Last night we rewatched a 2024 movie that we had seen, but which must not have left much of an impression on me since I was intrigued by the snippet of Prime that advertised it. The movie is called Lonely Planet and its about some people that go off to a writer’s retreat in Morocco. One of the attendees is Liam Hemsworth, younger brother of actor Chris. He is not a writer, but rather a private equity guy who is accompanying a writer. The dynamic that develops is one where Hemsworth is considered “arm candy” by the other writers since he is both good looking and knows little about the literary world that so engrosses the other attendees. The impression one gets is of a group of intellectual elites that are self-absorbed and feel superior in their ivory tower esoteric arena and a guy who feels totally out of place and is going through his own struggles with the ethics of his chosen profession. Hemsworth fits the image we have of an ex-jock who’s physique and physical presence make them valuable business salespeople who’s enviable sports prowess make them someone others enjoy having in their coterie of acquaintances. Of course, that is a gross stereotype to accommodate a movie script, but it does have its basis in reality.
When I was running Bear Stearns Asset Management, we hired a guy by the name of Dave Silk who was a famous hockey player who played on the 1980 Olympic Hockey Team, which is the team that won the gold medal in Lake Placid and that’s when he became one of the stars of the movie, Miracle. If you look closely at the end of the movie (made by Disney in 2004) when they give the credits for Dave Silk, they mention that he is now an institutional money management salesman for BSAM. They stop short of telling the viewership that I was the CEO of BSAM at the time, which is totally understandable. I spent some time on the road with Dave supporting his sales effort as business leaders usually do. It gave me a window of sorts of the patterns of an ex-sports-star-turned-businessperson in the money management business. Perhaps because many of these Olympic hockey players who played with Silk were from the Boston area and Boston is so focused on the money management business, I noted during the movie credits that many of his brethren were doing exactly as he was, selling money management services. Having been in the game for many years, I think I can say with some assurance that there is only minimal skill involved in money management sales. You do have to understand the product dynamics and a bit about the market, but mostly you have to be a hail-fellow-well-met. For those of you who don’t know that expression, it means excessive familiarity and the dictionary says it was first used in 1851. Then in 1589, the writer Thomas Nashe described the expression as a “collation of contraries”, since well met was positive and welcoming, while hail fellow could be two-faced and false. As confusing as that all sounds, what I mean is that Dave Silk was a pleasant fellow with lots of interesting sports stories to tell and asset allocators (the purchasing managers of the business) like to give money to people who are pleasant and tell good sports stories.
When Liam Hemsworth leaves the group of writers to wander the streets of Morocco, he befriends one of the bigger name female writers who is less caught up in the writer’s clique. Naturally the relationship that developed between them goes from casual to serious as they are both disaffected in their love lives. Then, everything changes for them when a kid steals her bag and her computer with it. That computer has two years worth of otherwise un-backed-up writing of a novel she has in process. She gets upset and immediately blames their attempt at a relationship for the loss. He tries to calm her down and tells her about how in his football playing days, when things got all fouled up, he would pull out the stops and deploy a swing route. He explains that a swing route is a passing pattern in football where a running back or receiver starts in the backfield and “swings” out toward the sideline, running parallel to the line of scrimmage. This creates a short, high-percentage passing option for the quarterback. The running back typically takes a few steps forward first, then arcs out to the flat area (the space between the sideline and the numbers). This movement can be effective for many reasons including because it creates a mismatch against slower linebackers, works well against zone coverage since defenders have to cross the field to make a play, and basically opens up many different options to the offense to get some momentum going in the game in their direction. This route is a staple in many offensive playbooks since it’s relatively simple to execute and can generate positive yardage at the moment when they need it most.
When I heard this line and learned a bit about the swing route (I am by no means a football aficionado, so this was all new to me), it occurred to me that we all need a swing route in life. In business we used to call this a Plan B, but that doesn’t quite mean the same thing. A Plan B is by its very nature an inferior approach to get around some obstacle. It seems that a swing route is far better because it is an optimist’s version of a Plan B and if you believe in the power of positive thinking (which I do) you want optimism to come to your rescue at your time of need. Without it, things start to feel desperate and probably go nowhere good.
We are a week from the inauguration of Donald Trump as our new president. Tonight, as I drove back home from the airport (I dropped our friend Chris at the airport for his redeye flight home after our motorcycle ride), I was listening to the update on the Los Angeles fires, which are still not over, especially since there is an expected increase in the winds tomorrow which could easily translate into more tragic loss of structures and lives. For the first time I heard that these L.A. fires may well represent the largest natural disaster in the history of the country. That’s pretty big, given all of the hurricanes and prior wildfires and earthquakes that have befallen the country. They interviewed Gavin Newsom, the governor of California on Meet The Press and asked him if he had any concern about President-Elect Trump’s inference that he may or may not approve federal funds for the afflicted areas and people of L.A.. He cited the proven experience of Trump’s actions against California and Puerto Rico during his first term where he initially refused aid after their disasters due to what he felt was their not voting for him. He went on to say that he had every reason to be concerned. He then went on to say that since California is the largest economy in the U.S. and the fifth largest economy in the world, it had the needed resources to step in with whatever the federal government should refuse to provide.
As soon as I heard that I thought that Newsom just ran the perfect swing route around Trump and for some inexplicable reason, I felt better already.