Practice Comes First
Decision makers need to factor into their present decisions the “future that has already happened.”
Decision makers – in government, in the universities, in business, in the labor unions, in churches – need to factor into their present decisions the future that has already happened. For this they need to know what events have already occurred that do not fit into their present-day assumptions, and thereby create new realities.
Intellectuals and scholars tend to believe that ideas come first, which then lead to new political, social, economic, psychological realities. This does happen, but it is the exception. As a rule, theory does not precede practice. Its role is to structure and codify already proven practice. Its role is to convert the isolated and “atypical” from exception to “rule” and “system,” and therefore into something that can be learned and taught and, above all, into something that can be generally applied.
ACTION POINT: Are the premises that you base your decisions on obsolete? Do you need a new intellectual framework to win in the market, as it exists today?
Management and the Liberal Arts
Management is a liberal art.
Management is what tradition used to call liberal art – “liberal” because it deals with the fundamentals of knowledge, self-knowledge, wisdom, and leadership; “art” because it deals with practice and application. Managers draw upon all of the knowledge’s and insights of the humanities and social sciences – on psychology and philosophy, on economics and history, on the physical sciences and ethics. But they have to focus this knowledge on effectiveness and results – on healing a sick patient, teaching a student, building a bridge, designing and selling a “user-friendly” software program.
ACTION POINT: What is your plan to develop yourself in the humanities and social sciences? Develop such a plant today.
“If the stock market exists, so must previous lives.”
Margaret Atwood
“Having a coach or mentor is nothing more than sharing life’s experiences, no amount of education can substitute true life experience”
Lachlan McPherson
“Some people did business with me because they wanted to get close to me, others did business with me because they were afraid to say no.”
Larry Formato
“You have to distinguish between two things – the Swedish economy and the Swedish stock market. The Swedish economy is the sum of all the goods and services that are produced in this country every day. There are telephones from Ericsson, cars from Volvo, chickens from Scan, and shipments from Kiruna to Skovde. That’s the Swedish economy, and it’s just as strong or weak today as it was a week ago…
The Stock Exchange is something very different. There is no economy and no production of goods and services. There are only fantasies in which people from one hour to the next decide that this or that company is worth so many billions, more or less. It doesn’t have a thing to do with the Swedish economy.”
Stieg Larsson
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“We can’t all be bakers or chefs. Many of us have modest ambitions. But we can all buy a piece of the pie.”
Amah Lambert
“Reliability investing requires finding companies trading below their inherent worth–stocks with strong fundamentals including earnings, dividends, book value, and cash flow selling at bargain prices give their quality.”
Amah Lambert
“All through time, people have basically acted and reacted the same way in the market as a result of greed, fear, ignorance, and hope. That is why the numerical formations and patterns recur on a constant basis. Over and over, with slight variations. Because markets are driven by humans and human nature never changes.”
Jesse Lauriston Livermore
“We don’t live in a free market society… markets are controlled by the major players who influence legislation to perpetuate their control…”
Miguel Reynolds Brandao
“The gist of Laszlo’s pitch for the equity department was this question: When you turn on your television at six-thirty and Dan Rather tells you that today the market went up twenty-four points, what market do you think he means? “What!” Laszlo would say. “You think he’s talking about Grade A industrial bonds? Ha! He’s talking about the stock market.” In other words, if you joined the equity department, your mother would know what you did for a living.”
Michael Lewis
“Ban short-selling, high speed trading and all other instruments of pure speculation”
Miguel Reynolds Brandao
The Sustainable Organisation – a paradigm for a fairer society: Think about sustainability in an age of technological progress and rising inequality tags: economics, stock-market, sustainability 0 likes Like
“Trader has to reverse what you might call his natural impulses. Instead of hoping he must fear; instead of fearing he must hope. He must fear that his loss may develop into a much bigger loss, and hope that his profit may become a big profit.”
Jesse Lauriston Livermore
“The reason for what a certain stock does today may not be known for two or three days, or weeks, or months. But what the dickens does that matter? Your business with the tape is now – not tomorrow! The reason can wait. But you must act instantly or be left.”
Jesse Lauriston Livermore
“Make your money on the buy, not the sell; this is true in any investment whether it’s real estate, business, or the stock market.”
Ziad K. Abdelnour
“What if I told you that, not only can you not beat the market, but most stocks actually lose money.”
Kenneth Eade
Terror on Wall Street, a Financial Metafiction Novel “Buying and selling securities in an attempt to outperform the market will effectively be a game of chance rather than skill.”
Kenneth Eade
“There is no such thing as a bargain stock.”
Kenneth Eade
“Both bull and bear can be your friends.”
Mohit Bansal
“A little bit of fear and pessimism should be a necessity”
Mohit Bansal
“Don’t lose good opportunities waiting for better opportunities”
Mohit Bansal
“A Bear is always stronger than a bull”
Mohit Bansal