Has the Pandemic made us Bigger (or Better) Risk-Takers?

…and what are the drivers behind our risk appetite

Just as an FYI — I may interchangeably refer to the pandemic as the ‘Panasonic’, ‘panoramic’, ‘panini’, ‘pentatonic’, ‘pandemonium’ etc… you know, why not make fun of that thing that has ravaged chaos in our world over the last 18 months?!

It’s 21st June 2021 (well, at least it was when I started writing this) and I’m sat on a plane (crazy, right?!) — seat 26D, British Airways, on my way from London to Accra, Ghana. There are so many feelings in the mix here — I am travelling with my sister and her two children, one who is 3 years old and one who’s 8 months old. There was a period, 24 minutes exactly, where both of them were sleeping… simultaneously! I almost mistook the rare silence coupled with the clouds swimming past the windows as heaven.

More relevantly, I’m going to visit my parents who packed up shop and left the UK two years ago, dropping everything — work, relationships, stability, and even the ability to comfortably forecast income — in the pursuit of a different pace of life, freedom, flexibility, and of course, much better weather. These decisions all happened before the emergence of Covid-19, but it’s really made me think about what the drivers are behind our risk appetite. Maybe situations aligned themselves in such a way, that this wasn’t even a risk, more of a natural flow of events. It’s safe to say the panoramic hasn’t exactly been what I’d call an accurate…