The remedy to overconfidence is a setback

My dad never believed in health insurance. He always said, “I haven’t done anything wrong in my life, so I won’t get sick.” (I never understood this logic). I would say he was overconfident because he was in his 60s, he was a smoker, and he had diabetes, cholesterol, and high blood pressure. That paints quite a picture, isn’t it?

After a lot of argument, in 2010, my mom and I convinced him to sign up for a health insurance policy for a meager sum of Rs.50,000.

One day in 2012, I got a call from a random person telling me that my dad met with an accident while coming on a scooter. It was weird because he doesn’t own a scooter. When I went to the spot, which was a kilometer away from home, I came to know that he sat pillion on his friend’s bike and fell down because a rash driver came in the way. Long story short, he broke his knee cap.

And, with no money in the bank, we were worried about what we’re going to do. But, the health insurance came to the rescue. He went through surgery, and he fully recovered within six weeks. The bill for the surgery and hospitalization was Rs.48,500. The next year, when we asked about increasing the coverage amount, my dad agreed immediately.

I always tell myself, “We’re always one bad decision away from ending up in a disaster.” And several times, overconfidence is the main factor that drives us towards some of those bad decisions.

But, if we’re lucky, life would give us a setback instead of a full-blown disaster. It is an opportunity for us to come to our senses, reassess and straighten out that overconfident attitude. So, if you’ve had some close calls lately, take a moment to think about why it happened. If it’s due to your overconfidence. It’s time to reassess.