Thought of the Day

The key message: If you want to be an effective leader, and rise in the ranks, get enough sleep.

HBR

Fatigue makes cowards of us all

— Vince Lombardi

Surprisingly, one group that doesn’t need to heed these warnings is executives. In our assessment of 35,000 leaders and interviews with 250 more, we found that the more senior a person’s role is, the more sleep they get.

HBR

I am reading the book from Shawn Stevenson about Sleep. He claims that to lose weight and to improve as an athlete sleep is key. I always slept easily but I wake up several times during the night and I can't sleep more than 6 hours. I want to sleep better, deeply. I want to do more.

the 3 key areas so far in the book are

cut coffee after lunch

take all the phones iPad etc... from the bedroom. I never had the Phone in the bedroom

make the room totally dark

I love coffee but decided to cut big time. I am having 1 morning coffee when I wake and that is it for the day. The first 3 days have been horrible with headaches I was addicted to coffee .

No more

I will report the results .

Tomorrow is the NASDAQ Composite's 50th birthday. It started at 100 on Feb 5, 1971.

Nasdaq is an incredible history of success, is the triumph of man aided with a machine, it was a bet on the future vs the present.

"Nasdaq" was initially an acronym for the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations.

“Progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things.”
― Robert A. Heinlein

“Our wretched species is so made that those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road.”
― Voltaire, Philosophical Dictionary

Obviously, you don’t have to be able to predict the stock market to really make money with stocks.
Peter Lynch

The Stock market and the economy are two different things
Milton Friedman

Sometimes to read the news can be very damaging to your trading account. The price tells you almost everything. Ignore the noise. If you don't read news your health will improve big time also.

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Roosevelt's "The Man in the Arena", Paris 1910

Well the people who occasionally read my Blog know that I believe that the most important thing is the ONE IDEA. You have to have one idea , you have to know where to go, you have to know the direction. To work, to do, to execute is very important but you have to go in the right direction. In the last 20 years everybody that worked in the direction of Cheapest, more convenient and to give a fair deal to the clients won.

why Amazon is winning, of course execution is important but information provided from the previous buyers of that product is the key, you can't go wrong. That is the big idea. Only clients can comment, and you can see what they say about the product. That is a huge difference between the street shop that wants to sell their inventory and will do anything for that .... I don't trust a salesperson if they have a limited inventory, if a salesperson have a huge inventory he is a consultant and I can give him credit....... If you have to sell A , for sure you are going to praise A.

“To get what you want, you have to deserve what you want. The world is not yet a crazy enough place to reward a whole bunch of undeserving people.”

― Charles T. Munger

“Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.”
― Kevin Durant

In school I was not the best student at all, in fact I studied with 2 friends and one of us always come way ahead! We studied the same hours but he was smarter , he got things faster and in one read and that was enough. In life you can repeat, re-read, there is no shortage of time, you can win if you want, Just work and invest. perhaps a bit of Focus helps. Do one thing and do it very well. Read a lot..

In my country, Portugal everybody votes for more Government, we are on our knees. The Government is killing the country to save this and that. For the government nothing is best than a problem. They love problems. Covid is an opportunity to grow, 2008 Financial crisis another opportunity that was not wasted. The Government is broke, but make no mistake they will transfer the bill to their citizens. What to do? There is plenty to do, you can escape the government.

First don't listen to news or read newspapers.

When I mention "the government," I'm referring to the overly bloated structure cobbled together by both political parties. At this point, the term "public servant" is an oxymoron.

All governments, big and small, seem to generally look after themselves at the expense of hardworking folks like you and me.

Casey Research, Dennis Miller