Forced investments

Let’s suppose the case that it would happen to me these things in the next few months:
-They fire me
-My girlfriend dumps me
-I lose my house because of a foreclosure.

Very well. I would consider these events as necessary setbacks. I wouldn’t even call them setbacks. I would call them investments. They just wouldn’t be voluntary investments, but involuntary investments.

Investment is defined as the voluntary act to put some money, capital or time into a business with the purpose that in a future time any of those will be recovered and a profit or benefit will be achieved

The investments that I mean in this article are those which escape our will. They are apparently negative events that we call them as “failures” “defeats, “loses”, “setbacks”. When any of those things happen to us we feel like we lose time, money, moral,etc. However, all these events can be transformed in very wise investments if we broad our vision.

If we have a job that we like, that give us a good income, and we receive the news that we are going to be fired, that will hurt. What we don’t know is that there can be a better job waiting for us and that it’s the ideal time to get it. It has been a forced investment. We will lose time and even money looking for another job, or creating our own business. However, everything that is spent can be recovered with gains.

Our failures are investments that we make. They take us time and many times money. But they are absolutely necessary to be able to succeed. If we really take them as lessons or like indicators of change, it will really be something that will profit from.

Julio Iglesias was a goalkeeper in an obscure football team in Spain, when he suffered a car accident that injured his back spine. While he recovered from his injuries at the hospital, he was given a guitar, which he played and found himself composing music. He discovered a new passion. After some years, he participated in a singing constest and later became a professional singer. To this date, he has sold dozens of millions of albums. For sure that accident was a painful investment, but a very profitable one.

Lee Iacocca is another example. Being the director of Ford for several years, was fired with no justification. After a while, he was offered the CEO job of Chrysler, a company very close to bankruptcy in the early 80s. In this job, however, he had much more freedom and power to do what he considered necessary to save the company. Not only he saved the company with his effective strategies, but he made it into a prosperous company. If he wasn’t fired from Ford, he wouldn’t have been able to make this legendary victory. His firing was a sad and disappointing moment, but in the end it became a good investment.

Even at the level of nations we can appreciate this. Before World War II, United States and the Soviet Union were two huge countries with an immense potential, but both were lethargied , economically depressed. Until they were forced to get involved into a war that they had done everything to avoid it. United States was attacked by Japan, suffering costly military losses. The Soviet Union was attacked by nazi Germany, suffering his army spectacular defeats and millions of soviet citizens died. Both countries despite everything they overcame these losses and when Germany and Japan were defeated, they became the two biggest world superpowers of the XX century. They had to pay a high price, but in the end they got huge privileges.

Many people, when something bad happen to them, they choose to give up, abandoning their ambitions and cursing their luck. The most probable thing is that they are being deceived by appearances. An intelligent investor doesn’t give up his project when it suffers a mishap on the road. On the opposite, he looks to solve it or waits that a better economic time comes. So we should also think when we are in the middle of a “forced investment” when times are not so positive.

The majority of times, when people resist necessary changes, something happens so they shift their mindset. That which happens can be a forced investment. For example: an stubborn smoker suffers and painful and dangerous disease, that makes him leave the habit of smoking.

Other examples: did my girlfriend dump me? I will find one that make me happier. Did they fire me? Excellent opportunity to try in another company or field. Couldn’t I pay for my mortgage and I lost my house?. I will feel more motivated to look for the way to make more money to buy another one. Do I have a serious disease and I’ve been told that I only have 2 months left? I can try to prove the doctors they are wrong, because I can live longer. Or if not, maybe being dead in this world I will find a much happier place in the next one.

It would be interesting to realize that if there is a “forced investment” right now in our lives. If there is one, let’s imagine how to make it in a profit. It’s the best we can do.