Gambling

Its three weeks since the fall of Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers, and the Sensex has tumbled about 2000 points or about 15% during this time. As a result I have again lost quite a bit of money resulting in my accumulated losses being more than my one months salary. But I am not writing this to analyze whys and hows of stock market fall. During the last two weeks I have been hearing a lot about how Stock Market is all about gambling and usually people loose money. I agree about the second part of the theory but not the second part. And my belief is that the second part holds true mostly because people believe in the first part. You may want to differ with my view but this is also not what I am going to write about.
My thoughts are about gambling. Why does it come in mind only when loss of money is involved? Does gambling only involve having money as stake? Have we (me and you) never gambled with our life or happiness?
When we decide to join a trade are we not gambling with our career? When I had to join college, I was preparing for medical entrance, but when results came out I was offered two options - dentistry or engineering. I chose engineering. Who knows how my life would have been if I had chosen dentistry. Or how my life would have been if I had rejected both the offers and decided to give a try to medical once more.
When we deice to change our job (I mean the employer) are we again not gambling with our career? After about three years in my first job I decided to switch. I got an offer from Wipro. I thought it was a good career move. I left my company and joined Wipro. Its another story that I decided to leave the company within a matter of days. Now by leaving Wipro wasn't I gambling with my career again? The HR there told me I was not looking at the long-term prospects,but I thought my work was going to be more important than the organization.
Similarly we all make different kind of choices. Where to invest our money? Whom to get married with? What trade to choose? Which organization to work for? Where to live? The list will be endless. And with each of those choice we make a move in life which can either have a good or a bad impact not only us but also to our near and dear ones. And thus we gamble with our lives.