This executive is living in fear


It’s not a story of mine.

No.

The great Nassim Nicholas Taleb, in his book Antifragile compared two people: a high-level executive with a good salary, dressed in a suit and tie, and an immigrant taxi driver, self-employed, with a variable income and dressed as best he can.

Taleb remarked that, while the executive may seem to have a calmer, more secure life with a better salary, better suits, and nicer restaurants, deep down, he lived in immense internal fear.

He sh*t in his pants.

This fear comes from his status. Everything he now has and doesn’t want to lose.

Comfort zone or the pay check drug.

The executive trembles whenever company cutbacks are announced, loses sleep thinking he might be fired, and feels like his world is crumbling if his boss calls him into the office for no apparent reason.

Why?

Because the well-paid executive fears losing his lifestyle, being unable to pay the three mortgages he has, the car, and his kids’ school fees.

And he fears this because, unlike the self-employed immigrant taxi driver, he has two major problems:

  1. He is accustomed to a stable, constant, and secure income.
  2. He can’t imagine, nor does he feel capable of, living on less than his monthly salary.

Therefore, the taxi driver is more antifragile, which essentially means being better prepared for unexpected events, disruptions, and change.

The taxi driver is used to earning a lot some days and nothing on others, having good months and less favorable months, and above all, dealing with uncertainty and change.

Security and certainty vs. uncertainty and change.

But you could work this around in your favour.

You could simply accept that there is no greater security or certainty than knowing that life is uncertainty and change.

This is why personal growth, remain flexible and alert, a side business or investments, are so important to keep your pants clean.

If you look for help in that regard, you can click below and start working.

$999.00

Mentorship Package

Three sessions of 1 hours each where you can discuss for business or yourself any of the issues I know more about: ... Read more

​

PD 1: If you liked this email, don't keep it in secret and forward it to a friend. They will thank you enormously one day.

PD 2: If somebody has sent you this email and you want to receive emails like this yourself, visit vicentevalencia.com

PD 3: If you want unsubscribe, click the link below.

Vicente Valencia

I talk about Personal Growth, Management, Infrastructure and More | 👇JOIN +2k readers 👇

Read more from Vicente Valencia

These days I’ve been asked many times what I think about the Conejo Malo. Or Bad Bunny. Until the Super Bowl I had no idea who was the guy. I don’t listen to much music those days… So as he is only 31, I guess that I have not heard much of his songs. And still this is irrelevant. People like judging more than complaining. And my answer about the question is simple. Whoever has what you don’t have knows what you don’t know. And whoever has achieved what you haven’t achieved has done what you...

By the answers of yesterday’s email, I see that people love Canada. I do. So here you are more meat. Montreal… or as we say in Montreal… Montréal. Early 2010s. Project: McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) PPP Value: ~ CAD $1.3 billion Model: DBFM Canada again. Sophisticated market. Experienced advisers. Polished risk matrices. I was there practising kung fu and delivering infrastructure. The goal? Deliver one of the largest hospital redevelopments in North America through PPP. And make it...

Toronto. 2015. Project: Eglinton Crosstown LRT. Value: CAD $5+ billion. Model: DBFM. Jurisdiction: Canada — the global gold standard of PPPs. The agency wanted efficiency. Faster procurement. Faster close. Cleaner risk transfer. Put a medal in the chest for opening the day before election day. So they did what PPP manuals love to say: “Allocate risk to the party best able to manage it.” That sentence has probably financed more claims for lawyers than any other in infrastructure history....