Blog Comments

Thanks Si. I guess you got to the point of what I was thinking. That sometimes passion clouds the whole issue and without a cold anayltical aspect to the decision, they can be on a mission of failure. We need passion but it also needs to be balanced. I guess there was a few points thrown in there from a few other angles as well. The fear of a bad result can be the same as taking an extreme risk as well.
It was also a bit of a tip of the hat to you and the others, who help out far more than me, for keeping it all going.
Anyway i get time to think some days when it is wet or the shop is slow, so i will probably come back again with some other sort of drivel...........you have been warned

Nice Piece mate. Seems you have been thinking hard about this one.

I believe that the most important part of any of the things you mentioned is passion. If you child is passionate about something and really wants to continue with it then if it is within your scope to fund or aid that passion it is a worthwhile investment. If you are funding it because YOU personally want them to achieve in whatever field it is, you're more than likely wasting your time and money, as if they are not dedicated you can't force them to excel in something that they really are not passionate about. I used to teach kids to play the guitar and you could tell from the way they acted an behaved as to whether this was their dream or their parents.

As for taking risks with investments or businesses etc, I believe if you do your research and think hard before you take the risk, then the results will more than often be worth the while. Always consider the worst case scenario and if you just can't handle that then you shouldn't be carrying it through. With the AFR09 event you mentioned, there was always a chance things could go wrong. Torrential rain was one of those things I just didn't expect (not to the level it got to anyway). Even by saying that, I still sat down and went through the scenario and considered what I would lose if it went tits up, came to terms with it, realised that I would still have a roof over my head and still have people that care for me (sounds soft but it counts) and just went for it. If you never take a few risks how do you ever move forward? Even changing the forum across to the new platform was a massive decision. I could possibly have lost everything I worked at over the last 10 years in one fell swoop. It was no small feat but the risk was necessary to move forward.

Sounds like you are doing the right things mate, but remember, if there's no real passion, don't waste your, or your kids life/money on it.