The First: The Risk with De-Risking
By: Sean Lew
Tags: Life, Risk Taking, Jobs, Risk, Singapore

With thanks to Sam for giving me the push to simply set aside 30 minutes of my time to pen down my thoughts and publish whatever is the raw, unperfect and ugly form.



My purpose is simple for this exercise (which I hope will be a regular series): to pen down thoughts dear to my heart and to write on observations that I believe represent how the world works, or at least how I think it does. I do not claim to have the “truth”, but I can claim that what I write here has been through some semblance of thinking and is often the position I take from discussions with my dearest friends. If along my journey what I write about resonates and helps some others out there, I think that this would be 30 minutes very well spent.

Risk. As a Singaporean, or even a human being, I am sure this is a word we are all too familiar with. From the usual advice of studying hard to avoid bad outcomes (whatever is even meant by bad?), or working first before doing a business, or even to not taking a gap year to explore; what often determines the choice is risk.

But what really is risk? Many great studies, books and authors have written about this and I highly encourage you to explore these resources if you want it direct from the horse’s mouth. In fact, I challenge you to do so: Nassim Taleb — Antifragile, Daniel Kahneman — Thinking Fast & Slow.



What I think we do not understand about risk is often the opportunity cost, particularly the idea of what could be. We are great at identifying what we currently have that could be lost but as Kahneman’s study showed, we overly fixate on losses over gains. In fact, when these potential gains are properly accounted for, the “riskier” option would have been the better less risky option.



Ever wanted to invest but gave yourself the excuse of losing your money? Loss aversion. Ever wanted to reach out to someone but was afraid. Loss aversion. The list goes on.

What is ironic to me is that sometimes -and perhaps many times- the less risky option is in fact the riskier option. We often hear of people not being happy in a job, or worse, not growing in a job but choosing to stay on because of the money, or thinking that time will lead to seniority or a change in environment, or that staying on creates connections and entries into bla bla bla (tell me if you want my thoughts on connections)

If that happens great, but often it does not. In fact, this analysis ignores many other factors such as one’s lack of future employability because of the stagnation of skill sets, how promotions are not always based on merit, and the fact that labor is often easily replaceable. Were these accounted for in the above decision? And these potential gains here have not even accounted for happiness or purpose. If this is you, please highly reconsider staying.

Therefore, whenever you find yourself thinking about risk, I would encourage you to ask yourself what exactly is the risk and even more so, to examine the potential of what could be in your life to make a better “risky” decision.



Hope it helps & happy to connect to discuss more.

Life is a Special Operations

PS: I am reviled at this writing, but 30mins is 30mins (technically I extended by 10mins). Many more thoughts not captured. For my next entry I may explore a more “to the point” writing keeping it digestible and high impact. Comments are highly welcomed :)