Why do people "Go for Broke" and think they won't get there?

Question

I haven't been out to Hedgehog's for awhile, Morgana. It's 3 buses away and then a long wait between two am when the bar closes and 4:30 when the buses start running again. It's too cold for that right now.

Answer 1

I am always amazed when they are surprised that they arrive there. It's like they absolutely couldn't see it coming.

It's one thing to take tremendous risks when you've done all your homework and planning and have done a careful risk-analysis, and you're pretty sure you've done as much as possible to minimize a bad result, but I see people doing it with no forethought at all.

My first job was in retail; I worked at a women's clothing store in a mall. There were stores in all the malls in our area. There was this one store manager (not of the store where I worked), and she was making more money than any of the store managers, both because she had so much seniority and because there was a lot of business at her store, and she was making bonuses left and right. She was making just over $30K a year, which was a lot of money for a 24-year-old high school graduate back in 1988. She had all her ducks in a row--she had a nice car, and she owned her own townhouse, and she'd put herself into a position where she was going to start studying marketing and business management at night.

One day, she was talking to one of the girls on her staff, and they had this brilliant idea. We live in the suburbs of Salt Lake City, and the border with Nevada is less than two hours away. There's a city there called Wendover, and half the city is in Utah, and the other half in Nevada, and there are all these casinos there. Their brilliant idea was that they would take the deposit bags from Friday and Saturday, run out to Wendover on Saturday night after the store closed (the malls closed at 6:00 p.m. back then), gamble with the cash, and then come back on Sunday, and deposit the bags at the bank. The bank wasn't open on Saturday, so there was no one to count deposits and post them until Monday morning. That gave them access to the cash from the two busiest days of the week for "seed money" for their gambling. I am sure you know where this is going.

Would you believe they managed to not get caught for almost three months? At first, they played it safe and played the slot machines, because if you play one long enough, and stick to the same machine, you usually end up at least even by the end of the night. They made a modest profit playing the slots, and then they decided it was time to start playing at the tables. Luck smiled on them there, too, at least at first. But by the third weekend of playing the tables, they came up short on the cash needed for the deposit bags. So what did she do? She went to a "private gentleman who makes modest cash loans." At least that's how she explained it to us. We all told her that the short name for guys like that was "loan shark", but she wouldn't listen. She had invited my manager to join the fun, and take me along, because I am good at cards, and we had politely declined. We discussed for hours whether or not we should turn her in, but we were so afraid of messing up her life because she had so much going for her. We tried the tough love, "we're going to turn you in" approach instead. It didn't work. When she finally got busted, it turned out she had asked every single other manager and one of their employees to join them, and had been turned down by everyone. We were glad about that, because we didn't want to see anyone else go down.

Her downfall came one weekend when there was a college football game. She knew nothing at all about Sports Book, but her brother's best friend told her how to bet, and she did, and she lost every cent of the $4500 from the Friday and Saturday deposits. The loan shark was already sending his nicely dressed gentlemen to talk to her at her work and at home, and she was really in a desperate situation. To make matters worse, she decided to blame the shortfall of cash on someone in the bank. She had no idea that the room where they collected the deposit bags and counted the deposits had cameras all over it, so it was really easy for the bank to prove that the bags had come in with checks and credit card receipts, but no cash. It was a mess.

After she was arrested, she was put on house arrest until her trial. My manager and I and some of the other girls went out and visited her. Do you know what she said? "I couldn't see any reason not to go for broke. There was all this money just begging to be doubled or tripled before it was deposited, and I knew what I was doing. I still don't think I did anything wrong, because the court is going to make me pay back all the money anyway, so it's just like it was a loan."

She was found guilty, naturally. She served a short sentence in the county jail. Paying back all the money and paying her fines made her lose her car and her townhouse. And somewhere in there, she had an "accident" and ended up in the hospital with a hand which had to be wired back together. I have no proof about how that happened, but I do have theories.

Through it all the most amazing thing was that she maintained that she couldn't see how she could fail. She's definitely one of the people who chooses to go for broke and then is surprised when she gets her wish.

Answer 2

Same reason I yell "clear" and hurl myself off the cliff. If I do it right and am correct in my assessment of my skill and condition of my hang glider I get to live and get one of the most intense feelings I've ever had. Plus, its something nobody can take from me. They can lie and spin it all they want, but I and everybody there knows its a lie and I did make the flight.
As far as money goes, I've gone for broke three times. First time I got out ok, a good training flight but a bit rough. Second time I put way too much effort and time in it but came out ok again but not a big profit. Third time I went broke big time. Made big money, took big losses. Beaked the landing and went bankrupt, but I learned how to turn and recognize big thermals and invisible giants. Actually quite fun. Cleaning up the mess left now and looking at the next big goal. Did you know there is still one, if not two Kramer Prizes out there?
In other words, you will never learn to fly high unless your feet leave the ground. The trick is finding suitable training hills for each level of skill, and not getting killed in the learning process. This, and flying, are not activities for people who let fear rule them.
Smooth lift.

Answer 3

they are willing to gamble. They are willing to risk having people become angry with them when they want to effect necessary change and will risk ridicule and ostracizing in order to do something they consider important, like including the use of feminine pronouns where only masculine have been used, unfairly. And BTW, it Higher Power of whom you wrote is NOT gender neutral, it is most decidedly male in the literature, and that has got to change. It isn't fair.

Any new songs of late?
Blessings,
Lady Morgana,
going for broke

Answer 4

Could be a desperation move for the most part, and the reality may be they are going about it rudder-less and so do not have a whole lot of confidence in outcome.

Answer 5

I think there so sure of their self and think i;ll never be down and out and go broke ; but it;s a possibility for us all. As my mom used to say; live like a king; and die like a rat.,.,.

Answer 6

I've BEEN broke. I don't recomend that ANYONE go for it. It's NOT a very nice way to live.

BB,
Raji the Green Witch

Answer 7

Same reason why they aim to "break a leg" but never really want that :)

Answer 8

They may think "Nothing ventured, Nothing gained".