“Who knows what is good and what is bad?” What an ancient parable has to teach us about getting a “luck-proof” approach to investing: a message from Caitie this week.
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A Luck-Proof Mindset
“Who knows what is good and what is bad?” What an ancient parable has to teach us about getting a “luck-proof” approach to investing: a message from Caitie this week.
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The Puck and the Luck: How to Make Things Happen
Caitie Leibman, CEO
The best-known wisdom of Wayne Gretsky is probably the hockey player’s line about missing 100% of the shots you don’t take. Sure, sure. But let’s say we’re already off the bench, we’re flying around.
Then how do we change our odds?
Gretsky had this to say about his scoring records: “I skate to where the puck is going, not where it’s been.”
“Luck” might sound like a flimsy or woo-woo idea. But what Gretsky is getting at is opportunity, putting himself in position just in case things line up. He makes himself ready to be lucky.
Janice Kaplan writes about Gretsky and other famous examples in her book How Luck Happens. Consider Mother Teresa’s efforts as a fundraiser for her charities. It might surprise people to find out that Mother Teresa often flew first class, given her work among the poor.
But where would Mother Teresa be likely to find her biggest potential donors? The first class cabin on an international flight isn’t a bad place to start. By putting herself in a position where the right opportunities became more likely, she was ready to be lucky.
Have there been times in your life when it felt like you found yourself in just the right place at the right time? (Or, maybe, the wrong place at the wrong time?) There will always be some elements of chance or serendipity in life—and goodness knows none of us has a crystal ball.
Even still, we believe we can make it more likely for the best things to happen in life. We don’t have to be right every time. We just have to be ready.
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Play the audio version of this post below:
The Puck and the Luck: How to Make Things Happen – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services
This text is available at https://www.228Main.com/.
The Smell of Money
The modern world developed from a society of subsistence farmers. The metaphors of nature, crops and orchards and seasons and livestock, have deeply rooted appeal. They remind us of a simpler time. But the metaphor in this story is personal history, not a fairy tale.
As a child I was privileged to visit the Omaha Stockyards from time to time in the company of a friend and his father, a “commission agent” who bought and sold cattle for farmer clients. Mr. G was a master of his work and he loved it. The stockyards were the largest in the world. The vast collection of pens and chutes and loading facilities were a temporary home each day to thousands of cattle, in transit from one place to another.
One might say the stockyards presented a rich tapestry for the senses. The fragrance of thousands of cattle in close quarters is one of those things that cannot adequately be described with pen and ink, or electrons.
Upon my introduction to this sensation, I first heard the words thought by some to be only a cliché. But they came from Mr. G, smiling broadly, breathing deeply, with a twinkle in his eye: “Smell that, son? That’s the smell of money!” For Mr. G and his colleagues and companions, the hundreds of workers at the yards and the customers they served, it was true. And there is value in this old tale to investors today.
As contrarian investors, we are mindful that the sentiment of the crowd is a contrary indicator. High levels of optimism may be associated with market drops ahead. Rotten sentiment sometimes points to future gains. When everyone expects the same thing, that expectation usually does not come to pass.
These days, the country seems to be in the grip of pessimism and foreboding. Sentiment about the future in general and the prospects for the markets in particular is poor by many measures. It stinks.
This too shall pass, sooner or later, and the mood of the country will improve. But for now, in the spirit of Mr. G we smile broadly, breathe deeply, and say “Smell that rotten sentiment? That’s the smell of money!”
The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.
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