|#100 MWAVC| - Key formulas to living a successful life
100 days of writing 🎉. Thankful for the support from everyone who takes the time to read every day (or couple of days. *ahem* Cedric.) Now, in true Ato fashion, the next goal isn’t 150 or 200, but to add another zero. Yes, 1000. That’s the next mark I’m setting for MWAVC. And honestly, I love thinking exponentially. And we should be applying this kind of thinking to our bank accounts. 🤑💰 Are you trying to move from $10 to $20? Yea…nah, Not pushing the needle enough. $10 to $100? Then to $1000. Then $10,000? See what I’m saying? That’s more I like it.
Speaking of pushing the needle, Ray Dalio is someone who has done that consistently throughout his life and work, and he’s built one of the better performing hedge funds around- Bridgewater Associates. I’ve read Principles (which everyone should read btw). Below is an extract from an article on him and his thoughts. Enjoy.
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Dreams + Reality + Determination = Successful Life
If you stay focused on achieving your dreams, take responsibility for understanding the realities that affect you, and do that with determination, you'll learn the principles for a successful life.
But only you can decide what a "successful life" means. Maybe you want to be known as "The Richest Person in the World" or maybe you want to live under a palm tree for the rest of your life.
What you want is up to you — as long as you're happy, healthy and having your own great evolution (while also contributing to evolution). But you must embrace the realities that come with the path you choose, especially the difficult ones.
At first, my realities — my problems, mistakes and weaknesses — caused me a lot of pain, mostly because I was stuck wishing I didn't have them. After some time, however, I realized that the pain was life's way of telling me I needed to reflect on my realities and how to best deal with them.
That's when I learned the next principle.
Pain + Reflection = Progress
My big failure came in 1982, when I bet everything on a depression that never came. The markets were very turbulent and I believed that the U.S. economy — with the world economy tied to it — was headed into a crisis.
This was an extremely controversial view. I took a big risk and traded accordingly. But I was dead wrong. The stock market began a big bull run, and over the next 18 years, the U.S. economy enjoyed the greatest noninflationary growth period in its history.
Losing this bet was like a blow to my head with a baseball bat. I went broke and had to borrow $4,000 from my dad just to pay my family bills. Due to the losses, I was forced to lay off the people I cared so much about — until my company was left with just one employee: me.
Being so wrong — and especially so publicly wrong — was incredibly humbling and cost me just about everything I had built at Bridgewater.
"Losing this bet was like a blow to my head with a baseball bat. I went broke and had to borrow $4,000 from my dad just to pay the bills."
But in retrospect, that failure was one of the best things that ever happened to me. It gave me the humility I needed to balance my aggressiveness and shift mindset from thinking "I'm right" to asking myself "how do I know I'm right?"
You'll experience this at some point in your life. You might lose something you think you can't live without. Or suffer a terrible illness or injury. Perhaps your career will fall apart right before you eyes. You might think your life is ruined and there's no way to go forward.
But it will pass. There's always a best path forward, though you might not see it immediately. You just have to calm yourself down and spend time reflecting in order to find it.
Article List— What I’m reading (10 articles a day x 7 days x 4 weeks x 12 months = 3360 articles a year).
PepsiCo acquires PopCorners snacks maker BFY Brands: I love PopCorners. Good for PepsiCo acquiring these healthy snacks companies.
How Ring Went From ‘Shark Tank’ Reject to America’s Scariest Surveillance Company: Rejection is not final. Remember that.
Homebody in a Hoodie: Hedge Fund Founder Builds Quant Paradise: I know a good number of people who move this way. Very understated but cash in the bank! Cash is king.
The Smartest Guys in the Clubhouse: Just to rib on my McKinsey-ites here.
Alphabet-backed Duolingo becomes first VC-funded $1 billion Pittsburgh tech start-up: ¿Cómo se dice que valgo mil millones de dólares?
Supergiant VC Rounds Weren’t Limited To Late-Stage Startups: Right now, with the funniest idea, you can raise 7/8 figures in your Series A. Madness.
Maximizing Runway Can Minimize Success: Well what do we have here? The less money you raise, the more successful your company will be?
Migo pockets $20M to aid underbanked emerging markets: Posted this before, but doing it again for the culture.
Ghana’s Cedi Heads for 25th Straight Annual Drop Against the U.S. Dollar: No surprise here. 🙃🙃
Podcast— What I’m listening to (1 podcast episode a day= 365 podcast episodes a year) — Broadening my experiences through others’ stories.
Greymatter from Greylock Partners: Investing is an art. Learn everything here. And about Greylock’s portfolio companies.
Book— 1 Chapter a day x 7 days x 4 weeks x 12 months = 336 chapters. Most books have 10-12 chapters, so 1 year = 28 to 33 books. And my book list is nearing 1000 books. Send help 🌚
Venture Deals by Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson. I’m actually learning so much from this book. Highly highly highly recommend to anyone looking to get into venture investing. Might take a while to grasp all the concepts. I’ll have to read it at least 3 times to fully get it.
📱📱Quote of the day
“When you feel like you’re not productive, it’s not necessarily because you’re lazy or because you have bad habits, it’s because you’re not working on the right projects and you haven’t found the ones that are intrinsically motivating and meaningful to you.”— Adam Grant
Remember: “Until the lion learns to write, every story will glorify the hunter.”