As an entrepreneur, you didn’t launch a business, recruit wisely and consistently sell units of products and services through sheer luck. However, businessmen and women still have lots in common with gamblers, from the propensity to take risks of managing money to researching the threats and opportunities. Considering that Blue Claw estimates a 50% increase in online poker searches from 2019, it’s clear that more and more people from the corporate world are betting. This shouldn’t come as a surprise.
They Evaluate Risk
Risk plays a significant role in both business and gambling. Without taking a shot at the opportunity in front of you, you’ll never win big. Alternatively, if you go too soon and are “pot committed”, you might lose everything. Forbes highlights how around nine out of ten startups fail, and how this is down to everything from a lack of resources (29%), recruiting poorly (23%), the wrong location (9%), and the ability to adapt (7%). Likewise, when reading the information on poker online from Paddy Power we see that they believe playing without knowing the fundamentals doesn’t end well most of the time. Therefore, poker players and entrepreneurs must analyse the level of risk when they make a decision, and they do this by learning the base concepts behind their speciality. Gamblers and entrepreneurs won’t always have 100% of the information when they take a risk, yet this doesn’t mean it’s an unqualified gamble.
They Share Personality Traits
You might be surprised to know that you share character traits with people who like to bet. The reason for this is something called “risk propensity” and the impact it has on gambling risk perception and entrepreneurial intentions. According to a Research Gate study, this link is a defining factor in pushing both people who want to be in business and gamblers towards their chosen fields. Furthermore, emotional stability predicts risk propensity in both parties, which means entrepreneurs and those who bet professionally can keep their feelings in check and use a cool head to evaluate the situation and take the least risky option. As the research paper concludes, emotionally stable people are better at managing risk.
They Play in Competitive Markets
It’s tempting to assume that every marketplace is saturated, and therefore, competitive. While there is an element of truth in this, the gambling and business sectors are two of the biggest in the world. For example, the Federation of Small Businesses points out that there were 5.9 million small businesses at the start of 2020, an increase of almost 2% from 2019. Meanwhile, the GGY of the UK gambling industry is more than £14 billion, which showcases the rise of the sector. Therefore, successful entrepreneurs and gamblers must stand out in a competitive marketplace to ensure they don’t fall behind their rivals.
It’s essential to understand the similarities between the two. When you do, you can learn business lessons from the gambling world that will help you to be even more successful.
