The world is in better shape than we might think – an encouraging thought at the outset of a new decade. Linda Henman asserts that worry and a victim mentality impair our ability to take necessary risks.
When conducting research for his bestselling book, Factfulness, Dr. Hans Rosling asked simple questions about global trends and systematically received wrong answers — so wrong that a chimpanzee choosing answers at random would have consistently outguessed teachers, journalists, Nobel laureates and investment bankers.
Why? Because our instincts and risk aversion conspire to make us perceive the world as a scary place — a place where we probably shouldn’t even do business. The problem is that we don’t know what we don’t know, and unconscious, predictable biases and fear inform both our guesses and behavior — and stand in the way of us engaging in risky business.
Our fears, perceptions and biases tell one story, but the facts tell a different one. As it turns out, the world, for all its imperfections, is in better shape than we might think. We have real problems, but when we spend our energies worrying about the future or feeling guilty about the past, we lose our focus and exhaust our abilities to solve problems, make high-caliber decisions and take the necessary risks to grow and change.
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