Given the choice between receiving 5 dollars with certainty OR receiving a free lottery ticket with a 1/1000 chance of winning 5000 dollars, which would you choose?

Given the choice between paying 5 dollars in parking fee OR risking a 1/1000 chance of paying a parking fine of 5000 dollars, which would you choose?

Given the choice between keeping your decent paying dayjob OR joining that new startup company which may land a 20,000,000 dollar IPO in 1 year, which would you choose?

Given the choice between leaving your decent paying dayjob for 1 year OR risk missing out on the 20,000,000 dollar IPO, which would you choose?

Risk perception is different for gains and losses. For this reason we often prefer uncertainty when faced with gains but certainty when faced with losses.

The only way to get around this is to frame the same dilemma in a different way. How do you frame your life?
Are you comfortable with the choices you have made if you present them to yourself in a different way?

In the dilemma above, feel free to replace IPO with: travelling the world, becoming a stay-at-home parent, getting creative, taking up acting, building houses in Haiti etc. etc.

Enjoy “The life of the artist” below: the second in a series of 3 paintings.

“The life of the artist” from Artworks by Carl Frederik Waage Beck