How Exposed Is Your Income?

Map your own work or business across four tensions — then read what the pattern tells you.

Name Your Context

Write the job, business, or income stream you will map in the steps below. Be specific — a role title, a product, a service.

Predictability of Income

Mark honestly where your income sits on this axis. Does one bad week — one cold snap — wipe out a meaningful share of your earnings?

Completely predictable

Completely unpredictable

Your Risk Appetite

Mark where you sit personally. Jiang bet $600 a month on weather — a risk he called 'willing to take.' Where is your line?

Avoid all financial risk

Actively seek asymmetric bets

External vs Internal Control

How much of what determines your revenue is inside your control — pricing, service, effort — versus outside it, like weather, regulation, or the economy?

Almost entirely internal

Almost entirely external

Your Hedge, If Any

Does anything currently protect you when the external factor hits? Look back at Step 4 — if your income is mostly external, does your hedge match that exposure, or is there a gap?

I have a meaningful hedge

I have no real protection

Read the Pattern

Look at your four marks together. Are they consistent — a cautious person with predictable income and a strong hedge — or do they tell a contradictory story? Write one sentence describing the tension you see.

The One Word

Write one word that names your relationship with financial risk — then write one sentence explaining why that word, and not another, is honest.

Why that word?

Discuss Share your one word with a partner — do they agree it fits, or do they see your pattern differently?

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