After years in the markets, I've come to realize that conventional wisdom about investing often gets it backwards. Most people are conditioned to hunt for "safe" assets and spread their bets thin across diversified holdings to cushion against price swings. But here's what separates the winners from the rest: the sharpest investors actually hunt for volatility instead of running from it.

They're obsessed with asymmetry. They're looking for moments where the odds are skewed in their favor—situations where they can risk a little to gain a lot. When they spot these setups, they're not timid. They go in hard.

This flips the entire playbook on its head. While the crowd is busy minimizing risk through conventional diversification, elite investors are concentrating their capital on high-conviction bets where the potential payoff vastly outweighs the downside. Volatility becomes a feature, not a bug. It creates the dislocations and inefficiencies where real money is made.

The counterintuitive truth? Safety and returns move in opposite directions. You don't build wealth by playing it safe.