Rise and shine

Rise and shine.

6am and your hand can't make it to the alarm clock before the voices in your head start telling you that it's too early, too dark, and too cold to get out of a bed.

Aching muscles lie still in rebellion, pretending not to hear your brain commanding them to move.

A legion of voices are shouting their unanimous permission for you to hit the snooze button and go back to dreamland, but you didn't ask their opinion.

The voice you've chosen to listen to is one of defiance.

A voice that's says there was a reason you set that alarm in the first place. So sit up, put your feet on the floor, and don't look back because we've got work to do.


Welcome to The Grind.

For what is each day but a series of conflicts between the right way and the easy way, 10,000 streams fan out like a river delta before you, Each one promising the path of least resistance.

Thing is, you're headed upstream. And when you make that choice, when you decide to turn your back on what's comfortable and what's safe and what some would call "common sense", well that's day 1. From there it only gets tougher.

So just make sure this is something you want. Because the easy way out will always be there, ready to wash you away, all you have to do is pick up your feet.

But you aren't going to are you?

With each step comes the decision to take another.

You're on your way now.

But this is no time to dwell on how far you've come. You're in a fight against an opponent you can't see.

Oh but you can feel him on your heels can't you?

Feel him breathing down your neck.

You know what that is? That's you...Your fears, your doubts and insecurities all lined up like a firing squad ready to shoot you out of the sky.

But don't lose heart

While they aren't easily defeated, they are far from invincible.

Remember this is The Grind.

The Battle Royale between you and your mind, your body and the devil on your shoulder who's telling you that this is just a game, this is just a waste of time, your opponents are stronger than you.

Drown out the voice of uncertainty with the sound of your own heartbeat.

Burn away your self doubt with the fire that's beneath you.

Remember what you're fighting for.

And never forget that momentum is a cruel mistress, She can turn on a dime with the smallest mistake.

She is ever searching for that weak place in your armor, that one tiny thing you forgot to prepare for.

So as long as the devil is hiding the details, the question remains,"is that all you got?", "are you sure?"

And when the answer is "yes". That you've done all you can to prepare yourself for battle THEN it's time to go forth and boldly face your enemy, the enemy within.

Only now you must take that fight into the open, into hostile territory.


You're a lion in a field of lions…

All hunting the same elusive prey with a desperate starvation that says VICTORY is the only thing that can keep you alive.

So believe that voice that says " you CAN run a little faster " and that " you CAN throw a little harder " and that " you CAN dive a little deeper" and that, for you, the laws of physics are merely a suggestion.

Luck is the last dying wish of those who wanna believe that winning can happen by accident, sweat on the other hand is for those who know it's a choice, so decide now because destiny waits for no man. And when your time comes and a thousand different voices are trying to tell you you're not ready for it, listen instead for that lone voice in decent the one that says you are ready, you are prepared, it's all up to you now.

So rise and shine

Timeless Buffet Quotes

1. “Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No.2: Never forget rule No. 1.”

2. “Shares are not mere pieces of paper. They represent part ownership of a business. So, when contemplating an investment, think like a prospective owner.”

3. “An investor should ordinarily hold a small piece of an outstanding business with the same tenacity that an owner would exhibit if he owned all of that business.”

4. “You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong.”

5. “Buy companies with strong histories of profitability and with a dominant business franchise.”

6. “The critical investment factor is determining the intrinsic value of a business and paying a fair or bargain price.”

7. “The investor of today does not profit from yesterday’s growth.”

8. “Unless you can watch your stock holding decline by 50% without becoming panic-stricken, you should not be in the stock market”

9. “Focus on return on equity, not earnings per share.”

10. “Stop trying to predict the direction of the stock market, the economy, interest rates, or elections.”

11. “The ability to say “no” is a tremendous advantage for an investor.”

12. “Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing.”

13. “You are neither right nor wrong because the crowd disagrees with you. You are right because your data and reasoning are right.”

14. “Wild swings in share prices have more to do with the “lemming- like” behaviour of institutional investors than with the aggregate returns of the company they own.”

15. “When Berkshire buys common stock, we approach the transaction as if we were buying into a private business.”

16. “Why not invest your assets in companies you really like? As Mae West said, “Too much of a good thing can be wonderful”

17. “We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.”

18. “Does management resist the institutional imperative?”

19. “We do not view the company itself as the ultimate owner of our business assets but instead view the company as a conduit through which our shareholders own assets.”

20. “Growth and value investing are joined at the hip.”

21. “Wall Street is the only pace that people ride to in a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the subway.”

22. “What it is, it’s a gathering of owners and these people feel like owners, we treat them like owners and we try to have them have a good time while their here. But these are people who are real shareholder owners, as opposed to somebody who owns a ticker symbol and is thinking about next quarters earnings or something of the sort. So it’s a different breed of shareholder”

23. “I never attempt to make money on the stock market. I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.”

24. “Do not take yearly results too seriously. Instead, focus on four or five-year averages.”

25. “Calculate “owner earnings” to get a true reflection of value.”

26. “The advice “you never go broke taking a profit” is foolish.”

27. “Lethargy, bordering on sloth should remain the cornerstone of an investment style.”

28. “Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy only when others are fearful.”

29. “As far as you are concerned, the stock market does not exist. Ignore it.”

30. “Look for companies with high profit margins.”

31. “Remember that the stock market is manic-depressive.”

32. “Risk can be greatly reduced by concentrating on only a few holdings.”

33. “Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.”

34. “All there is to investing is picking good stocks at good times and staying with them as long as they remain good companies.”

35. “Never invest in a business you cannot understand.”

36. “Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.”

37. “Our favorite holding period is forever.”

38. “Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.”

39. “Many stock options in the corporate world have worked in exactly that fashion: they have gained in value simply because management retained earnings, not because it did well with the capital in its hands.”

40. “An investor should act as though he had a lifetime decision card with just twenty punches on it.”

41. “Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.”

42. “By definition if you’ve got a million and a half shares roughly, you know you’ve only got so many seats, and you want people in those seats that are as in sync with you, and your objectives, and your time horizons, and all of that as you can. I mean that’s how you have happy church, a happy home, a happy school or what ever it may be, is to have people there that are more or less are on the same wave length.”

43. “Turn-arounds” seldom turn.”

44. “Always invest for the long term.”

45. “Look at market fluctuations as your friend rather than your enemy. Profit from folly rather than participate in it.”

46. “Accounting consequences do not influence our operating or capital-allocation decisions. When acquisition costs are similar, we much prefer to purchase $2 of earnings that is not reportable by us under standard accounting principles than to purchase $1 of earnings that is reportable.”

47. “An investor needs to do very few things right as long as he or she avoids big mistakes.”

48. “You do things when the opportunities come along. I’ve had periods in my life when I’ve had a bundle of ideas come along, and I’ve had long dry spells. If I get an idea next week, I’ll do something. If not, I won’t do a damn thing.”

49. “If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians.”

50. “It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.”

51. “If, when making a stock investment, you’re not considering holding it at least ten years, don’t waste more than ten minutes considering it.”

Investment Lessons by Jeremy Grantham

1. Believe in history: “history repeats and repeats, and forget it at your peril. All bubbles break, all investment frenzies pass away.”

2. Neither a lender nor a borrower be: “Unleveraged portfolios cannot be stopped out, leveraged portfolios can. Leverage reduces the investor’s critical asset: patience.”

3. Don’t put all your treasure in one boat: “This is about as obvious as any investment advice could be … Several different investments, the more the merrier, will give your portfolio resilience, the ability to withstand shocks.”

4. Be patient and focus on the long term: Wait for the good cards. If you’ve waited and waited some more until finally a very cheap market appears, this will be your margin of safety.”

5. Recognize your advantages over the professionals: “The individual is far better-positioned to wait patiently for the right pitch while paying no regard to what others are doing, which is almost impossible for professionals.”

6. Try to contain natural optimism: “optimism comes with a downside, especially for investors: optimists don’t like to hear bad news.”

7. But on rare occasions, try hard to be brave: “You can make bigger bets than professionals can when extreme opportunities present themselves because, for them, the biggest risk that comes from temporary setbacks – extreme loss of clients and business – does not exist for you.”

8. Resist the crowd, cherish numbers only: “this is the hardest advice to take: the enthusiasm of a crowd is hard to resist. The best way to resist is to do your own simple measurements of value, or find a reliable source (and check their calculations from time to time) … and try to ignore everything else.”

9. In the end it’s quite simple, really: “GMO predicts asset class returns in a simple and apparently robust way: we assume profit margins and price earnings ratios will move back to long-term average in 7 years from whatever level they are today. We have done this since 1994 and have completed 40 quarterly forecasts … Well, we have won all 40.”

10. This above all, to thine own self be true: “To be at all effective investing as an individual, it is utterly imperative that you know your limitations as well as your strengths and weaknesses … you must know your pain and patience thresholds accurately and not play over your head. If you cannot resist temptation, you absolutely must not manage your own money.”

5 Greatest Investment Books You’ve Never Heard Of

1. Humble on Wall Street by Martin Sosnoff

2. Silent Investor, Silent Loser by Martin Sosnoff

3. Sense & Nonsense in Corporate Finance by Louis Lowenstein

4. Modern Security Analysis by Martin Whitman and Fernando Diz

5. 100 to 1 in the Stock Market by Thomas W. Phelps

Characteristics of Disruptive Innovations

1. Start with a purpose and a small problem rather than a big idea.

2. Based on what people do, not what they say they do.

3. Leverage data to get closer to users, customers or fans.

4. Can be more responsive to customer’s behaviours and needs.

5. Tap into consumer’s latent desire.

6. Connect the disconnected.

7. Create value where none existed.

8. Disrupt people not industries—changing the user’s worldview and behaviour.

9. Begin by changing a small group of people at the edges.

10.Seem obvious only after the fact

Source: http://thestoryoftelling.com/

Producers and consumers: Seth Godin

"In the short run, it's more fun to be a consumer. It sure seems like consumers have power. The customer is always right, of course. The consumer can walk away and shop somewhere else.

In the long run, though, the smart producer wins, because the consumer comes to forget how to produce. As producers consolidate (and they often do) they are the ones who ultimately set the agenda.

Producers do best when they serve the market, but they also have the power to lead the market.

The more you produce and the more needs you meet, the more freedom you earn." - Seth Godin

Love this perspective by Seth. It seems relevant to the case of Apple as a producer. Isnt it?

Which Would You Choose? - The Story of Telling

If you could only pick only one of the following, which would you choose?

1. Would you like more people to know about you, your product or service?

OR

2. Would you like your existing customers to be blown away by you, your product or service?

Awareness doesn’t always scale.
But creating difference for your customers—enabling and mattering to people can’t help but lead to growth in the long run.

What are you committing your resources and energy to?