the hotel, the credit cards in the pant pocket /purse? why not keep the cash partly in the pouch and partly with the other baggage?
When you ask people ‘Why do you not invest in equity mutual fund?’ – one girl says ‘because mutual fund investments are subject to market risks’ – I KNOW that she has not understood the words mutual fund, investments, market risks. So for her to understand this statement is IMPOSSIBLE.
Risk comes in various forms – neglecting to take care of health is the easiest to spot. Kids drink coffee, colas, eat pizzas and other unhealthy stuff, smoke, do not exercise and work on a computer for 12 hour days. Then suddenly when one of them has a heart attack or is asked to test for diabetes, blood pressure, etc. suddenly there is a sense of disbelief – and keep saying ‘he was so young’.
Come on the road to a heart attack is littered with tons of tempting items. You need to make a healthy choice dammit. Almost all risks are hidden by our inability to see it.
How many of you have tweeted from the driver’s seat? How many of you speak on the phone while driving a car or worse riding a bike? Did you know that ‘operating the cell phone’ is the BIGGEST KILLER – and the biggest cause of car accidents?
Remember the train accident in Germany where the driver was supposed to be tweeting?
Remember Risk is always lurking around. When you have to meet with disaster God puts a blinder on your eye. Be careful.
Swapnil
Risk also comes from neglecting the small/incremental bad things that happen to our life. There are about 6K-7k deaths every year alone in Mumbai suburban railways. This is equivalent to about 100k people in the last 15 yrs. In 9/11 about 4000 people died whereas 250 people died in 26/11.Just imagine the impact these two events that had in our life but Mumbai railways have consumed about 25 (9/11) and 400 (26/11) fatalities. However, it is a daily affair and small incremental values that we all miss, don’t we?
Pravin
there is also the irrational fear which sees risks where there is relatively much less risk. eg .people have fear of flying/fear of being killed in terrorist attacks. these odds are lesser than the risk of dying by crossing the road.
Anam
I keep it simple, RISK means UNCERTAINTY.
If I am comfortable with the uncertainty and the risk-reward ratio makes sense. I go for it.
Positive risk is Opportunity.
Negative risk is Threat.