By Stephen Wunker
In an environment where everything is changing fast and little is certain, success comes from balance.
You need to learn voraciously about your marketplace and stay attuned to asymmetric threats while avoiding undue distraction. Particularly if you work for a big company or a venture capital fund that has some resources to spread around, you need a portfolio of opportunities to pursue with a mix of quick, easy wins and bigger, more speculative bets. You also need to balance the type of risks you’re taking — all chances of success can’t stem from a particular scenario playing out just as you think it will.
Think about the challenge as you might approach a personal investment account. If you’re risking everything on a steep fall of the dollar next Tuesday, that may not work out so well. A stock picker will have a few investment theses, and she may own a mix of asset classes. She knows that some
investments won’t work out and plans accordingly.