I love reading. I love meeting new people. I love traveling. I love watching educational YouTube videos. Every source of learning even the traditional form of schooling, provides you information for what you should know and what the recommended ways are to go about it. I believe it is very important to observe, listen and take note for what all the mediums have to say so you have a well-rounded knowledge foundation of what is going on and why it is the case. Now having said all of this, do you ever focus on a topic, try to learn more, and realize there is conflicting advice? Yeah that is why I created this blog post title. Who is right? Who is wrong? The answer is……. well everyone.
Why Everyone Is Wrong and Right
I am going to use an example topic to talk about with this dilemma. Let’s talk about personal finance, one of my favorites. When it comes to learning about personal finance, I love to read on the topic and watch YouTube videos that talk about investment strategies. Usually when talking about the topic, the person(s) goes over their own investment strategies and their own thoughts based on what has worked for them currently and in the past. The problem with this is each time I learn more through someone new, they have conflicting opinions on what is right and what is wrong. An example being investing in the stock market. Some would argue majority of your eggs so to speak need to be put in the stock market basket. Some say through index fund investing. Some say through picking out a personal stock. Those not in favor of putting all your eggs into the stock market basket, may be in favor of instead putting some of your money into real estate. Some would argue put it in bonds and be more conservative especially with this next recession coming up which by the way, everyone has conflicting thoughts on when it could happen too. So which advice and perspective should you follow? The answer really and one of my MBA professors used to always say…. well it depends.
Everyone Is Dealt a Different Hand and Has Played Different Cards to Win
It is important to understand when listening/learning about different perspectives and viewpoints, why they are different. A large part of that is due to their own personal history. Everyone has their own unique life experiences and it is human nature within us to share those perspectives of what has worked for us and what has not. Staying on the topic of personal finance, an example could be investing in a house to flip that totally failed and therefore their viewpoint is never try this since you will fail like me. Another example being investing in the stock market. With the economic crash around 2007-2008, many had large investments in the stock market and saw their investment portfolio start to vanish. Therefore, from their experiences, they will tell you not to invest in the stock market. That is why it is important to take in as many perspectives and form your own opinion for what will work best with you. This is where the whole everyone is deal a different hand comes into play. When trying to learn about a topic or take in advice, everyone will speak about that said topic from the hand that they were dealt with and how they played the cards. You as someone who is trying to learn more needs to apply the knowledge with the hand you have and what works best for you. That is how people become successful. With personal finance, if you have the ability to me more aggressive, investing in the stock market could make more sense. If you live in a neighborhood that is up an coming and you know of some properties for sale, maybe the real estate route would make sense and from there you can focus in on that topic more in depth instead of learning at a broad high level perspective.
How Do I know What My Hand Dealt Is?
This metaphor or analogy (one of the two…clearly didn’t pay attention in school for this) signifies that every individual has their own unique circumstances in life just as if you were playing a game with a deck of cards, everyone would have a unique combination cards in their hand. While playing the game, you can easily tell what cards you are holding since they are physically there and you can see them (if you are blind, just have someone else read them off). In life, we are dealt a hand but have no idea what it is until we live life and experience it. Unfortunately, that is the reality. Life is about experiencing what works and does not work for you individually while learning from others that can help your own personal experiences be enhanced. When you are able to create knowledge from your own experiences and learn more from others that can help develop and improve the learning, then that is a recipe for success.
Thanks everyone,
Mike M.
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