40/52: Born lucky
#CapitalAtRisk
The 2010s was the decade of the Entrepreneur. The 2020s will be the decade of the Investor.
“Optimism did not flow from prosperity; it was the other way round”.
Richard Koch
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Choose happiness
Last weekend I had to gave a speech1. Part of it was giving my son some advice and one part came back to me this week…
The snippet of advice I wanted to share today is:
“Be happy. Being happy is a choice. You can be optimistic, encouraging, and happy by simply choosing to be that way”.
And it came back to me this week during a brief chat about luck and while reading about optimism.
Choose luck
On Wednesday evening I was chatting with Sophie Carter during the break between the excellent talks at Anna Anderson’s ID82 event at Kindred.
Sophie and I somehow started talking about luck. I said I keep thinking, and saying to myself, that I was born lucky. I said I hadn’t always felt that way — life has all too often been rough and no doubt will be again — however a few years ago I choose to say to myself that I was born lucky; that good things do, and will, happen to me.
Choose optimism
Richard Koch has a new book out, 80/20 Daily, in the picture above and here, and I wanted to share a snippet from page 147.
Richard writes that optimists, “expect and look for good outcomes” and that, “pessimists… tend to dismiss good outcomes as flukes, temporary, specific or due to other people”.
He advises to, “Expect the best. Think that it was in some way your doing — even if it was pure chance!”
I encourage you to choose happiness, luck and optimism for yourself. And please buy Richard’s new book — his optimism, confidence and gusto are infectious (and buy his other books too, they’re amongst the most gifted by me to my portfolio companies3!)
In other news
🎤 I was at ID8 to see & support Laura Harnett, founder of the amazing Seep, one of my portfolio companies — go buy some eco-washing up stuff now, either via the Seep website or, as of this week, in Tesco! 🧽 🫧
🎅🏻 The Winter Party with a few more than 9others is coming up this week. Please join in if you’re keen to meet with founders and other smart folks. Details and signup here.
☎️ Katie and I have started doing ‘accountability calls’. Each Monday from now until the end of the year (at least) we’ll tell each other what we’ll do that week, then each Friday we’ll review the tasks, the achievements and the failures. So far so good.
More from me?
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Q&A
🆓 Free subscribers get a short preview and all free public posts. NB: All posts in 2024 will have paid-subscriber-only parts.
💰 Paid subscribers get access to all posts, the angel investor Q&A podcast I did during the 2020 lockdowns, the full archive and can request a video call to ask me anything and talk about the things I don’t share anywhere else.
💰💰💰 Founding Members get all paid benefits plus you get to WhatsApp me unlimited questions for discussion, you get a one hour discussion session once a quarter plus a great lunch in London, on me.
Important: None of these posts are investment advice. If you are thinking about investing you should seek the advice of a suitably qualified independent advisor.
#CapitalAtRisk
The speech was for my son’s Bar Mitzvah — not something I expected to be doing when I was 13 but it’s funny where life takes you.
In particular The 80/20 Principle (featuring yours truly on p296) and The Star Principle.