Category: Product & Risk

I’ve travelled to more than 50 countries and moved a lot as a kid, so I learned early that change is constant and risk is inevitable.

Why Stoicism stood out

I was always curious about different philosophies of life, and Stoicism really stood out to me. At its most basic, two ideas resonated with me most:

1. Building resilience by focusing on personal virtue.
2. Accepting what we cannot control, and focusing on what we can.

There is so much going on in the world at any given time. It gives me inner peace knowing I can do my part by focusing on my own thoughts and actions for the greater good.

From my life to organizations

Then came risk management. I was always curious about how organizations navigate the business world. By getting involved in GRC (Governance, Risk and Compliance) software implementations, I realized the same idea of focusing on what we can and cannot control is applied across the whole organization, through international frameworks and standards like ISO 31000 and COSO.

Risk management takes our individual view of what we can and cannot control to a bigger stage. I studied it at a deeper level by earning the Canadian Risk Management (CRM) designation.

The 6 questions behind risk management

At a high level, it starts with these questions:

1. What are we trying to achieve?
2. What might affect us?
3. Which risks are most important?
4. What should we do about the risks we found?
5. Did we take enough action on our risks?
6. What has changed?

These follow the main steps of the ISO 31000 risk management process: set the context, identify, analyse and evaluate, treat, and monitor and review.

Using them in my own life

Stoicism told me where to put my energy. Now I have a personal, structured framework with these 6 questions to uncover anything I missed.

The best example is when we bought a new home after getting married. I walked through the same 6 questions:

1. What were we trying to achieve? Buying a new home after getting married.
2. What might affect us? The general housing market outlook, interest rate risk, and local area reviews, like schools, transit and highway connectivity.
3. What mattered most? Being close to jobs and transit, a balance of space and price, and a growing area with future development.
4. What did we do about the risks? We accepted the general housing market risk. We reduced interest rate risk through how we set up our financing, and kept a backup option in case life changes.
5. Did we take enough action? Yes. I stress-tested the decision against different market and life conditions, and we did extra due diligence on builders. The risk we still carry is the housing market itself, which we accepted as part of buying for the long term.
6. What has changed? I keep an eye on macro conditions in Canada. I’m content with the decision we made at the time of purchase, and we have options for flexibility in the future.

That last part is the Stoic side for me: I can’t control the housing market or interest rates, so I focus on the choices I can control.

I used the same kind of thinking in my Muse agent review, where I ran a quick risk check before signing up.

Next time you face a big decision, like a move, a job change or a big purchase, try walking through these 6 questions.