People Hand Us Money to Invest, Bearing Uncertainty for Their Hope

In principle, when tackling a difficult endeavor, you should ensure that your boss or financier believes in it more than you do. If you’ve done all the hard, grueling work and they see things proceeding smoothly, they’ll naturally become even more supportive and invested. But if you’re the one with the stronger conviction, you’re either going down a stubborn path alone or wasting half the effort for twice the result. Suffer the hardship yourself, offer the other person hope, and you’ll win through to victory. As my friend at Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong once put it: “When people hand us money to invest, they’re transferring the pain of uncertainty to us—and we return certainty in the form of hope.”