Page 140 - Morgan Housel - The Psychology of Money_ Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness-Harriman House Limited (2020)

psychology of money would lead you to believe that it is. I just want to
ensure I can remain standing long enough for my risks to pay off. You have
COBACOBA
to survive to succeed. To repeat a point we’ve made a few times in this

book: The ability to do what you want, when you want, for as long as you
want, has an infinite ROI.

Room for error does more than just widen the target around what you think
might happen. It also helps protect you from things you’d never imagine,
which can be the most troublesome events we face.

The Battle of Stalingrad during World War II was the largest battle in
history. With it came equally staggering stories of how people dealt with
risk.

One came in late 1942, when a German tank unit sat in reserve on
grasslands outside the city. When tanks were desperately needed on the

front lines, something happened that surprised everyone: Almost none of
them worked.

Out of 104 tanks in the unit, fewer than 20 were operable. Engineers
quickly found the issue. Historian William Craig writes: “During the weeks
of inactivity behind the front lines, field mice had nested inside the vehicles
and eaten away insulation covering the electrical systems.”

The Germans had the most sophisticated equipment in the world. Yet there

they were, defeated by mice.

You can imagine their disbelief. This almost certainly never crossed their
minds. What kind of tank designer thinks about mouse protection? Not a
reasonable one. And not one who studied tank history.

But these kinds of things happen all the time. You can plan for every risk
except the things that are too crazy to cross your mind. And those crazy
things can do the most harm, because they happen more often than you
think and you have no plan for how to deal with them.