When Risk and Opportunity Become Personal

by Charles Hugh Smith
Of Two Minds

The opportunity to lower our exposure to risk is always present in some fashion, but embracing this opportunity becomes critical when precarity and change-points rise like restless seas.

The Chinese characters that comprise the equivalent of “crisis” are famously–and incorrectly– translated as “danger” and “opportunity.” This mis-translation has reached the peculiar prominence of being repeated often enough to be taken as accurate, but according to Wikipedia and other sources, the more accurate translation is “precarious” plus “change point.” (Chinese speakers may be able to shed even more light on the characters’ shades of meaning.)

The American attachment to “crisis” equaling “danger” and “opportunity” is easy to understand: the American “can do” culture is fond of optimistic calls to action (“when life hands you lemons, make lemonade,” etc.) and so crisis presenting opportunity fits this perfectly.

As for the danger: that’s the necessary impetus to grab the opportunity.

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