17 | UNC vs. Duke and The Agony of Defeat

The losses drain the emotional tank more than the wins fill it up. Professional psychologists call it "loss aversion".

What a twisted psychological reality. That's not how it's supposed to work...right!?!

Enter the 2022 Final Four.

In my years at UNC-Chapel Hill and even after, I can remember speculating with friends on the possibility of one day meeting Duke in the NCAA Tournament...

Can you imagine the stakes and the environment? Can you imagine the bragging rights if we won? Can you imagine having the upper hand in the rivalry forever?

Sure enough in March of 2022, Duke beat Arkansas on Saturday and the Tar Heels beat St. Peter's on Sunday and CBS flashed the bracket onto the screen - UNC vs. Duke in the National Semifinals on April 2, 2022.

Within minutes of the final buzzer that Sunday night, the feelings of theoretical excitement and possibility pivoted almost instantly to...

What if we lose? Have the stakes grown too large? Will any game after this one ever mean anything?

If you think my feelings were unique, think again. Here is the Wall Street Journal's take on it.

Remember what we said at the start - the losses drain the emotional tank more than the wins fill it up.

We're not saying the losses count differently than the wins, they just have an out-sized emotional impact.

The emotions as a Tar Heel fan aren't very different from those as an investor.

The gains feel good when they happen, but the emotional high pales in comparison to the pit in your stomach when the losses start to add up.

The losses are part of the game. Unavoidable, painful, and hard to predict exactly how they will feel when they happen.

Recognizing that the feelings are inherent to the experience is the only way you can have enough courage, patience, and perseverance to play and eventually win the game.

Yes, the Tar Heels won the game, 81-77. To this day, it is probably the best game I have ever watched. You can watch the final three and a half minutes here if you'd like.

With that said, the Tar Heels have lost plenty of other games that have stung. Following those losses, there's been some amount of sulking, but there have also been conversations with fellow Tar Heels to acknowledge the feelings, highlight the silver linings, dream about where we go from here, and strategize about how we’ll win the next one.

I think that’s a pretty good blueprint for how to handle investment losses too.