by Rick Nason, PhD, CFA
Partner, RSD Solutions Inc.
I used to play competitive tennis – which of course is a bit unbelievable for anyone who knows me. I played junior tennis and then in college. I actually won occasionally as well.
Playing junior tennis was a lot of fun and provided those of us lucky enough to be ranked a lot of unique opportunities. One of the supposedly fun things was tennis camps. Going to the camps though was always a two edged sword. Obviously they were useful as they gave you an opportunity to work on your game. For me they were critical as I did not have a coach, and thus a tennis camp was my only opportunity to get coaching.
The problem with going to a tennis camp though was that you learned new things. Learning new things is obviously good, but when you are trying to keep a ranking it can be disastrous. In order to learn new things, you have to try new things. And to try new things and to become proficient at the new techniques, you need to “unlearn” what has already made you successful.
Unlearning is tough. We all know the old saying that “ya need to dance with the one that brought ya”, but sometimes “what brought ya” is not dancing anymore and it is time to move on.
Sometimes the only way to learn and progress is to go backwards. The same is true for risk management.
1 comment:
Just stumbled on this post looking for a tennis blog to read, and I have to say I found it quite useful and profund. "Unlearning" is definitely a difficult thing to do, but necessary for constant progression.
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