Today’s post is a fable about a little boy and a fence. He reminded me of myself when I get impatient with my parents whilst I was growing up. The simplicity of the story drives home a core message, read on to see what it is:
There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the fence. The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily, gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.
Finally the day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.
The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, “You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one.”
Words have the power to hurt as well as to heal. The thing about words is, once said, they cannot be unsaid. As Blair Singer often says, “When emotions are high, intelligence is low.” So, next time, when you are in a state of anger, take a moment to remind yourself of these words, and then choose your response wisely…
Buy when everyone is fearful, sell when everyone is greedy – Warren Buffett
Hey guys & girls, thanks for your emails, texts & calls looking forward to this follow up blog to last week. Here’s the long awaited entry and I’m looking forward to hearing your responses…
The amazing volatility (unpredictable swings) that has been evidenced on the worlds stock markets in recent times has been a continuation of what has become known as the global financial crisis (GFC) since December 2007. It would be fair to say that based on historical data, this is a one in a three generations crash. In other words, we are in the midst of the worst crisis since ‘The Great Depression’ of the 1930’s. There have been many crashes and corrections over time but none has dragged on for as long as this one. In saying this, whilst the majority of investors have been burned and lost a lot of money on the markets, the fact is that we’re now trading at a historically low level which presents us with the opportunity to reap the benefits of buying shares at the low end of the market. As the proverb says ‘One mans gain is another mans loss’…
Think Fantasy Sports. You have a champion player with a proven track record but he is currently cheap value because he had been playing injured and not to his full potential. Now after spending some time out of the game recovering, he returns to the reserves and blitz’s so well that everyone looks and him and yells ‘He is back!!’. Now due to return to the senior side, you know there is a small element of risk in buying him but the possible upside is huge. I’d relate this to the majority of the blue chip shares we know of such as BHP, Rio Tinto and the 4 big banks such as National Australia Bank and Commonwealth. Currently Rio Tinto is trading at more than 60% less than its previous high reached before the crisis started. National Australian Bank is almost half of it’s price four years ago. I could name many more but the fact is that the majority of shares are worth so much less that they were before the crisis started, which indicates that there is substantial value to be made if you invest now because they’re considered ‘bargains’ at their current value. A bit like finding a Sony TV in Costco for $400 less than they were worth a few months previously.
I suspect many people don’t invest because of two reasons. One is because they don’t know which stocks to buy. The other is because they’re fearful of the word ‘risk’.
My philosophy that has worked well for me with picking shares is based on the idea that if a new shop opened up in the street and I thought that it had great potential and it had a unique difference to all its competitors that set it apart. Then it was a good investment. Take Domino’s Pizza for example, when they listed in Australia they were coming off the back off a very successful chain in the United States and had plans for a fast expansion. If you liked the taste of their pizzas and thought their cheap overheads and good looking logo would mean it would be a success, then you’d invest in them. A quick look at the charts shows that you would have more than tripled your investment if you invested 4 years ago when they first listed. Take National Australian Bank (NAB), if you like their current advertising strategy of ‘breaking away from the big banks’ and believe that they have a good business model, then you’d invest in them. You don’t need towatch the business news every night to know how the share markets work. I base my investing philosophy on commonsense more than numbers or anything else.
In terms of risk, yes there is a chance you might lose. But historically shares have proven to be one of the best investments available to the majority of people, particularly if you are seeking a liquid investment (can be cashed up within 3 working days) that has potential for capital growth. If you read one book about investing and the importance of having more money for your retirement read Robert Kiyosaki’s classic ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’… Now that is a great investment.
In order to invest, you don’t need much at all. Joining at www.commsec.com.au is free and some stocks only require a few hundred dollars investment. So next time you read the your daily paper, rather than marvel over the picture of Megan Gale or Miranda Kerr in the ‘celebrity spotter’, flick to the business section and glaze over for any business names that might jump out at you
At the risk of sounding like a spruiker or a salesman above, I must put out my own disclaimer and mention that if I could predict the markets and when it moves perfectly, I wouldn’t be writing this blog, I’d be on my own island watching Seinfeld reruns all day long and drinking coronas with a lime. So all I can say is that based on the charts over time, there is still some very good value to be made. There may still be a lot of volatilty over the short to medium term because the world isn’t sorted out just yet and America still has a long way to go until they’re fully recovered but we’re certainly at the lower end of the market.
This week I thought I would take the opportunity to explore the current economic situation in my own analogies so that those who don’t read business can better understand what is happening and how it affects us… Next week I will follow up with a post about how you can make the most of the current situation and get yourself onto a path to becoming more financially successful.
Remember when you got your first shiny new credit card and a few months later you got a letter from the bank saying that they were happy to raise your credit limit to $7,000 without even asking you about your current assets and debts? Isn’t that outrageous because it gave you a license to spend money that you don’t have. Anyway you get excited and hop onto ebay, spending on things that you shouldn’t be buying and all the sudden you can’t spend anymore because you realise that you’ve reached your $7,000 limit. Determined to get out of debt, you go to the bank and tell them that you have now got a new job and a business idea to get more money so you can pay off your debts however in order to do that you need to be able to borrow more money to fund your idea. So the bank decides to extend your limit to $20,000 and before you know it, you’ve maxed out your new credit limit and have little hope of paying it off on top of the ridiculously high interest rates that the bank is enforcing on you… Well in regards to today’s economic climate, imagine that the entire US economy is an 18 year old teenager, still working in the drive- through at McDonalds and has an $100,000 debt that they must pay back… That is how bad the US market is at the moment…
Imagine you turned on the telly and saw that there was widespread protesting and fear at Burke Street Mall in Melbourne, cars have been flipped over, Myer and David Jones stores have been looted and the police are armed with shields facing the hundreds of angry Australians protesting against the government who have all but ran out of money to support the unemployed, those on pensions and everyone else who have lost alot of their life savings and are looking for someone to blame for their misfortunes… Can’t imagine it? Well that is exactly what is happening over in parts of Greece, Spain, Ireland and Argentina to name a few…
Still asking yourself but what has that got to do with us? Well one thing is for sure and that is that while our beloved country is still in a strong economic position, the past week proved true the old saying ‘When America sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold’. With more fears of America and European countries going broke, the Australian stock market plummeted by almost 5% in one day. To put it into perspective, it would take you almost a year to earn 5% interest on the savings you have in your bank and yet a lot of investors and superannuation funds (your retirement) lost the same percentage in a singleday. I noticed that one of my superannuation funds lost 70% of its value in the last three months. Well I’m thankful that that fund only had money that I earned working for one job over a three month period and that there wasn’t much in there anyway but imagine it was your mum and dad’s superannuation in that fund. 40 years of blood, sweat and tears almost halved in the space of only a number of months… That is precisely one of the major reasons why your parents or those approaching retirement may be working another ten years instead of retiring in the next two years as they had planned to… If overseas economies cannot afford to buy our resources to fund their buildings and plans, the snowball effect is that our workers working in the affected industries may find themselves out of a job, the government then have to allocate unemployment benefits towards those that have been affected, and buildings that were otherwise going to benefit from the governments investments now find themselves without the promised funds which forces them to halt their plans and lay off their own workers. Those workers then can’t afford to go to the shops to buy clothes, thus the retail stores suffers a loss in sales. The snowball effect goes on and on…
In summing up the above, I must point out that the article is entirely my own opinion, I do not have a PhD in economics, I simply have a business degree and enjoy reading about economics and investing.
And to my American friends I have nothing but love for you all…
Don’t forget to read next weeks post about how we can turn a negative into a positive and benefit out of the current situation…
When being introduced to someone do you pay strong attention to what these people’s names are? How many of you, once introduced will be able to tell me what that person’s name was five minutes later? If you’re one of the very few that excels at remembering names, then there is no need to read further as you’ve mastered an important life skill, however if you would like to learn a skill that will impress others, then read on…
Our name is one of those hard wired words in our subconscious like ‘free’ and ‘sex’ which has the intrinsic trigger to get our attention. You are more likely to react and respond to the sound of your name than perhaps the word ‘weather’. Believe me when I say that the ability to remember a person’s name is an incredibly useful skill in social interaction. I still get impressed when people who I’ve met once or twice remember my name upon seeing them and I tend to remember them in an especially warm and friendly light. Even when you’re at a party or in a room where you don’t know many people, just how easier is it to make conversation when you know that person’s name? Tell yourself that as of today, once you’ve heard the person’s name, repeat it to yourself a few times and in your opening conversation make sure you actually say that person’s name a number of times when you’re conversing with them.
Dale Carnegie in his classic self help book ‘How to win friends and influence people’ emphasised the importance of this principal in building relationships ‘a person is more interested in his or her own name than in all the other names on earth put together. Remember that name and call it easily, and you have paid a subtle and very effective compliment. But forget it or misspell it – and you have placed yourself at a sharp disadvantage’
I remember reading about this and decided to put it into practice when I went to work for one of the largest accounting firms in the city. On my first day there I managed to source a list of the people working on my floor so I printed it off and took it home and spent the first two nights memorising each person’s name next to their photo. Then once at work, every time I got introduced or introduced myself to that person, I made sure that I remembered it for the next time I saw them. In the ensuing days, I saw myself mentioning the persons name when saying hello and just about everytime I embraced the passing by collegue, they did not mention my name. After a few days of this, I noticed that more and more people were beginning to use my name. Straight away I knew that they would have had to go to the effort to find out what my name was because they could see that I was making an effort for them. The fact that they had to take the time to find out something about me, all because I was one of the very few new graduates who knew their name was one of the best learning experiences I had in the city. I will continue to use this principal all my life. So promise yourself that you’ll never use the silly excuse of ‘I’m really bad at remembering names’…
‘Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language’ – Dale Carnegie
With the warriors sport of boxing so highly followed all over the world, it is very rare that an Australian rises above them all and is granted a shot at becoming a world champion. This coming Friday the 29th of July, Australian born Billy Dib gets his chance at redemption for his only professional loss and to claim the rights to the IBF World Featherweight Championship belt when he challenges tough Mexican by the name of Jorge Lacierva.
In order to gain some momentum for my blog on the back of my last post, I thought I’d seek out an interview with Billy himself. Therefore I am very grateful that Billy was able to find the time out so close to his upcoming world title shot to answer the few questions that I had. Before we get to it, I must say that when I was thinking about what questions to ask, a thought came to me that there couldn’t possibly be any better feeling in the world than walking down any street in the world and knowing that you’re a world champion. Billy comes across as a gentle soul who wouldn’t hurt a fly, but don’t judge his abilities by his affable nature because it is evident that his destiny to rise to the top is burning so deeply inside him that he will destroy any man who enters the ring and stands in his way.
Thank you for your time Billy. Tell me, why do you box and what do you love about it?
Boxing has been a passion of mine since I first laced up the gloves. I box because it has been a dream of mine since I was about 12 years old to become a World Champion. I love the adrenaline rush that comes with stepping in to the ring and being able to do something I love for a living.
The featherweight limit is 57kilograms, yet you’re 172 cm tall. What weight are you usually around when you’re in between fights?
I never get too heavy in between fights. My walking around weight is somewhere around 61-63kg.
What drives you on to get up in the morning and train hard day in, day out?
I am very lucky to be able to do something I love as a job. The dream of winning World Titles is enough motivation to train hard.
What did you learn from your only loss which came in your first world title shot? And how did it change the way you prepared going forward.
I learnt that I had to be more professional, and to rely solely on myself along with my immediate team. I believe I have become a much more complete fighter since the loss, and the mistakes of the past will not be repeated.
Could you please describe a typical 24 hours in your life whilst in training camp?
I train 3 times a day, and a lot of rest in between the training.
Tell me about your corner/team
My corner is headed by Billy Hussein, who is a wonderful trainer and will be recognised as one of the best in coming years. He is assisted by his brother Hussy Hussein and the cutman, Brian Wilmott. Everyone in the team is comfortable with each other and we have a close connection. I can’t forget the work that my management team, Mike K and my brother Emaid put in to ensure that my career keeps moving forward.
Lastly anything you’d like to say to your fans?
I’d just like to thank you all for the wonderful support and commitment you give every day. I will walk away from this fight as the I.B.F Featherweight World Champion so I encourage you to get out there.
For those on Twitter, follow the great man @BillyDib. For those with some time to kill, here is a recent documentary about Billy and his preparation for his destiny this coming Friday Night.
"You can never conqueror the mountain. You can only conqueror yourself" - James Whittaker
Occasionally people tell me that they’re amazed at how well I communicate with them because they weren’t aware of my hearing impairment. I can tell you right now that it has been a very long road to get to where I am with my hearing these days. So I will share a story with you that initially I found painful to tell, but as time has slowly healed my wounds I feel more comfortable with sharing…
There was a time when I was young and I was sitting around a fire at Rye in the summer with a group of people listening and laughing to the new ‘12th Man’ cassette tape. Around me all the men were rolling around in stitches laughing from the stories being told on the tape however I was unable to hear a single word and all I could do was smile and pretend to laugh, in the hope that I would feel accepted within the group. After a short while, I walked back into my caravan feeling very hurt and angry with myself. I wondered what I had done to be given a bad hand in life… Eventually I had many instances of similar stories like these ones, that even to this day still pains me thinking about how I felt back then… One day my brother seeing me being unhappy made a remark to me that forever changed my attitude. Rather than blame the world and live a life of sadness, I decided that I was going to do something about it…
That milestone day was on the 5th September 2000 (yep I remember the date) when having finally saved $150 from flipping burgers at McDonalds I went and bought myself a radio from Retra Vision and began a journey where just about every night after coming home from school I would listen to my new radio. At first I’d hear a word here and there but not be able know what is going on. After a number of weeks, I started to pick up more words and was able to put together a sentence. Eventually one sentence became two and so on, and then a particularly proud moment that will forever live in my memory bank came when I heard every word of a five minute news update. A big smile came over me when the broadcast was over and I ran out of my room with joy and saw my brother and told him what had happened. From then on, I vowed never to use my impairment as an excuse for not achieving my goals because obstacles are there for you to overcome, not to stop you…
These days I usually do well to follow a talkback radio debate, but still struggle to follow the lyrics of songs that I have never heard of because of the background music. To learn songs these days, I usually have to listen to it and have the lyrics in front of me so I can follow it (kudos to Shazam). Still I’ll never forget how far I’ve come because it only seems like yesterday that I was sitting around that camp fire feeling like I had been hard done by…
And I know that in time, eventually the day will come when I will hear every word to a new song…
This book is like nothing you’ve read nor imagined… This story is to novels, what ‘Fight Club’ was to films… Have I sold it to you yet? Beautiful, read on…
This bizarre true story surrounds the life of Luke Rhinehart, a Doctor of Psychiatry struggling in an unhappy marriage coupled with the daily grind of a dull and boring life, listening to the same clients tell him about the same problems day after day. One night after going to bed at the same time as the previous five nights, Luke realised that his life continued in a routine of the same patterns each day so he decides to search for a more gratifying existence to spice up his life, in which he came upon the use of a dice to use that would randomly decide all of his future moves.
Using the die to decide all his decisions and actions, Luke found himself going to work in alternative modes of transport, eating different foods at different hours of the day, using sex as an option with his clients through his therapy sessions then began to take greater risks as he found a following of members interested to partake in ‘Diceplay’. Fast forward to the end, Luke ultimately left his marriage and his job at the direction of the die and was driven to the point of insanity where he ended up in a psych ward confined to the four walls.
On a personal note, while reading the book it hit me when I realised that I got out of bed at the same time, had a shower in which I started with the soap under my right armpit, followed by eating the same bowl of 5 weet bix with honey, then to brushing my teeth and then walking out the door to work. I realised that I was in a routine and afraid that I would wind up with a boring and unfulfilled life if I continued down this road, so I decided to experience with the dice… Thankfully I only used it on a few minor details and that I eventually woke up and realised that life is what I make of it… So this book was a good experience and I strongly recommend it!
‘Let the dice decide! This is the only path to liberation’ Luke Rhinehart
I’d like to share with you a story that happened nearly eight years ago and even to this day I still cringe just thinking about. On my first plane trip to the mighty US of A, I was reading Donald Trumps ‘The Art of the deal’ and the flight hostess having noticed the book I was reading, told me that I’d be interested to know that Sir Richard Branson just happened to be on the same flight as mine but in business class. I found the news to be awesome and immediately wanted to see if I could get a message passed onto him that there was an eager young kid in the back that was full of admiration for the man himself and that it would make my day if I could approach him and have a chat. Now I wish I could go on to tell you a story that would make your jaw drop however it was not to be because to cut the story short as it turned out, I didn’t grasp the opportunity as I didn’t have the balls to ask or even attempt to sneak into the business class area. Whilst I know that my chances would have been minimal, it is the fact that I didn’t take the opportunity to attempt it that I still wonder what would have happened if I had done so. Maybe we’d have became partners in business and I’d be running ‘Dylan Incorporated’ with all my staff wearing roller blades at work and having monthly midget throwing competitions.. This was a tough lesson but what I learned from it was that if I ever got presented with an opportunity that doesn’t come along very often, then I have to grasp it because chances are I’ll never be on the same plane as the worlds most famous entrepreneur again….
One man who had a profound influence on my life was my uncle Kurt. Prior to marrying my aunt, he had already had an enriched life having done more than anyone could dream of. Kurt became very successful in business and in life, having built his business venture into the biggest uniform manufacturer in the country, then once that time was passed, had a profitable foray into property investing and horse racing. Each moment I spent with him, I cherished because he was full of amazing stories and gave me inspiration to dream big. He had all the time in the world for me, having once told me that he saw a bit of me in himself for my optimism and passion to succeed in life. Late last year he unexpectedly passed away after a short illness and I had a very tough time coming to grips with it because as much as I cherished every moment I spent with him, around the time of his passing I had felt that we were both going to begin a new chapter in life together of him mentoring me throughout many passages. Anyway the point I was hoping to get across is to further emphasise the one I was making in the previous paragraph, if you find yourself with an opportunity to enrich your life, by all means take it, don’t put it off because otherwise you may ask yourself the ‘what if’ questions… (Sir Richard if you’re reading this, please give me a call or contact me and I promise that you won’t regret it!)
‘When I look back now over my life and call to mind what I might have had simply for taking and did not take, my heart is likely to break’ – William Hale White
Looking for a boost? Be sure to turn the sound up and watch this regularly…
I had a dilemma a little while ago when I moved into my current place. My predicament was that I wanted to go around the corner and see an old mate of mine that I hadn’t seen in well over a year but I didn’t have his number to call and see if he was home. My gut instinct was to grab a six pack, walk over to his door and knock, hence the surprise ‘pop in’… My thinking was that if he opened the door and saw an old mate with a six pack of beers, with his handshake ready and the “Hey long time no see fella, lets have some beers and catch up on old times “, he would immediately think I was a legend and invite me in…
However as I was about to embark on this I had a strange thought about the way mobile phones and email has changed the world of meeting people these days. I know many instances of when my friends have complained in the past of someone rocking up to their house to without having sent them a text message to find out if they’re home. Even these days when you’re due for a dentist appointment, you get a reminder text because it is seen as a courtesy and that its irrelevant that you may have jotted it down in your calendar when you made the appointment months ago. Even poping over the fence to ask your neighbours if you can borrow some tomato sauce for dinner because you ran out seems off limits these days… So the question I wonder is this ‘Is the Pop In’ dead?
Check out this link from seinfeld
Are you a fan? I certainly am! So rock up to my house (providing you bring some beer) anytime and I’ll invite you in for a table tennis championship!
The latest talk in the business world in the previous month surrounded the sale of Myspace for $35 million to advertising group Specific Media, only five years after Rupert Murdoch bought it for a whopping $565 million.
The main observation is that Murdoch and his company News Corporation failed to innovate to stop the mass leakage of users to the undisputed king of social network, Facebook. Amazingly it was only two years ago back in May 2009 when the number of users of both networks were dead even at 70 million worldwide and Myspace had been valued as high as $12 billion. Since then, Facebook has ramped up its users levels to over 750million whilst Myspace dropped to 35million. One of the golden rules of business that is so often preached by business titans worldwide is that you must innovate and adapt to change over time or you’ll get caught out like a deer in the headlights. Facebook allowed outside developers to come in and add features to the platform which meant that the users got to experience better and more exciting things over time however Myspace kept the same features and over time it got boring to the point where it was mainly artists and musicians using it as a platform to promote their work. Unfortunately Myspace rebranded themselves four years too late.
I often think that the reason why Facebook and Google are the two most recognisable brands in the online world these days is because they’ve stuck to their roots and knocked back every suitcase of cash thrown at them by the snakes in suits. Many times successful brands have been sold to corporations who then place unrealistic expectations on them and they lose vision, therefore this saga has shown that the best thing Rupert Murdoch and his polo buddies could have done was to leave Myspace alone…
GetUpInTheMorning... 