ASSUME

Years ago, one day in the class, one of our professors wrote the word ASSUME on the black board and asked us all what it meant. We were wise kids and knew for sure it was not the real question, though we did not know what he meant by that. He then turned to the board and wrote it again, this time splitting it as – ASS-U-ME. At first, we thought it was humour, but it wasn’t. “Assume”, he said, “is Ass-U-Me because that’s what we make of ourselves when we assume things without getting into the facts of a matter.”

Isn’t life just so simple when we stop assuming and start communicating clearly about everything? I, however, grew up to become an equity research analyst and that’s where everything changed. The 13 years that I spent doing research made me assume all the time, literally. While I would call those assumptions well calculated expectations, that also was a detrimental point because it became a habit to be calculative, assume and expect. This does n0t work well in real life. This is a kind of professional hazard and can cause long term damages just like a 10-hour desk job would do to your spine and eyes.

One good part of being born as a human is that we evolve, not just from one generation to another, but also during one lifetime into a different person year after year as we learn and grow. It is critical that we separate work and life, well. We conveniently talk about damage control but little do we realise that what can be avoided should not be allowed to reach a level where you need to course correct it. Stress and anxiety have become fashionable in today’s time. People somehow find pride in saying that they have stressful lives and that they feel anxious. If we look closely, though, the root cause may be the fact that we assume and expect on a constant basis, what we should not. This when it does not turn out the way it was visualised causes damage to our brain senses and we invite stress and anxiety for a stayover. Unfortunately, the quantum and magnitude may vary but we all do it in our personal lives too. Professor was right indeed, ASSUME really means ASS-U-ME.