One Key to Investing Well.

We have a habit of late nights, good wine, and tough questions about the world around us.  One night I was candidly asking how he made his fortune. I was looking for things to replicate...

The simplicity of his reply surprised me. 

“I train my brain to perform one task incredibly well. One task alone... to never conform.” 

Here's how he explained it: 

The Funnel to Nonconformity:

+Become a funnel for ideas

+Let ideas fight based on merit, not emotion

+Find courage to act in nonconformity

= Opportunities others never see, or are too scared to act upon

An uncrowded market leads to outsized returns in life, and wealth.

#1.  Don’t Believe In Anger:

Anger is useful in physical fights but a killer of logic.  It’s a trick of the mind pushing you into a fight or flight. Let me tell you what you can’t do well when you’re fighting or flighting... think. Remove your anger. 

#2. The Controversy & Conformity Conundrum:

There is a spectrum where controversies and conformity sit on two ends of the line. More conformity = less controversial. And yet, most of the wins in life land on the edge of controversy. Choose your controversy wisely, but choose it

#3. Boredom As a Superpower:

The best ideas need breathing room. They’re a flower stretching for the sun. Clutter them with meetings, and watch them die.  Instead, he clears his schedule every morning with no calls prior to 10am. I do the same, paired w/ 2 no-call days a week. 

#4.  Numbers > Narrative:

Anytime something is common practice, check if it’s common sense.  Return to the very first principle there is: 1+1 = 2. Numbers are often terrible liars.

#5. Can You Explain it to Grandma?

Take that shiny new idea in your head and go explain it to your grandma. Can you take the complex and make it simple? If not, you don’t know enough. Strong beliefs paired with little knowledge is a dangerous spot to operate.

#6. Every New Learning Is A Little Death:

Your skin regenerates itself every 72 days completely. Your ideas need an equal level of velocity and regeneration. Challenge the old ideas and let them be reborn into something better.

As we come into the New Year, as personal sovereignty becomes more important... we have to realize, it starts with us. It is not the tactics of money-making that matter.  The most important thing you can do is train your brain to seek the ideas that stand on their own 2 feet.

Finally, I'll leave you with this: 

“A contrarian isn’t one who always objects — that’s a conformist of a different sort. A contrarian reasons independently, from the ground up, and resists pressure to conform.” - Naval