The CISO Evolution

CHAPTER 3Business Decisions

Courage is willingness to take the risk once you know the odds.

Optimistic overconfidence means you are taking the risk because you don't know the odds. It's a big difference.

— Daniel Kahneman

Opportunity

I took a Mayan Studies class in college, where I learned about ancient archaeological sites throughout Mexico and South America. I began dreaming of a self-powered tour of the Yucatán Peninsula by bike. Soon, I recruited a classmate who later became my wife. After graduating from college, we flew into Cancun Airport. We pedaled south to Tulum and then set course for Coba, Chichen Itza, and Merida.

I remember how I anticipated riding my bike, isolated in the seldom-visited parts of the Mayan Riviera. At that time, I couldn't stomach wasting money to purchase a mattress, much less a bedframe. On the floor at night, I lay staring at the ceiling, envisioning a casual morning ride that gradually revealed historic monuments shrouded in the clearing mist. In my dreams, the majestic Mayan ruins were covered in the cold morning dew, cresting just beyond my evaporating sightline, still silent save for the chirping local fauna.

Just after graduating, we made the trip. Later I secured a great job, we bought a house, and eventually we got married in Tulum. But I was still hungry for adventure. In my naïve view, the only way to replicate the euphoria of travel was more travel. I thought it was the only thing that would ever make me feel happy.

About that ...