Read, Heard, Observed 2: Friday 5th May 2023
#CapitalAtRisk
Part II
This Friday post is the second of a new series (I skipped last week as I was away).
Each Friday I’ll share three things:
Something I’ve read.
Something I’ve heard.
Something I’ve observed.
Read
I don’t know how but I accidentally bought two copies of John Purkiss’s new book, “Learn to Let Go - a guided journal”.
I posted on LinkedIn and Twitter that I’d done this and my MBA pal Alex was the first to respond so I posted my spare copy to him in rural Kent.
John’s latest book is a daily guide to help calm your thinking and make that thinking a positive thing with your success in mind. He says that if you learn to let go your intuition will flourish.
I know John well and always feel more calmly confident when we meet — he just seems to always flow with life in a content state knowing that his intuition will show him the way.
Heard
My exit from the desert involved a 9 hour minibus trip from the middle of the Sahara to Ouarzazate then (after a very pleasant overnight stay there) a 4 hour taxi ride to Marrakech airport. So I listened to a lot of podcasts this week including:
Leading, with Hillary Clinton, here, including what went on in the Situation Room during the raid on bin Laden’s compound.
The Social Radars, with Steve Huffman, here, who shares his experiences dealing with difficult co-founder conversations in a way I’ve never heard before.
Not Investment Advice, episode 108, here, which is always a fun discussion, this time the best bit was about AI music and the implications for artists that fighting it or lean into it.
The Rest if Politics, ‘Politicians Vs Civil Servants’, here, in which Rory recounts the extremely difficult life-or-death decision he had to make when under fire in an embassy in Iraq.
This Cultural Life, with Sally Wainwright, here, was an extremely emotional interview with what I reckon is the best TV writer around in Sally, and the best interviewer in John Wilson.
All-In, episode 125, here, during which Antonio Gracias and Gavin Baker join the ‘besties’ to share SpaceX's ‘space economics’ of launching that massive rocket and what that means for future construction in space.
Observed
My own failure. More here, but I have (dare I say) enjoyed the experience of failing.
One of the ‘landmarks’ in Richard Koch’s Unreasonable Success book is to ‘thrive on setbacks’ and he means that it’s not enough to simply accept the knock-backs and carry on, but the truly successful actually thrive on these setbacks.
I took a big risk with the MdS and it didn’t work out. But I shouldn’t be dismayed because, after all, it was a big risk!
Richard says that after the disaster, the best keep pressing forward but in a different gear.
I’m not in the mood to sign up to any more multi-day ultra-marathons right now but I’m looking forward to the next big challenge and the next big risk!
In other news
The final proof of ‘Find your 9others’ is off to the printers and will be ready for publication on 11th July.
You can pre-order the book here, or even better, please come to the Summer Launch Party in London on 29th June.
Details and sign up for the party are here.
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