I guess this tweet applies to life as much as betting for a living. It can be pretty difficult to quantify what success actually looks like. It is not as simple as saying I have made ‘x’ from betting so it has to be viewed as a success. There are so many factors to consider.
I was listening to a podcast with Mark Crossfield a few weeks ago (Hack It Out) and he used an interesting example that made me think and was just an iteration on some other similar variations I have heard. He is a golf coach and was talking about a client who turned up in his fancy car for a lesson and seemingly having everything in life. He said he then stopped to think and that we probably measure success wrongly. It might be that given all the advantages in life he has probably had, that the outcomes we were seeing were as expected.
Not a success. Not a failure. As expected. If he went to an outstanding school, had contacts/networks, opportunities and was given every chance in life to succeed then it is isn’t nearly as impressive as when you first think about it.
It cannot compare to someone achieving the same or less without those advantages in life. For want of a classic American analogy. If you start life on 3rd base and get to home plate it isn’t nearly as impressive as if you start from 1st base or worse.
Everything has to be put into context and viewed on its own merits. Within betting for a living there are so many factors to consider as to what constitutes success. That doesn’t even include how that fits into the overall narrative of the tools you have had at your disposal to achieve what you have.
Betting is interesting in that if you place bets for a living, the bets don’t know your background, education, whether you interviewed well or who you know. They are either successful or not. That’s not to say how you determine those bets, isn’t affected by the opportunities you have had.
It might be the positive factors like the money made, the flexible hours, working from home, being self employed and not working for someone else, the relationships forged, the thrill of the upswings, increased skillset, doing something fun. These are just some of the considerations.
The negative factors might be the inevitable downswings, the amount of time it has taken, the weekends and evenings worked, the working from home, the isolation, impact on future career, the mental stress to name but a few.
So many of those factors are incredibly difficult to quantify but all have to be considered when thinking about what success looks like. It also varies massively depending upon the stage you are at in life. Early on making money was the be all and end all, whereas now
now things like seeing the children everyday before and after school is priceless. Success looks very different for everyone and the only person who can really judge it is yourself and those close to you. Dont worry about what others have supposedly achieved or not.
ProPunting 