what does "don't put all your eggs in one basket" mean?

Answer 1

Well, if you have all of your eggs in one basket, and you drop the basket, then you're SOL. If put some of your eggs in one basket and some in another, then your chances of keeping the eggs intacted are better. It's just a phrase that means that you shouldn't rely on just one method or one way of doing something. You could get burned.

Answer 2

It's kinda like this: If you put all your eggs in one basket and the basket falls, then all of them could possibly break. Do you want all of your eggs to be destroyed? No, so you carry a few in different baskets, that way if you drop a basket, you only lose a few.

Answer 3

It's another way of saying, "Keep your options open." If you put all your eggs in one basket and the basket drops, you're left with nothing. In other words, if you make plans that have only one outcome and don't allow for any other eventualities, for emergencies, for unexpected changes, you may well come to grief and your plan won't work out. If you 'hedge your bets' or make sure you have several other options, it won't matter if the original plan goes awry because you have a backup in place.

Answer 4

If you put all of your eggs in one basket and the basket falls, it would be likely that all the eggs would break and you would be left with zero eggs. If you, for example want to attend a certain college and you apply only to that college, then you would be "putting all of your eggs into one basket" because you would be leaving yourself with no alternatives. A wiser course of action would be to apply to all of the colleges that would be acceptable to you. My dad always told me: "Be sure you always have a Plan B and a Plan C." He meant that I should always have an alternative plan in mind in case my first plan doesn't work out. In other words, he was telling me not to "put all my eggs in one basket".

Answer 5

it comes from a folk tale about a girl daydreaming while carrying some eggs in a basket on her head... she daydreamed she'd make so much money she'd meet a prince and she was practicing her bow and curtsey when she dropped all her eggs.....
breaking them and with broken eggs she nothing to sell. If she had put her eggs in two smaller baskets, she wouldn't have lost all her potential profit.

Answer 6

The company I used to work for trained ONE guy for all the installs. He left and opened his own business. Now, he's their competition.

That's putting all your eggs in one basket!!!

...of course there's Mark Twain who said:

"Put all your eggs in the one basket and --- WATCH THAT BASKET."

Answer 7

It means don't pin all your hopes on a particular outcome. For instance, don't bet all your chips on one particular spin of the roulette wheel, or don't put all your money in one bank account, or don't buy all your stock certificates in one company. Just as if you put all your eggs in one basket and you drop it, you lose everything, so if all your bets are on roulette outcome or all your stock is one company and the number doesn't come up or the company goes bust, you lose everything.

Answer 8

If you put half of your eggs in one and the other half in the other, if you drop one, you only lose half your eggs, rather than all of your eggs if they were all in one basket. lol. Get my drift?

Answer 9

Don't put all your hopes in one dream.

If it doesn't work -- then, well... you'll be shattered inside.

There ya go, love. =)

Answer 10

Diversify, diversify, diversify!