Maybe I’m wrong

As I grow up, I begin to see more and more of the role that risk-taking hard in determining the success of people beyond being smart, sociable. And sometimes I wonder what risk tolerance really is. Or if we had seen it wrongly. Maybe it wasn’t about tolerating risks. Maybe taking risk was more about scratching an itch and there was this other resistance in us that helps to buffer that itch, and amp up the fear in us to prevent us from taking the risks.

In that image, taking risks itself can bring a reward to our minds, a certain catharsis to the hope that have been living in us. But we have to go through barriers, that are also within us in order to take the action. So then, if we try and be rational, we ask ‘Are the risks worth the while?’ So we look at the extrinsic rewards and see if it stacks up. That itself, will not allow us to get over the emotional, psychological barriers in place. We would say to ourselves, “Maybe I am wrong”. But the difference is whether that comes from the spirit of humility or doubt.

A spirit of humility lowers ourselves and reminds us that we don’t know everything, as much as we may seem to do many things confidently. Those confidence are built upon faith. When we sit on a chair, we have faith it holds our weight. When we refer to our previous experiences for comfort, we have faith in the order of nature or the universe that there’s some consistency in what we experience. And with that spirit, “Maybe I’m wrong” drives us to say, “that’s why we have to try it and find out”.

A spirit of doubt puts ourselves on the pedestal, it makes us think more highly of ourselves than we are. There’s this secret hidden self, saying ‘actually I know better, and things are going to get real bad’. Contrary to what we think about self-doubt, it is a form of arrogance in the status quo, an assumption that inaction has no consequences. And our doubts are actually dictating a specific expectation of the future that is not grounded. With that spirit, “Maybe I’m wrong” drives the conclusion, “so I should not do it”

Maybe I’m wrong, but it’s worth thinking through these.