Ignoring The Odds?

Sometimes the only way to do things is to ignore the odds.  The statistics.

We hear things like:

“Unemployment is on the rise again with ____ people out of work.  Most businesses fail.  What your chances are that you’ll have cancer just because a family member does.  That you have a higher chance of being divorced if you grew up in a divorced family.  How your two times likely to be overweight or obese if you have an obese family member and…”

I have to be honest with you, I would rather not know.

To me a lot of times it’s a “self fulfilling prophecy” – where we act out what we’re told, just because someone told us.

But do we really need to know this?  Would it happen to us if no one told us what the odds were?

As I told my girlfriend, even if I had some life changing illness and the doctor says, “You have ___ to live.”  I don’t want to know.  Don’t tell me and I won’t act it out.  Tell me and… I’m a lot more likely to act it out.

I mean how much happier would we all be not knowing what the statistics are (in both our business and personal life)? Although some people (including former family members) would say, “don’t you want to know what’s going on in the world?”

To which I respond, “Someone’s opinion on what is happening in their world and what you’re being told – just so a tv news station can have ‘higher ratings’ isn’t news to me. Is it to you?”

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