Do you need the media to tell you what reality is?

"To be completely cured of newspapers, spend a year reading the previous week's newspapers." - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

If you look back at headlines from 10 or 15 years ago, you’ll notice that much of the news was either trivial, distracting, or sometimes outright false. Predictions like Antarctica disappearing in 20 years, or the extinction of wolves, bears, and trees were rampant. A century ago, the media focused on reporting facts—this happened, then that happened. Over time, the shift moved towards less factual reporting and more opinion and commentary. Nowadays, some news outlets even fabricate facts, turning the news into a propaganda machine with questionable motives.

While it might feel like you’re accomplishing something by staying updated with the news, the reality is that it often doesn’t impact you directly. It’s good to be aware of global events, but don’t mistake this for productivity. You’re not actually doing anything. Focus on your work instead.

Out of the approximately 10,000 news stories you’ve read in the past year, can you name one that genuinely helped you make a better decision about a serious matter affecting your life, career, or business?

“The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.” – Thomas Jefferson

You will never reach your destination if you

Being stoic often means not displaying emotions of joy or sorrow, but simply leading a balanced life. Typically, it involves maintaining a high level of composure.

Ignore the noise and focus on your own path.

Winston Churchill famously said, “You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks.”

Avoid watching the news; most of it will be irrelevant in five days. Almost nothing matters in the grand scheme of things. The only thing that truly matters is improving yourself, and that is a challenging endeavor.

“Be satisfied with even the smallest progress." —— Marcus Aurelius

All happy companies are different

Be a specialist that gives you focus and clients respect that, when you say I don't do this and that that is very powerful .....

 “Your brand’s power lies in dominance. It is better to have 50% of one market, instead of 10% of five markets.”

— Al Ries

Tolstoy opens Anna Karenina by observing: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in his own way” Business is the opposite. All happy companies are different: each one earns a monopoly by solving a unique problem. All failed companies are the same: they failed to escape competition”

“All failed companies are the same: they failed to escape competition.”

— Peter Thiel

“Good things happen when you narrow your focus.”

— Al Ries

 “If you can build a powerful brand, you will have a powerful marketing program. If you CAN’T then all the advertising, fancy packaging, sales promotion and public relations in the world won’t help you achieve your objective.”

— Al Ries

The Winner Takes It All Song by ABBA

 The key to succeeding in a crowded marketplace is to be the leader, not just a follower.

Al Ries

Growth pains

 

 It’s widely acknowledged that significant financial gains often come later. A prime example of this is reflected in the Dow Jones Index outperforming the Nasdaq over time, as highlighted by Prof. Siegel in 'Stocks for the Long Run.' Similarly, Home Depot's stock demonstrated substantial movement when they shifted their strategy away from pursuing growth at any cost.

Half of the troubles of this life can be traced to

 “It’s only by saying NO that you can concentrate on the things that are really important.” – Steve Jobs

• “Half of the troubles of this life can be traced to saying yes too quickly and not saying no soon enough.” – Josh Billings

Rockefeller was the richest man on earth

Rockefeller was the richest man on earth. He realized that with strong competition, making money is difficult. He discovered many other insights because he wasn’t involved in the day-to-day operations of his companies, giving him time to think. He spoke very little and listened to everything, often sitting in meetings without saying a word. From the beginning, he devoted 10% of his earnings to charity. He was ahead of his time, never drank, or engaged in any kind of addiction, except for going to church. He also helped anonymous people from his congregation.

Good management consists in showing average people how to do the work of superior people.

John D. Rockefeller

From David Senra synopsis of Rockefeller biography .

David Senra

@FoundersPodcast

A few ideas from Rockefeller I found in his autobiography: 1. Hire talent as found, not as needed. 2. The tyranny of compounding costs can devastate the miracle of compounding returns. 3. Err on the side of speed. Be intolerant of slowness. 4. Writing a check separates conviction from conversation. (Buffett) 5. Don’t waste your effort on a thing which ends in a petty triumph unless you are satisfied with a life of petty success. 6. Less talk, more deeds. 7. Pick partners that have a capacity for enthusiasm and hard work. 8. Find the most talented people you can, develop a mutual sense of trust, work together for decades. 9. Emotions blur judgment. Let it simmer. 10. Create byproducts from waste materials. 11. Make the votes unanimous. You may need to disagree and commit. 12. Ceaselessly search for minor improvements. Most humans are incapable of doing so over a long period of time. 13. Do the best you can with the task at hand. Opportunity handled well leads to more opportunity. 14. A friendship founded on business is better than a business founded on friendship. 15. Optimize for long term relationships. Do not screw your partners over a few dollars. Be generous. Time will more than make up for it. 16. Act — from the very beginning — as if your business will last for 50 years. What can you do today that would make this more likely to be true? 17. Only first-class business, and that in a first-class way. 18. When you are old and rich you will realize that your greatest possessions are true friendships. There is no exception to this rule whatsoever. 19. A true friend should be held close at any cost. 20. When you recruit A players you don’t give them 5 things to focus on. No. You tell them: You've got one priority. Destroy that priority. Do it more than anybody else possibly could or would. 21. Entrepreneurship is worth pursuing for the association with interesting and quick minded people alone. 22. Prepare for financial emergencies long before you need the funds. 23. Keep a fortress of cash. 24. Learn to have great respect for your numbers. Watch your costs. 25. Rockefeller had a name for his competitors who didn’t watch their costs: “Unintelligent” 26. Train your kids in practical business matters from childhood. 27. Find more experienced entrepreneurs. Listen to them. 28. A casual way of conducting affairs should disgust you. 29. Success can take the edge away. Remind yourself of this nightly. 30. Don't lose your head over a little success or grow discouraged by a little failure. 31. A chip on your shoulder and a little arrogance can fuel you. Show them that you can paddle your own canoe. Exceed their expectations. 32. All business proceeds on belief: Trying to run a company without a set of beliefs is like trying to steer a ship without a rudder. (Isadore Sharp) 33. Do not lie to yourself. Be honest with yourself about your own affairs. 34. Real efficiency in work comes from knowing the facts of your business. 35. The masses chase easy profits. Do hard things and you’ll have less competition. 36. Vertically integrate. 37. The only way to learn how to conduct a difficult business is gradually. 38. Use scale to lower prices. Root out any inefficiencies. Pay for talent. Control expenses. Invest in technology. 39. Focus. Keep to the enormous task of perfecting your own organization. 40. Two people can run the same business and have vastly different results. The assets of a company are not its factories but the talent of its people. The combined brain power are the essentials to be reckoned with. 41. If you give a good idea to a mediocre team, they will screw it up. If you give a mediocre idea to a brilliant team, they will either fix it or throw it away and come up with something better. The takeaway here is worth repeating: Getting the team right is the necessary precursor to getting the ideas right. (Ed Catmull) 42. Money comes naturally as a result of service. (Henry Ford) 43. Don’t do anything someone else can do. (Edwin Land) 44. Despite the unceasing vicissitudes of the oil industry, prone to cataclysmic booms and busts, Rockefeller would never experience a single year of loss. (Titan) 45. Do everything and you will win. (LBJ)

You will go far with a single idea expressed clearly

 

The most common form of human stupidity is forgetting what one is trying to achieve. Keep your goals in sight.

 

 

 

“You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks”

 

Winston Churchill

 

 

I attribute much of my success in New York to my ability to understand and avoid unnecessary distractions.

 

Derek Jeter

 

 

 

All the tools in the world are meaningless without an essential idea

George Lois, Mad Man

 

 

Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.

 

Swami Vivekananda

 

I don't know if you can live on one idea, but I know that you cannot drift too much. One thing I have felt is that when you say you only do one thing (specialist/FOCUS) people will consider whatever you say more seriously.

 

A few ideas from Steve Jobs I found in this book:

 

1.  You will go far with a single idea expressed clearly.

 

2.  When advertising your product pick one feature to focus on.

 

3.  Customers see more choice as more confusion. Steve believed in doing the work for the customer.

 

 

There are people who do nothing but.....

There are people who do nothing but invest in the stock market and go about their daily lives without looking at it.

Investing is a marathon, not a sprint. Like waiting for paint to dry, it requires a long-term perspective. By embracing the seemingly dull nature of investing, individuals can resist the temptation of short-term market noise and focus on the bigger picture.

I plant some trees, normally in the winter (bear market) and do nothing, those trees lose everything in the winter but they grow and grow and now some of them they are producing great fruit. No one protects their trees in the winter . it is what it is.

From Stingy Investor Blog

Apart from articles by Benjamin Graham and Warren Buffett, I was most influenced by Robert Kirby's discussion of the Coffee Can Portfolio which was first published in the Journal of Portfolio Management in 1984.

Robert Kirby thought that investors would be well served by purchasing small amounts of many stocks and then forgetting about them for ten years. While discussing his investment counsel business he related an interesting anecdote.

"I had worked with the client for about ten years, when her husband suddenly died. She inherited his estate and called us to say that she would be adding his securities to the portfolio under our management. When we received the list of assets, I was amused to find that he had secretly been piggy-backing our recommendations for his wife's portfolio. Then, when I looked at the total value of the estate, I was also shocked. The husband had applied a small twist of his own to our advice: He paid no attention whatsoever to the sale recommendations. He simply put about $5,000 in every purchase recommendation. Then he would toss the certificate in his safe-deposit box and forget it.

Needless to say, he had an odd-looking portfolio. He owned a number of small holdings with values of less than $2,000. He had several large holdings with values in excess of $100,000. There was one jumbo holding worth over $800,000 that exceeded the total value of his wife's portfolio and came from a small commitment in a company called Haloid; this later turned out to be a zillion shares of Xerox."

I finished It

 I spent last week bike racing.

The weather was a disaster—seven days of rain. One stage had to be canceled at the top of Serra da Estrela, 2000 meters up, because the cold and rain were so intense that the 30 km descent to VIDE could be dangerous. Several riders were not properly dressed for the conditions.

I’m not a rain specialist; when it rains, I usually don’t ride. As a result, I completed the 976 km at an average speed of only 24.19 km/h, which is quite poor. However, I felt relieved to have finished under such challenging conditions. This edition of the Trans Portugal Roads is definitely going down in the history books.

Here are some pics of this eventful week. I am too fat for this I need to sched some 10 kg fast.

There is nothing new

The Lindy Effect essentially states that the longer a non-perishable item has been around, the longer it’s likely to persist into the future.

Old things are often considered the best because they have been tested over time. If a book is still in print 30 years after its publication, it’s likely because it’s a great book. On the other hand, I sometimes buy recent books and often find them disappointing.

The notion that I need to stay up to date with recent events and news is, at times, one of the most foolish ideas that crosses my mind.

Ignorant men raise questions that wise men answered a thousand years ago. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"One of the most important reasons for studying history is that virtually every stupid idea that is in vogue today has been tried before and proved disastrous before, time and again. Do we need to keep repeating the same mistakes forever?"

~ Thomas Sowell

PS Of course there is some new tech inventions that are game changers , like MUSK space rockets. But in the business of people there is nothing new.

Small things are not so small

The distant future is small free cities with drone armies and skill-based immigration policies, surrounded by a sea of failed socialist states.

@naval

I am uncertain about the future, but I know that people crave security and despise uncertainty and surprises. If we allow individuals to enter our cities and cause chaos by burning, robbing, and disrespecting our way of life, our cities will descend into chaos.

From South Africa to Brazil, I see people fleeing to safer countries. Safety is a fundamental value. If people don’t follow the small rules about crossing streets, managing garbage, controlling noise, and obeying traffic laws, everything falls apart. The small things matter a lot.

If you throw moderation to the winds

Mark Twain once said, “Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.”

Despite being a Mark Twain fan, I’ve recently tried (not always everything in Moderation)  a simpler lifestyle: eating less and abstaining from alcohol. The results are remarkable. Waking up the next morning is a pleasure—no pain, no discomfort.

I’ve come to appreciate the benefits of eating to live rather than living to eat. This approach allows you to achieve more, feel better, and truly live life to the fullest. Feeling sleepy after a meal is a sign that something needs to change.

Throw moderation to the winds, and the greatest pleasures bring the greatest pains.

Democritus

Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.

Hippocrates

It’s possible to live many different lives within one lifetime

Losing everything, especially loved ones, is incredibly difficult. However, it’s possible to live many different lives within one lifetime.

Change is not something I actively seek, but when it happens, I tend to accept it and move on. I used to play soccer a lot, but after breaking my left leg badly in a climbing accident, I started cycling and never looked back.

In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on. Robert Frost