Not everyone invests. I recall some years ago when I was living in a bit of a moral vacuum. I was at UofT and I spent all of my spare time playing bridge, poker

Not everyone invests. I recall some years ago when I was living in a bit of a moral vacuum. I was at UofT and I spent all of my spare time playing bridge, poker, and backgammon, for as much money as possible. One night I had a chance to play an extremely plump pigeon, I think they call them "whales" today. He asked for various handicaps to narrow my edge, and we worked out something I thought was going to make me a lot of money. He then dropped the big kicker: He wanted to play for extremely high stakes, enough that if he got hot, he would bankrupt me. Naturally, this dismayed me. Although I thought I could keep my cool and not "steam," I knew that being the better player, I wanted the chance to let the odds play themselves out, not subject my self to the possibility of a bad swing. So I sought out a friend who had an extremely large and dependable cash flow. Would he back me in exchange for a share of the profits? We both knew I was going to win. He turned the deal down. "I only bet on myself," he said. I was incredulous. Why turn down an extremely lucrative business opportunity? "I like knowing that I made my own money," he said. He didn't see investing in me as being the same kind of thing as running his various schemes and dealings where he had his own hands on the levers of commerce. I'm not saying it's a better thing, but some people simply aren't that interested in investing, they like to bet on themselves.