Calibrate to the Risk, Not the Fear

Running an e-commerce empire in Asia isn’t for the faint of heart. You take a lot of chances, spend a lot of money, and look for the big winners. You can lose hundreds of thousands on ventures and ad spend that goes nowhere, or strike gold. You have to know where to test and how much to spend, and losing a lot is part of the game of making it big.

When I asked this founder how he thinks about putting some significant money on the line, he said, “I calibrate to the risk, not to the fear—you can’t think about your emotions.”

For this man, he was able to see his emotions and the actual objective risks as two separate things. That was his superpower.