Investing in things isn’t easy. It shouldn’t be, right? When we make an investment, we’re moving safe resources into a seemingly more unsafe space.
We’re taking risks.
And without necessarily knowing what the reward will be (and sometimes if there will be a reward).
We have to take risks if we want change to occur. Sometimes, the bigger the risk, the bigger the potential return. At other times, all it takes is a small step to drastically alter the world as we know it.
My wife and I were recently talking about diversifying some of the savings we have for our girls for college. I’m a big fan of diversification as I believe that the more varied our investments, the more likely we are to see the returns we hope for.
My wife is much more of a “find a stable source and stay there” sort of person, so our conversation was important, but still unresolved.
I think there is tremendous value in both views. We certainly want to find stable sources of returns, whether they be financial, cultural, or social. At the same time, regardless of the profession we are in, or life stage we are occupying, variety is the spice of life. As I’ve written about before, the more varied our experiences, the more capable we are of knowing what people need, knowing why, and knowing when.
So, for instance, when we think of our professional roles, we must be careful to avoid doing the same exact thing for too long, or assuming that the boundaries of a given role are hard and fast. In no way am I saying we need to change roles and responsibilities all the time. Instead, I think it behooves us to realize that the more fixed we see our place in life, the more fixed our returns will be.
We invest in people, in processes, and in products. We need to make sure that how we invest looks and feels different, so that we can best consider the returns we receive (or don’t) and become more capable of making decisions because of this.