“Apologies in advance if I seem unfair,” he said. I smiled, curious. “Your ideas seem, well, consensus, unoriginal.” Nice way to start a conversation. So I apologized in advance if what I was about to ask seemed unfair, “Is it possible to deploy such a large pool of capital to people who invest only in original ideas?” He smiled. There’s no such thing as an original idea. Einstein’s theory of special relativity is th

“Always despised this day,” I said fifteen times. “Distilling a year of my life to a single number made me feel cheap,” I continued, starting each bonus conversation. “In my twenties and thirties, my perspective was narrow. I thought the bonus was my compensation. But at 49, having endured ups and downs, good luck and bad, I’ve discovered real compensation comes in the form of opportunity. Because with opportunity co

“Do or do not, there is no try,” said Draghi to the mirror, psyching himself up for the press conference. “Judge me by my size, do you?” continued the European Central Bank’s most powerful Star Wars fanatic, refining his intonation, drawing inspiration from Yoda’s words. “Fear is the path to the dark side.” Draghi fell back in his chair, weary, worn thin by the Empire’s unrelenting assaults. No sooner had he launched

Hope all goes well… “I’m just going to warm them up in my mouth,” said Charlie, blanketed in his first blizzard, cheeks red, cramming ten fingers into his gob. “Works great,” I think he said, but can’t be certain. He’d insisted pajama bottoms were plenty warm for sledding. Why bother arguing? He declined my offer of mittens. I smiled, shrugged, happy to let him learn. Wolfie and Shackleton bounded, tails wagging, cha

Hope all goes well… “Capital preservation time,” whispered Vice, sitting on his chair, atop the world’s highest heap of private wealth management moolah. “Advisors are fighting back tears.” The S&P 500 closed last year -0.8%, supported by a handful of big stocks. But diversified portfolios were down closer to 5%. Then the S&P fell 8% in 2 weeks. “For three years clients bought every dip. Then they bought the

“Skill, luck, human frailty,” said the captain, describing the fundamentals of our sport. “Investing is a learned skill, not a born one.” A born skill, like high-jumping, can be improved upon, but only marginally. A learned skill can be advanced without limit. “British cycling is an extraordinary story about transforming ordinary into brilliant with a series of small incremental changes.” Quality coaching, slight imp

“Ground Control to Major Tom, Ground Control to Major Tom, take your protein pills and put your helmet on.” David Bowie, Space Oddity, creative genius, R.I.P. “10-9-8-7-6 commencing countdown, engines on, 5-4-3-2, check ignition, 1. Blastoff. And may God’s love be with you.” Inspired by raw ambition, our Apollo mission. “This is Ground Control to Major Tom, you’ve really made the grade, and the papers want to know wh

Hope all goes well… “Was work ok today?” asked Olivia, my 12yr old. “Good day, why do you ask?” I replied. “Well, for one, Chinese stocks went nuts,” she said. “How’d you know that?” I laughed, stunned, Greenwich. “Homeroom. We listen to news.” So I asked what else? “Brazil has a new disease carried by mosquitos that causes birth defects.” When it rains it pours. “The fight between Iran and Saudi Arabia got worse. Th

“I don’t speak Japanese, I barely speak English,” said the shark, circling Japan. “It’s anti-cultural to ask the things I ask, and be in your face, so it’s helpful I’m full gaijin.” Abe announced a policy to shake up corporate governance a couple years ago. My buddy smelled blood. And redirected his investment activities to shareholder activism. “Corporations went from being overleveraged in 1990 to over-capitalized

“Quit sneaking cigarettes, improve my Elvis impersonation, build more islands, suppress volatility,” said Xi Jinping to himself, completing his New Year’s resolutions. Hapless Beijing bureaucrats executed a flawless Chinese fire drill; introducing market controls, abolishing them, circling the car, ending where they started, driving stocks down 9.9%. “Learn to Twitter-tweet on the World Wide Web, remember my children