theBlogOfAlright

  "Clients who haggle over their agency's compensation are looking through the wrong end of the telescope. Instead of trying to shave a few measly cents off the agency's fifteen per cent, they should concentrate on getting more sales results from the eighty-five per cent they spend on time and space. That is where the leverage is. No manufacturer ever got rich by underpaying his agency. Pay peanuts and you get monkeys." — David Ogilvy “Wrong decisions are part of life. Being able to make them work anyway is one of the abilities of those who are successful.” — Warren Buffett “Instead of asking how many tasks you can tackle given your working hours, ask how many you can ditch given what you must do to excel.” — Morten Hansen Poet  Marianne Moore  offers a simple life strategy: "I've made it a principle not to be over-influenced by minor disappointments." Entrepreneur  Sara Blakely,  the founder of Spanx, on failure: "When my brother and I were growing...

 Lessons: A PART OF ALL YOU EARN IS YOURS TO KEEP One must save at least 1/10th of whatever he/she makes in order to become wealthy. One must understand that you must keep a part of what you make in order to become wealthy. SEVEN CURES FOR A LEAN PURSE 1. In order to start fattening your purse, you must start saving - the book suggests saving at least 1/10th of what you make 2. Control Your Expenditures - you must pay yourself first the 1/10th and live off of the rest of the 9/10ths of what you make. The book suggest that you won't even notice saving the 1/10th but if you don't even save the 1/10th then you will likely spend the whole thing. Most people will be able to figure out how to live on 9/10ths of their income with proper budgeting and sticking to that budget. You must always live within your means. 3. Make your savings multiply - After saving, you must invest your savings in order to have your money multiply. The book suggests lending it out at a certain rate so that y...

 I finally understand what Buffett meant when he said you don’t have to swing at every pitch. As individual investors (or non-institutional investors), we don’t have the pressure to perform year-after-year. No one is holding us accountable to return 10% a year - this gives us flexibility to buy or not buy - or i.e. to stay in cash for prolonged periods of time (and perhaps stay in money market). This provides individual investors the option to only swing at the truly great pitches (wait till a stock is convincingly undervalued). Of course, you can go short - but you then fall into the trap of trying to time the market. And as Buffett has also said, the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent. If the market keeps running up because of irrationality - or some other reason - you lose if you are short. So why even take the chance? Why not just stay in cash and be safe, and if the market does tank, that's when you strike/swing the hardest.

If you become overly sad or depressed for no apparently good reason, perhaps the case is that you're thinking about it too much. The antidote maybe be just to accept it and keep moving forward - it's probably not as bad as you think it is? In the words of Marcus Aurelius: "we often suffer more in imagination than in reality". Don't over think it, actually, stop thinking about it if you can, and remember that even this too shall pass one day. Seldom are things that last forever. In fact, cherish what you can of the moment(s) because it likely won't last!

Failing Forward: it means that if at any time you fear of doing something - just say yes - and treat it as a learning lesson or opportunity. Framing is key here. The fact is that if you don't ever try, you will never learn the skills to be good at it and have the confidence to do that thing independently in the future. The counter argument is that you don't intend on acquiring the skills to be good at the thing you want to do. I.e. you don't find any future value in learning and acquiring the skills to be good at the thing you want to do - I.e. You're only going to do this one time.  E.g. I'm only going to go skydiving once in my life so I don't need to be good at skydiving, there's no use in acquiring those skills for the future. However, if you can see yourself doing the thing more than once it even very occasionally, the value in acquiring those skills (DIY) increases (e.g. cooking a good healthy meal).

The book The Most Important Thing by Howard Marks is a book about investing. However, the essence of the moral of the story is this: You cannot be above average by being the consensus. Being the consensus or taking the consensus view you will only become or earn average. In order to be above average you must take the non-consensus view or do non-consensus things... But this is not enough, you must also be RIGHT about your non-consensus view or actions. Taking a non-consensus view or action and being wrong will take you below average. For example: you want to drive to get Downtown. If you want to get there at an average time, then take the average route — the route that everyone else takes. However, the only way you can get there faster than everyone else is if you take the non-consensus route — a hopeful shortcut. However, if you do take the non-consensus route, you also have to be right about it being faster (it better be a shortcut and not a long cut). If you're wrong about the s...

 When Benjamin Graham said:  "the stock market is a voting machine in the short-term, and a weighing machine in the long-term" What did he mean by that? Well, he meant that in the short-term, the stock market (and stock prices) are the result of the collective whims of individuals participating in the stock market (i.e. buyers and sellers), bidding up or down the price of a share or stock. However, in the long-term, the fundamentals of a business - whether the business is profitable, growing, and will continue to grow, ultimately determines a stock's value (or in other words the value of a share in that business). So how does this play out in simple terms? The stock market is a voting machine in the short-term : People don't need to buy things out of reason. Some, or even most of the time, people will buy things because they like them or they feel like buying it. To be quite honest, no one really needs a good reason to do anything. Of course, you want to be rational w...

 A worker should always act has if he/she is an independent contractor, regardless of whether he/she is an independent contractor or employee. You are always in control of your own brand, output, quality of work, and productivity. You must ensure you are providing reasonable output, if not from a direct Profit and Loss perspective, then at least from a Value perspective. Your client must understand or acknowledge that you are worth the cost, time, and effort.

 In the end, all that matters is that you can say you did what you needed to, and then did what you want to. All other things fade away.

Sometimes, stress and anxiety arise from the fact that we do not accept reality for what it is. We have a different idea of what we want or would like reality to be. As a result we're upset, perhaps discouraged, or angry that things should be different. Although easier said than done, all these things seem to slip away once we agree to accept the current state for what it is. I suppose this is the meaning of being present – being not particularly reflective of the past (what has happened) or future (what will happen), just being here and accepting everything for the the way it is right now.

At the end of the road, you too shall be looking at the things you can't and are leaving behind. There will be many things that you cannot take with you. Throughout the centuries, many things have changed but the one truth that has remained in tact is that is that the duration of this life is short. So do what you need to, and then do what you want to. Do not take the opportunities you have now for granted, for one day, it will certainly not be there.

"Entrepreneurs take calculated risks" is a phrase or quote I hear ever so often in sales, entrepreneurship, or business seminars... but the phrase always confused me. At first, I just took it for what it was worth, never really thinking too much about it. But after some pondering, I feel like this word of advice never really gave me any thing concrete to work off of. I mean, what are am I really supposed to get from it? Can any entrepreneurs even explain this to me? Are entrepreneurs out there calculating the risks on Excel Spreadsheets and Monte Carlo models or are they really just using their intuition? (which could be even better than the mathematical models). I feel like it's the latter... so why even use the phrase? First of all, it holds little meaning, and secondly it's confusing. i would say that a majority (now, I said majority , not all) of entrepreneurs out there aren't even doing any real mathematical simulations out there. Let me tell you why this ...

I've never been a gambler, I hate taking risks -- I'm pretty much what you call "risk-averse", and I especially hate taking risks where you know you're going to lose (i.e. betting at the Casino). But sports betting is another beast (kind of). Unlike the Casino where the odds are mostly stacked against you, think a 49% chance of winning as your best bet, Sports Betting is a place where you can place a bet where the chances of winning could be a whopping 99% (equivalent to decimal odds of 1.01). Of course, your payout (or return) for taking such a low risk would be minuscule. A bet of $100 at odds of 1.01 would yield you only $1.00 plus your initial $100 that you put in, for a total return of $101. And this is rightfully so, because the gambling houses would go broke if they paid you any more money for taking such a tiny risk. But here's the fun part, first of all, I'd be more than willing to take a bet with 99% chances of winning any day, given that I...

I would never label myself as a love expert or ever intend to be, but I am interested in the subject and the topic of what makes relationships really last. I've been in several relationships, on numerous dates, read many articles, and have talked to many people about the facets of their relationships and how they really make it work. One rule of thumb is that although opposites usually attract, both  partners need to have the same values. This could mean perspectives on kids, family, friends, other relationships, work, money, and ultimately how each partner sees their life playing out over time. If both partners are set on walking different paths, I think it becomes ever more difficult for each to see eye-to-eye when problems arise; and it's the part where both of you can fight to stick together when the proverbial sh*t hits the fan that will really keep you together. So with that said, below are 5+1 questions that I think you should ask yourself to hypothetically stress-tes...

Life is like 18 holes of golf. You walk through the fairway like you walk through life; enjoying the scenery while you go about carrying out the miserable duties set out. When you make par you congratulate yourself, and when you make eagle you congratulate yourself better. You go from hole to hole, fairway to fairway not necessarily understanding or knowing the grandiose of your actions or of purpose but you go about anyway since that's what ought to be done while on course. Certainly you can play the game they way you wish, as slowly or quickly as one should desire, but those that were before you and those that come after may frown upon the unconformity. Nevertheless, you know where you start and how it ends, how it's played and what's expected, but I suppose what really matters is how much really enjoyed your stay, for 18 holes.

Not often is one able to truly start over, to really sit and reflect on one's life and the future -- especially how one wants their life to play out. Some are absolutely lost when asked the question: what is it that you want? We may have become the culmination of ideologies and expectations of our past influencers: the media, our friends, family, idols, teachers, mentors -- the ones we care about the most. Our thoughts may not even be ours any more. We may have spent such a long time carrying out someone else's expectations of us, who we ought to be and what we should be doing , that we fail to seek our own wants and needs and carry them out for our self-actualization. We get lost in this flurry of expectations, and perhaps our self-imposed responsibility to others, and never get a chance or even have thought about asking what is it that I want for my life? what is it that  I  want for my future? How do I want my life to play out? Yet, the question is almost vital to find...