Posts from — August 2008

Direction. Inspiration. Momentum.

People that know me know that I like to boil things down to their simplest aspects.  It might be because I’m slow or not quite as smart as the rest of us out there, but that’s not the point.  Direction, inspiration, and motivation as I see it, are the three things I need everyday to succeed.  You might disagree, and want to talk about being prepared and planning and all the rest of the things people tend to focus on.   To me, that’s missing the forest for the trees.  To clarify, here is a bit about each point.

The first aspect, Direction, is fairly simple.  There is no middle when you are working regardless of whether its for you or for someone else.  Business (and life for that matter) is full of choices.  You need to meet those choices head on, pick a direction and start moving.  The beauty in this strategy is that you can ALWAYS redirect yourself at a later point to adjust.  Your not just “stuck” going down a path.  Picking a direction just trains you to get moving.  The importance of this can’t be overlooked.

Inspiration is another straightforward thing, albeit a bit tougher to define.  We all need good reasons to get things done.  For me its more than good pay, although that is of utmost importance to make sure it is in line.  There needs to be someone or something getting you excited about what you are doing.  You might be making a widget that 1 person in the world will use, but if you FEEL inspired to make that widget then it will be made with extreme intensity and care.  Inspiration is around every corner and can be simple as a conversation with someone, or it can be as complex as complete this project and you might have a monetary bonus involved.  Finding ways to inspire should be on your list of things to accomplish if you want to be a leader instead of a follower.

Momentum is the final piece of the puzzle for me.  There are lots of reasons why I save this for last but it all really comes down to a single aspect.  Once you’ve picked your direction and gotten inspired, completing tasks will “feel” easier.  And with each completed item, you’ll get more and more excited seeing that finish line getting closer and closer.  It’s infectious.  It’s the part of the puzzle that when you look at your watch you can’t believe that 5 hours have passed.  That’s momentum.  Complete disregard for other things and serene focus.

In my mind, all three of these items need the other’s to succeed.  It’s not easy either.  Its work to get the first going, put the second in place, and then follow up with the third, but getting them to work together will all but seal the deal in a successful project.

So contact me. Talk to me about why I’m wrong.  Who knows, you might pick a side, find some encouragement, and start getting things done at an alarming rate.

If this question isn’t the most popular of all time, it has to be close: “How is your job going?”.

Inevitably the kosher answer to this question is, “It’s going good”.

Rarely do you get the outlier event of a person telling you how much they LOVE what they are doing.  And if they do tell you that, they probably are a bit disillusioned about what they are doing and their impact outside of their 4 walls.  (Don’t get me wrong here, there are people that are in this camp that are making a difference. They are also higher burnout candidates. People that will be crashing hard in several years.).  A bit more often you will get the other side of the coin.  It’s the people that tell you they really are having a hard time with their job.  They don’t like it for a myriad of reasons.

The boring “It’s going good” is something I try to avoid.  I’m always taking a side with such a question. Incidentally, it’s probably why my friends think I am a bit TOO opinionated.  Having an opinion is interesting. Being in the middle is easy.

So back to my central point.  If you are in the middle ask yourself “why?”.  What is it about your job that you find incredibly interesting.  What is it you DON’T like.

There is a really easy barometer for this if you have a hard time sorting those two things out. Do you easily forget details about aspects of your job?  Those are probably the things you don’t like.  The things you have to CONSTANTLY remind yourself of.  Write that stuff down and keep a list of it.  Don’t worry you probably already do. You have reminders set up to tell yourself to do it because you won’t naturally want or REMEMBER to.  That will make up your list of things to look for as negatives in your next career move.

This is just some quick and simple personal career and goal planning advice that I try to follow. It can really help immensely, because making career decisions is incredibly hard on either side of the “How is your job going?” question.  Being armed with REAL QUALITATIVE information will be fruitful.

There isn’t a more frustrating thing in the world than dealing with management that doesn’t get it.  I know everyone fundamentally has some issue with someone in power at work above them, whether its their direct manager or being out of tune with someone above that lives in the clouds.

It’s only natural. It is like some crazy class system that has been adopted for capitalism.  It kind of makes sense to me, but the lines are getting super blurry as knowledge workers are starting to make up the lions share of the workforce in America.  The difference in skill sets between managers and their minions is getting ever so small.

So what are companies missing?  Why is it always tough to find good people, especially in middle management?

To me it’s simple.  Find people that others WANT TO FOLLOW.  It is a very natural thing for some people to lead. Its a whole different skill set than understanding technology or process or the rest of the underlying business principles.  Those are the skill sets that can be taught.  Having the ability to get others to WANT to follow you IS NOT.

I don’t care if someone has been at a company for 10 years and they work really super hard, and glow in the dark because they are so smart.  It DOES NOT translate into managing teams of people.  You are constantly going to be fighting resistance in these situations because in reality, you have never been a leader.  You have never been able to get several people going in the right direction and hitting on all cylinders and communicating. It’s a really hard thing to accomplish, don’t get me wrong, I do understand that.

So next time you are thinking that a person deserves to be managing because they are really good at their job, step back and give them a huge deserving raise to keep them around.  Take a hard look at them and see if people WANT to follow that person.  OR are they just BETTER at their job than others which deserves merit, but in a whole different way than promoting into managing.

In a world of never-ending lists, I figured why not make one of my own?  I am pretty sure, in the next 5-10 years, all writing whether it be factual or fictional will just be pages of lists.  That way everyone can read the first couple points on each page, make an incorrect inference, and form an opinion that misses the point of the list.  But I digress…

So for MY list, I wanted to lay out 4 concepts I am currently actively following while trading.  These are just loose concepts that help me follow some rules when I am making plays.  And yes it’s beginner crap, but its still stuff I didn’t know when I started adding portfolio positions.

1. Average INTO your positions. I used to just blanket plop down an allotted amount on a particular play, which is really dumb when you think about it. Averaging into a position helps smooth out that crazy volatility that you fight daily.  It also lets you think about whether your making a smart play if the primary or any other trend goes against you before you’ve put your chips in that basket.

2. Monitor your portfolio beta. If you don’t know what Beta is, look it up and learn about it.  Its simple to understand. Its a correlation of sorts to the S&P500 (really whatever underlying you want). If the S&P is going up or down, how is your money going to react.  REALLY helps you understand where you might be on a daily basis by taking a quick glance at the SPY.

3. Speculate smartly. It’s sort of an oxymoron to say something like that, but it’s important. Start to watch how stocks react to events. Ask yourself twice (or 3 times) if you want to go along with the trend of what the crowd is betting on.  I have been burned many a time on this.  Just overall be smart and play low limits when making these bets, that’s all I can say.

4. Sell insurance. I’m at the fledgeling point of my career in this, but I have added it as a tennant of my portfolio.  I have shaved off about 20% of my money to put to work in selling index spreads with defined risk. Its a complicated topic, but there is much to be gained by getting into this game.  It adds an income stream of some sort by collecting premiums from those that are hedging bets. No better way to define it.

So there you go, some of my stock trading principles. Be waiting with baited breath for my next list.