Life is like an onion. A progression of layers peeling away to reveal something new, usually to our embarrassment. Dicoveries often turn beliefs on their head.
One of my thickest layers was shed during a workshop on the French Riviera. It was 2006, a day before the annual gathering of Hedge Fund managers. The sponsors felt I’d benefit by rubbing shoulders with these Masters of the Universe before the conference proper began. They were right.
The workshop was run by a short-sighted, Levi’s-and-loafer-wearing New Yorker of Lebanese extraction. He called himself Nassim. Full name Nicholas Nassim Taleb.
A self-described financial activist, he already enjoyed cult-like following among “hedgies” because of his best-selling book, Fooled by Randomness. Taleb was later to acquire mainstram fame after The Black Swan predicted the Financial Meltdown few others expected. But even in 2006, he didn’t lack confidence in his convictions.
Looking back at my notes is instructive. They include “feeling like an ancient Briton being exposed by a Cicero speech on philosophy”.
Overawed. Out of my depth. Confused by a genius who sprouted about fractals and a Gaussian world. It was the steepest of learning curves. But as the message sunk in, it produced an appreciation that working hard just gets you into the game.
Success, Taleb teaches, is often a function of good fortune rather than brilliance. Lady Luck randomly allocates her favours. Holding onto the consequences of her largesse is where the true skill lies.
A few weeks ago, I had breakfast with the boss of one of SA’s top companies. As one does, we got talking about business and his view of the world. And the competitors – the ones on top and those who just cannot get out of their way.
Taleb’s writing helps us appreciate the role of randomness in climbing the ladder. My breakfast partner provided a reminder that staying there requires another under-appreciated quality: Reflection. The importance of being able to stop and think. Because without doing so, it’s easy to forget how you got there in the first place.
Our speeded-up world is full of those who act at lightning speed. People who believe opportunity only knocks once. And when it does, the door needs to be smashed open.
Some describe them as entrepreneurs, but in reality they are opportunists. They grab any golden monkey that passes. Without considering the consequences.
The head of a media company once told me how her sales team were encouraged to embark on what she described as drive-by muggings. New potential customers were quoted outrageous rates. In their ignorance, some signed. Innocent lambs being fleeced. The profit margins were handsome. And although such customers never returned, she wasn’t overtly concerned, because there were plenty more where they came from.
There is a similar approach by many in the hospitality sector. Call a hotel reservations service and you’ll hear the “rack rate”. A price is often double that charged to corporate customers. Is it any wonder Air BnB is gaining momentum? As are its equivalents for other off-line industries where a similar attitude prevails.
The biggest problem with the high-speed, opportunistic approach is the way it fools the beneficiary. Human beings are given to self-absoption. And self-justification. Only through honest reflection do the vagarities of Lady Luck become exposed.
A man gifted millions simply because he was in the right place at the right time (with the right tone of skin) can hardly be blamed for losing perspective. If money can be transferred so easily by fearful executives and ignorant shareholders, why not grab more of it?
Reflection produced the humility required to understand reality. Providing a reminder that for 99.9% of mankind, wealth creation is slow and difficult. A process of sacrifice. Of thinking rather than doing. Appreciating life is more like a five-day test than a T20 slog slog fest.
Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffet, who built his company from a near-bankrupt textiles business into the fifth most valuable corporation in the US, puts it best:
“I insist on a lot of time being spent, almost every day, to just sit and think. That is very uncommon in American business. I read and think. So I do more reading and thinking, and make less impulse decisions than most people in business. I do it because I like this kind of life.”
At 83, the ever-reflective Buffett says he tap dances to work every day, doing what he likes because he tends to be better at those things. And he studiously avoids working with anyone who churns his stomach. I wonder how many of those married to the wham-bam-thank-you-ma’m approach are able to say the same?
* Alec Hogg is the founder and publisher of Biznews.com. He presents Power Lunch daily at noon on CNBC Africa.
** This article was first published in The Comet, BrightRock’s e-zine for policyholders.
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