It is a matter of paid or unpaid labor. If you are doing your doctoral research as paid labor, you may be able to stay in academic employment. If your doctoral research is unpaid labor, you need a topic that keeps your spirit alive. Some new professional doctorates are closer to practice and can be done as a project. All 3 pathways carry the same existential risk: the only real budget is your life-time and doctoral work is time-consuming, besides the factors of economic cost and psycho-physical stress.

I think this link is very interesting about this wonderful topic :

https://www.elsevier.com/connect/9-things-you-should-consider-before-embarking-on-a-phd

It is a matter of paid or unpaid labor. If you are doing your doctoral research as paid labor, you may be able to stay in academic employment. If your doctoral research is unpaid labor, you need a topic that keeps your spirit alive. Some new professional doctorates are closer to practice and can be done as a project. All 3 pathways carry the same existential risk: the only real budget is your life-time and doctoral work is time-consuming, besides the factors of economic cost and psycho-physical stress.

I don't think you have anything to lose. Rather, I think you have everything to gain in going for a PhD.

You may gain better opportunities or otherwise loose opportunities. This frequently depends on circumstances.

Dear Martin Hernandez,

In my own opinion, you may lose some things in your pursuit of bagging a PhD. These include; your friends that did not like encouraging you to still push further in such pursuit, may lose most of your sleeping schedules to gain knowledge, wisdom, understanding and prayer for those that believe in it, may lose your "money" in gaining remarkable progressing in terms of sessional school fees and sundry payments, may lose your leisure time to gain expertise in your chosen field by attending all-important conferences, workshops, seminars, writing papers and so on. The number of things to lose continues as you aspire to pursue a degree Doctor of Philosophy in your chosen field.

Thank you

Depends on what you have!!!

If one go for PhD on getting scholarship, nothing will be lost. Rather will be gainer.

nodhing in academic world phD will bring u many oppurdinidies also u can improve yourself... life change poind..

One will loose lots of hours of sleep... but if one do not fail - there will be a high gain!

Nothing will be lost. You just need time but you will win experiences, possibly friends and colleagues and you do a step to science.

What do you have to lose if you go for a PhD?

Only thing you will lose is all the resources you'd invested whereby when you didn't complete the PhD / dropped half-way.

If you can complete the PhD, others are just sacrifices e.g. not enough sleep, limited time with family, lonely journey, feeling of lost when stuck in the research etc. but as other researchers / scholars had shared, there is Return Of Investment (ROI) when pursuing the PhD.

You will gain many things by doing Phd like:

Experience

Knowledge

Critical thinking ability

Sometimes, good amount of money

In future- better job opportunity

etc..

But, you will loose one thing from your life:

Live peacefully!

How?

After doing Phd, you will start to think a simple thing very critically.

I will give one example.

One Phd holder went to a box maker and said:

Please make a box for me, keep two doors on that so that my rats can enter.

The box maker got surprised, he asked: why you need two doors.

Phd holder replied: I have one big rat and one small rat that's why.

the box maker replied: if I make a big door, that would be enough for both rats to enter into the box.

Then the Phd holder understood how right the maker is!

It depends on the country that you work.

If you are in Greece and decide to get a PhD then:

• you'll lose much time in order to find a professor to be supervisor (Sr)
• you'll lose much time in order to find Sr either in phone or by mail whenever you want something to ask
• you'll probably find that your given problem has already been solved somewhere around Earth by using internet searching
• you'll never succeed to convince Sr that you have to change the route
• you'll lose much of your nervous and mental peace from negotiations with other professors (directors, chairmen, deans ...)
• probably after several years you'll finally get the diploma!

I agree with Olutosin. Although those loses will definitely be gained back somehow at completion. For every prize, there is a price to pay.

When there is a scholarship the situation may be better, perhaps sometimes the topic is not accepted or inappropriate. In fact, All this needs time. And time goes on.

One must lose the fear to defend the truth.

Strange friends Aleksandr! Look for some new ones.