Well, this week around the water cooler all the talk has been college basketball and, particularly, brackets. Don’t worry, I won’t bore you with all those details, but suffice it to say I am in first place at the moment in the NCAA pool and I’m hoping to stay there. The other guys around the water cooler (there were girls there, but they stayed out of this portion of the convo) were asking me how I was able to figure out several matchup winners when hardly anybody else in the pool did. I answered as simply and as clearly as I could: “I take risks when I think they’re warranted.” It’s as simple as that. I’m never going to pick a #16 team to beat a #1 seed. It’s just not smart money. Same deal with a #2 and a #15 (regardless of Florida Gulf Coast last weekend). But after that, anything is fair game. And that’s where I guess our opinions of risks that are worth it and risks that aren’t differ.
We talked about other risks too, not just basketball. For example, if you have a job that doesn’t fulfill you but pays a lot of money, do you take the risk and seriously go for a job that fulfills you but is poor paying? Amazingly enough, opinions varied on this one too. It wasn’t just about fulfillment, especially to the ladies at the water cooler. They said you can get some serious mileage out of that money, so maybe you should take the risk of giving up the first job, even if there’s no guarantee you can get it back in the future, in order to support your family, because they’re most important, especially if you have kids. The guys said go for the money too, for the most part, but a couple of them made a point that all you’re going to be doing when you get home is complaining about your job. And what kind of a life is that?
Another risk is getting eye surgery. A guy at my job recently underwent eye surgery to correct his vision and it was a success, but some of us have heard horror stories about things going wrong, and why try and fix something that could just make things worse? I think because it has to do with your eyes, it’s tricky. And that goes for cosmetic surgery too, of the plastic variety. We were split on whether or not to risk getting the surgery to “enhance” or “change” some things about ourselves when we might be disappointed with the results after awhile. I mean, so many people get addicted to plastic surgery just because they still think there are things that can be improved and they’re never satisfied. The ladies said to be satisfied with who you are. Don’t risk the slippery slope that plastic surgery can be.
The biggest one, though, was about having affairs. Why risk a relationship (or several) for a few minutes of pleasure? Or is it worth the risk? Is it your way of crying out that you’re just not happy, and that you need to get out of your relationship? Or is it a risk that won’t pay off because the boredom or unhappiness was because of you, not because of them? Once you are out of the one relationship and into another, that boredom and unhappiness will follow you, if that’s the case, and you need to assess who you are and what you really want instead of blaming everything on the other person. You’re the common variable, and risking a relationship that might have been good for you, had you figured out who you were and what you wanted, on the off chance that the new relationship will make you happy simply isn’t worth it. That was our consensus.
Oh, and another small note about the basketball pool. It’s very risky to pick against what the majority will choose, but if it was well-thought out and if it pays off, you’ll be in the driver’s seat. Just don’t take too many of those risks. For me, it was picking Butler to go to the Final Four. I over-reached, but at least I still have La Salle in it.
Cheers,
Sam
Sam's Online Journal 
congratulations. my bracket tanked in the very first round this year. Loss can happen taking safe choices, as well, but I am with you. Some risks that people take are ill-reasoned, they just do not make sense.
No congratulations yet. I’ll let you know how I end up. I have never won the pool before.