What about doing drugs, having an affair with your secretary or trading in "hedged" derivatives that could only lose money if the entire housing market faced a downturn?
The point is not that there are no risky things but that many things we perceive as risky aren't objectively so. The things you list are all indeed objectively risky.
Losing your own money is in the same category as having people laugh at you. It feels awful, and indirectly it can reduce your chances of survival, but it doesn't actually harm you physically like a head injury.
Depends on the people. I've heard the same drug referred to as both "deadly in 100% of cases" and "actually beneficial to long-term health". The actual science says it's detrimental to long-term health, but only modestly.
The first two activities are pretty safe, and the third activity is safe as long as most of your assets are protected in bankruptcy (and/or you are a shell corporation with a tiny amount of capital relative to the capital base it is drawn from).
there may in fact be correlation between doing those things and being successful. and it is possible that both are caused by lowered perceptions of risk. I think I read at some point that people who commit suicide but survived were more statistically successful and one possible cause was their lowered perception of risk (but can't currently find source)
