A Boo Radley Moment People do not get to choose who they are. They simply are who they are and they live with it. Some are lucky and fall into the range of normal. They work and play, succeed and fail, get happy and get sad, all within a band that raises no eyebrows. Unfortunately, nature is not always so kind, in fact, sometimes it is downright cruel. Joe was one of the best looking…
Sun on the Harbor Jim walked into his office at 7:30am and while he wheeled his carry-on bag to the back wall and took off his coat, it was hard not to notice the view. The history of the United States was virtually laid out before him. No joke. He was looking out over New York Harbor on a sunny early March morning and it was nothing short of spectacular. Let me set the scene. …
A Random Walk There is a concept in investment management called random walk. It’s exactly what it sounds like, one movement is not connected to another and is therefore random in nature. It is the Shit Happens of finance, and it is used to describe the stock market and its gyrations. As a guy who managed very large money management businesses for many years, I spent some time thinking about random walk theory and whether…
Banking on Grace There are many times in life when you must do what your heart tells you to do and let the chips fall where they may. Sometimes is all works out well. It was 2004 and I had recently taken over the asset management area of the vaunted Bear Stearns. It was a return to Wall Street for me after a few years spent starting a venture capital business that was chugging along,…
Hitting the Road As I get older, I dream more about hitting the road. What’s that about? When I get asked what I would do in retirement I have to review the bidding this way. I’ve spent ten years teaching. I actually became a Clinical Professor of Management and taught courses at the graduate level at Cornell for those ten years. That took care of that retiree notion. I’ve served on several not-for-profit boards ranging…
The Border What is a border? Technically, it’s a delineation between one group of people and another. Delineation can occur at many levels and I think it’s fair to suggest that the lines that matter have mostly to do with economic power. The “haves” must always protect what they have from the “have nots”. Vito had grown up on the south side of Chicago when it was, indeed, the baddest part of town. He was…
The Death Railway of Burma I don’t read books any longer (at least not many). I do listen to audiobooks in far greater quantity than I ever read printed books. I can listen to books almost anywhere. I do it when I drive, obviously, but also on my motorcycle, in the hot tub, sitting at my desk doing work, walking around town, during my weekly two-hour therapeutic massage or sometimes just relaxing at home. I…
The Friday Factor It has been a long week. It is almost always a long week. It is a simple fact of life that human being must break up their time on this earth into manageable bites of time. Decades for a career path, years for a marriage, months for a school term, weeks for a task, etc., etc. My favorite GEICO ad is the hump day ad. Someone has decided that the week needs…
Generalist/Specialist Expertise One of the greatest balancing acts I have ever encountered in business is the choice between being a generalist or a specialist. I’m not sure how many people focus on this juxtaposition, but I believe it is a primary choice that every professional must make. Some will suggest that this does not apply to people who choose a specific professional track like medicine or law, but I think this choice exists in almost…
The Hanoi Hilton President Trump is in Hanoi meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jung Un. I’m not sure what hotel he is staying at and I’m sure Hilton would not place a hotel in Hanoi given the historical significance of the prison with the moniker Hanoi Hilton. What I am sure of is that he has no business being there at all. The reasons for this are known to most Americans whether they agree with…