How does the aspiring master of private equity develop this mindset toward complexity, acceptable risk, and adequate return? It comes down to a set of characteristics that can be based on both natural aptitude and learned experience: the willingness to embrace and investigate the unknown, or even chaos—or at least the absence of identifiable order;

Given the unpredictability of these market trends, the only sensible approach is to embrace uncertainty and build your strategy around it. Your efforts must be geared toward relentless experimentation so that you can discover opportunities as soon as they emerge.