How To Create Something From Nothing
On how successful people create massive value from scratch.
personal development
Catastrophic Loss
In those long-forgotten, pre-Covid days, I was typically on the road anywhere between two and five days a week. I am a pretty comfortable flyer. But on more than one occasion, especially when taking off in bad weather or on a dodgy airline (sometimes a combination of both!), I would ask myself: What if? I …
Evolution
As a child, I was never particularly athletic.
Choosing between a book and a ball game, I’d always go for the former.
Suffice it to say that my popularity as a kid fully reflected my choices. But then, it all changed.
The Best Strategy For Winning At Life
Every year, without exception, I see the exact same situation playing out at work.
Bright, motivated, and hard-working guys and girls begin their careers as investment banking analysts.
Almost immediately, the most ambitious and foresightful of the bunch
Everything You Need To Know About Financial Independence In 2021
As one of your fellow readers helpfully pointed out in a recent email, for someone who never really defined financial independence, I sure spend a lot of time talking about it. Point taken.
The Beauty (And Danger) Of Compounding
You will have noticed that over the past few weeks, I have really dialed back on the number of “quantitative” posts. Gone are the rates of return, expected probabilities, and asset class comparisons. There’s plenty of time for those topics throughout the year. Instead, I like to use December downtime to reflect on everything that …
Losing Control
Last Friday was a long day for me. The first Zoom call of the day started at 7 am, courtesy of a demanding continental client with a penchant for early starts. A year ago, my secretary would have punted the meeting by a couple of weeks, with the convenient excuse of flights and conflicting meetings …
A Pre-Mortem On Your Life
One of the most enduring lessons I’ve taken away from my MBA degree is the concept of a “pre-mortem”. Applied in a managerial / finance context, the idea is quite simple. Let’s say you are about to kick off a big project. It can be a greenfield infrastructure investment, a new product launch, or a …
