“Hope is not a Strategy” is a lovely book that I had read 18 years back. The phrase “Hope is not a Strategy” has now become a cliched business mantra used by executives all over the world.

While I do tend to agree with it somewhat, I also believe “Hope” to be a necessary thing for all of us in everything that we do.

In 2020, it was hard to feel hopeful. Yet, there were many who felt hopeful. I was one of them. The hope was not that the stock market would double from the lows it made in March 2020. The hope was not even how quickly things would get back to normal or when they would.

The hope was that things will get better at some point of time.

Matt Haig, the author of “The Comfort Book”, writes, “To feel hope, you don’t need to be in a great situation. You just need to understand that things will change. You don’t need to deny the reality of the present, in order to have hope.”

We did not have to deny the threat of COVID-19 or pretend like the virus never existed to feel hopeful. All it simply required was that things will change and that things will get better from here. It’s as simple or as difficult as that.

Not being hopeful despite having well-constructed portfolios have cost many investors serious money.

Hope is an integral part of investing that comes right after you have invested well. Yes, hope should always come after investing well, not before it. Just to make it clear, Speculating and Hoping is Stupidity.

Hope is that thing that comes in handy when the stock market corrects or crashes.

Hope is that thing that gets wise investors to not interrupt compounding.

Hope is that thing that helps us to go through the tough times.

Well, if Hope is indeed all of this, why isn’t Hope a Strategy for Bad Times (assuming you have done your best)?

What do you think?

As always, I would love to hear from you.