I have heard a lot of people say that risk is part of life and that most wealthy people today took a lot of risk for them to be where they are today. I have also heard many people say that fear is one thing that drags people down to their supposed financial position.
In fact, a lot of motivational speakers were just crossing my path specifically in the middle of last year, and while I tried to sieve a lot of the information I was consuming, some refused to leave my memory and kept sounding as an alarm clock: "Nkem, why not try this or that risk? Maybe it's a path to the breakthrough you have been craving".
One thing I learned regardless is that no matter how much we want to take risks because it's part of life, it must be a calculated risk, it must be researched thoroughly, and it must be investigated by different sources. Just hearing from one source might not be enough most times; when the step we take backfires, that person won't send you. Maybe he or she entered the risk on time and you became an exit point.
I remember this particular question I kept asking myself after listening to those motivational speakers, which was, "How much risk am I willing to take in order to grow?" The hunger to make it was there, and in the crypto space, to be specific. The word "DYOR" kept coming, but I didn't know the right way to really go about it; instead, I danced to the tune of the crypto instructor in the WhatsApp group I joined.
Initially, seeing all the profits out from other members was so tempting and sounded realistic, I didn't bother to further DYOR since I was seeing evidence, and boom, I risked many dollars on the 5 coins they were advertising. I don't have the courage to say how much I risk because it's annoying.
Well, the economic situation made me choose to really step out of my usual of playing safe, doing my routines, earning safely, and surviving. Reality kept unfolding, and as a stay-at-home mom, playing safe started looking like I was stagnant, and that was my push into diversifying my income even when I didn't understand it fully.
It wasn't easy exploring that new crypto space while managing my home and my kids and dealing with my mental health and all of that. It cost me sleepless nights, and I kept questioning my action: is this really worth it, or am I wasting the time I was supposed to rest or sleep? Sadly, it didn't pay off. At a point there was confusion here and there; waking up in the morning of that fateful day, I saw that the whole coins went to zero.
People were agitating in the WhatsApp group while the instructor was apologizing and just saying a lot. I quietly left the group to save my sanity first..
Yea, there were losses, but the humble realization from my end is that sometimes, growth starts with ignorance and mistakes. Regardless of how things played out, there is something I learned in the process; after all, I wouldn't be at the mercy of one income stream, but going forward, I have learned the best way to handle it better.
I think striving to grow cost me comfort and losses, but on a brighter side, it rewarded me with better clarity.
This post is in response to the #Hive Learners prompt on the topic titled, ONE BIG RISK.
Images were taken from canva
