Here is your Five-Bullet Monday, having just come out of quarantine in Australia – Woohoo!
Two quotes I am pondering:
"Of all the titles I've been privileged to have, 'Dad' has always been the best." - Ken Norton
"My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person; he believed in me." - Jim Valvano
Okay, I am getting a little personal this week because I finally reunited with Rebecca after an 18-month COVID-19 induced separation. It's been a long time apart, but our bond is stronger than ever, and I feel incredibly privileged to call such a remarkable person my daughter. These quotes are aspirational for me because I intend to be a better Dad going forward and pour as much love, encouragement and quality time into my kids (now adults lol) as possible, while I can still have one-on-one time with them. Hopefully, if you have kids, these quotes will remind you to spend as much quality time as you possibly can with them, and give them a lot of hugs along the way.
A question I am asking myself:
What did I learn this week, and how am I going to apply those learnings?
I am a frequent mistake-maker, both small and large, and I am sure many of you will relate. There is nothing particularly wrong with making mistakes – after all, that is how we learn the best. The problem arises when we repeat the mistakes, which shows we never really learnt the lesson from the original mistake. This year, I started setting myself a weekend reminder to look back over the previous week and think about the lessons learned and how I might adequately fix the issue in the future. I still repeat mistakes too frequently, but I am working hard to reduce the repetition count.
A book I am reading:
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Catch-22 is a satirical novel set in Italy during World War II. It is a literary masterpiece that is as witty as it is different (the chapters are not in sequence). It is almost as if Heller dropped the manuscripts on the way to the printers, gathered them up randomly and told the typesetter to print them as is, perhaps to make the book more interesting. I heard Chip Wilson (of Lululemon fame) say in an interview that he has read Catch-22 no less than 17 times, and it was the book he most gifted. I am not sure how a 1940's air force uniform morphed into yoga pants, but I say good on you, Chip, it worked! Catch-22 is also how I would describe many reluctant men, who get trapped in Lululemon stores with wives and girlfriends trying to convince them to buy something.
My favourite podcast this week:
FOMO Sapiens – Beware FOMO Investing
FOMO stands for "Fear Of Missing Out" for those that might not know, and FOMO is no more prevalent than in investing. Over the last two years, there has been a trend to gamify investing, led by brokers like Robin Hood and soaring interest in Meme Stocks, like GameStop. Stock market investing in several quarters has stooped to the level of gambling, to the extent that several broking apps feel more like Vegas one-armed bandits than investing tools. In this episode, Patrick McGinnis does a great job explaining what's driving this behaviour and the significant dangers that await people investing, anything more than play money, in the hope of getting rich quick.
My highlights from the prior week
Launching Making Money Work International and getting an incredible response
Last week I offered my Making Money Work International course to friends on Facebook, expecting some response and hoping to get at least five attendees. One week later, we have 20 people signed up and potentially more to come. It has gone from "I hope I get some interest" to "I need to up my game" with everyone attending. It has also given me the incentive to improve the course further and hopefully take it to the next level. I am scheduling the course for Australia, Africa and Europe attendees (early hours of the morning PST), so those in Canada that still want to do it, please hang in there. I will get a Canada version going in October.
My challenge to you for this week
Record your voice on your smartphone and play it back to yourself
I mentioned a few weeks ago that I had signed up for the Roger Love online voice training course. In the course, he recommended recording your voice reading something and then playing it back to yourself. I found the voice memo app on my iPhone and recorded myself speaking, only to hear back a monotone voice that spoke too quickly and mumbled his words together. It was quite a wake-up call, and since then, under the illustrious Roger Love's tutelage, I have been working hard to make my voice more interesting. I encourage you to do the same because our voice is the primary way we communicate. It makes sense to make that vehicle the best it can be, as that can meaningfully help us in our work, business and social relationships.
Have an awesome week
P.S. Next week, I will be adding a segment called Hugh-Tips, not to be confused with Q-Tips 😊. It will be a quick personal finance tip to encourage and help you in your journeys. I wonder if that now makes this publication my Seven-Bullet Monday, given I snuck in my favourite podcast a few weeks ago without changing the title. Seven-bullet sounds like too much reading effort, so let's keep the original title, and it can be our little secret 😉.