Charles Koch says he wanted to stand on the shoulders of giants and I spend my Saturday night standing on the shoulder of a 95 year old man in a wheelchair.
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Interesting people will change the world, not the specialized majority.
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Historically, the capital required to start companies was high and to maintain them was equally costly. Whether it be in the form of new software systems or giant manufacturing systems.
The largest cost to a company will now be on people.
With that, the future of investing will be on human capital. The acquisition, and development of talent.
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"The team you build is the company you build" - Vinod Khosla
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In 2018, I read 27 books. Of which I completed 23.
Previously, I wrote about the 10 lessons I learned from reading. Since then I've been ruminating over Lesson #1: Loving what you read.
See, even for the 23 books I had read in the year, some have stuck in my mind more than others. It may be that some were better books with better content.
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Two men sit across from each other. They've come to a coffee shop but neither are drinking coffee. They both ordered a glass bottled water. Those usually tend to be some kind of European sparkling water.
So my first assumption is that they did not come here for the coffee. Just to chat.
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Why do we exercise? Why do we eat healthy? Why is breakfast important? Why do you fast?
Fitness and diet trends are everywhere. Some are mere fads, some have merit, some need more time to be proven out.
One word that keeps popping up as having been the beneficiary of so many of the above questions is insulin. But I admit I don't really know that much about the hormone. Is insulin sensitivity good or not? What's resistance? What the hell does insulin do?
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“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” - Mark Twain
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At a higher level, I think most jobs, roles, positions, occupations etc... have three major buckets where all activities would be slotted into: Learning, Thinking and Executing.
Every job has components of it that fit under one of those three buckets but the amount of time one spends doing activities in each bucket will vary. Not to mention, how one goes about learning, thinking and executing will vary per role as well.
What am I getting at?
Well, here are some point of views from my professional experience as an auditor, consultant and investor.
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In the Effective Executive, Peter Drucker listed 3 things one should be aware of. One of them is on whether you know what your strengths are.
It's also a common interview question: "What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses?"
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Odds are you are an average driver. You are most probably not a great driver and likely not an above-average driver either, contrary to your popular belief.
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See, for most people, if they were not forced out, they would never quit or leave. Some call this life-time job security. I think this is the death spiral.
As a system is the whole of parts, individualistic implosion from such a spiral will result in a systematic failure in organizations as a whole.
Needless to say, a system needs stressors.
It is in that thought process that I write about the value of termination.
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A thought on designing life's operating system inspired after a conversation I had with my engineering friend from the coaching project I ran.
The stereotype is that engineers tend to be systematic thinkers. Whether the field attracts these folks, or schooling molds such a mindset, or both I do not know.
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For: You who live in the guilt of not doing something productive in "what should be" your time of recharge. You know "quality > quantity" but the ease and lure of quantity is so hard to resist.
I don't believe pulling all-nighters and outrageous hours are required to achieve great outcomes. I really doubt all 18 or 20 hours of that day are "quality" hours. I'd actually consider it to be a breakdown in the system for it shows a lack of effectiveness and a clear miss in prioritization.
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This is for me. Something I've felt and learned as I hit the 8th month of my sabbatical.
A question I hate answering these days is "what do you do?"
To such a question my favourite response is: "Do you have 30 minutes for me to describe to you why, how and what I'm spending my time on because I don't have a socially defined and accepted definition of an occupation to give you?"
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I see it everywhere, especially on the few TV commercials I see. On billboards, posters, and all over public places. Data and analytics.
Everyone is selling it. It's the hot thing. It might not be as hot as crypto or AI but every single major corporation is out there selling their use of data.
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In the past six or so months I've met 40-50 different startups and investors. Of which many ask "Why are you passionate in tech?". To which I reply "I'm not. Technology is a tool, not an industry or a company." and then I proceed to wonder the individual's ability to think for he has obviously not thought about the question he is asking.
Technology is a tool. You want some examples of technology?
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The road to getting an investing job is not straight forward, not instant and not easy. You know what they say: "Nothing worth having comes easy."
I've been getting a number of inquiries into how I managed to get a public equity investing job without doing any time in the sell-side, having a CFA, a finance major or having had a hedge fund uncle teach me about stocks at age 13.
In this essay I not only hope to tell you a story of my own personal journey to shed some light on the process but also share learnings that may be applicable to all kinds of career journeys.
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This is a conversation I had with myself as I introspected after I quit my first job in accounting. It was one of many different conversations. But it was one with my lustful relationship for money.
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I didn't think I read much... but apparently I do... So I decided to write about the lessons I learned on reading. This is not about the contents but the act of reading to learn.
If you look at my public book list there are about 60 odd books over a 4 year period. I think if you add the Audiobooks, it would be about 70-80.
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