People who don’t take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. | |
— Peter Drucker | |
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On This Day In: | |
2018 | I Resemble That Remark… (6!) |
Day 14: Two Weeks! | |
2017 | Try It, You’ll Like It |
2016 | Echo Chamber? |
2015 | Embrace The World Like A Lover |
2014 | Democratic Beliefs (for the next President) |
2013 | And Go Now! |
2012 | A World Safe For Diversity |
2011 | What If I Don’t Want To? |
2009 | Restful Sunday and a Movie About Boy’s Dolls (Action Figures) |
Just Two?
August 10, 2019 by kmabarrett
As they say, “You’ll never know until you try.”
Hi Jerry,
I agree (in general)… But I notice Drucker doesn’t qualify / quantify what constitutes a “big” mistake. Just sayin’.
Kevin
You’re right… I would have to assume he does not mean life threatening or life altering mistakes. I guess we would have to go back to the #1 rule. Never gamble with more than you can afford to lose.
Hi Jerry,
LoL! I was viewing it from the other side than “life threatening.” At what point on the margin does an estimate on one’s bet become too much to lose? I’ve never figured that out. I imagine there is some correspondence with age: the younger you are the greater the bet can be because you have more time to recover. But as I get older, I think that may only be true for some mistakes (mainly economic). In any case, what tickled me about the quote was that it appears to be perfectly sensible, but the main component – the adjective “big” – is completely undefined. I thought of it like obscenity: I can’t define it, but I know it when I see it.
Kevin
Good point. To simply say ‘Big’ is too loose a term, one man’s big might be another man’s small.
yup!
And yet we’re all still afraid of risk and taking chances…
🙂