Rich Snail

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I just finished reading The Brand Called You written in 1997 by Tom Peters, and I have to say: I am blown away ! This article is piece of art which contains so many nuggets of wisdom I don’t know where to begin !

I actually read it 3 times. The first was a discovery. The second was to extract more honey out of it. The third was to decide which were the parts inspired me the most so that I can quote them hereunder.

I highly, highly advise you to go and read this gem and save it, bookmark it, delicious it, share it… The 3 quotes hereunder are teasers. They are great nuggets of wisdom taken individually. But the full article hold so much more !

Everything you do and are defines your brand

When you’re promoting brand You, everything you do — and everything you choose not to do — communicates the value and character of the brand. Everything from the way you handle phone conversations to the email messages you send to the way you conduct business in a meeting is part of the larger message you’re sending about your brand.

Loyalty is key - at least if you understand its re-definition

Today loyalty is the only thing that matters. But it isn’t blind loyalty to the company. It’s loyalty to your colleagues, loyalty to your team, loyalty to your project, loyalty to your customers, and loyalty to yourself. I see it as a much deeper sense of loyalty than mindless loyalty to the Company Z logo.

4 points to check to be successful

No matter what you’re doing today, there are four things you’ve got to measure yourself against. First, you’ve got to be a great teammate and a supportive colleague. Second, you’ve got to be an exceptional expert at something that has real value. Third, you’ve got to be a broad-gauged visionary — a leader, a teacher, a farsighted “imagineer.” Fourth, you’ve got to be a businessperson — you’ve got to be obsessed with pragmatic outcomes.

I started this blog with the idea to “help individuals with their personal finance, and of course learn many new things along the way”. I waited quite while before writting my first line because of “too much thinking, hesitating and procrastinating”. Reading back on these lines I realize that I set myself obstacles from the start !

I am now back to the starting line in terms of what do I want to do with this blog. I tried for a few months to get it going on the subject of personal finance, with a twist towards expatriates; but I have difficulties getting in front of the keyboard as often as I intended to - and feel guilty because of it. At times I simply don’t know what to write, at others I want to write about many many things, but which are not what this blog was created for.

I think I started with too high and focused objectives. I think I simply need to start my blog. Not one about personal finance, or SEO, or the latest digital wonders. A blog where I can come and write a few things when I want to, without setting myself obligations, where I would not hesitate one second to post 3 succeeding posts from the economist (yes, I’m still a fanboy!). A blog without a precise focus, where I can write everything that goes through my mind - if I feel like writing !

I am not sure this URL is the right one for such a blog. I may switch to a new domain name along the way; but for now, I’ll stick with it and see how things evolve.

I promise myself I’ll not think too much and simply get writing.

Sounds like a great idea right now !

Busy weeks are following busy weeks lately. I just finished catching up with some of the reading I saved over the past few weeks & came across this “acorn” of wisdom on bull & bear markets. It is an extract from Howard Marks’ most recent memo to his Oaktree investors on March 18, 2008.

Fortunately, one of the most valuable lessons of my career came in the early 1970s, when I learned about the three stages of a bull market:

1. When a few forward-looking people begin to believe things will get better,
2. When most investors realize improvement is actually underway, and
3. When everyone’s sure things will get better forever.

To aid in your consideration of the future, I’ve formulated the converse of the above, the three stages of a bear market:

1. When just a few prudent investors recognize that, despite the prevailing bullishness, things won’t always be rosy
2. When most investors recognize things are deteriorating
3. When everyone’s convinced things can only get worse

We surely are not in a bull market right now. If I were to guess where we are, I would say in the second phase of a bearish market. Which in my view is good - time to start searching for cheap but fundamentally sound markets !

With oil prices hitting new high every day, many Americans are starting to re-consider their SUV, Hummers, and other oil-thirsty cars. Some Indians find another way to solve this problem. The Financial Times has a very interesting article on how the current rising food and energy prices give a second life to traditional transportation “vehicles”.

“It’s excellent for the camel population if the price of oil continues to go up because demand for camels will also go up,” says Ilse Köhler-Rollefson of the League for Pastoral Peoples and Endogenous Livestock Development. “Two years ago, a camel cost little more than a goat, which is nothing. The price has since trebled.”…

Market prices for these “ships of the desert”, which crashed with the growing affordability of motorised transport, are rising again as oil prices soar. A sturdy male with a life expectancy of 60-80 years now fetches up to Rs40,000 ($973), compared to Rs5,000-Rs10,000 three years ago, according to Hanuwant Singh of the Lokhit Pashu-Palak Sansthan, a non-profit welfare organisation for livestock keepers. Entry-level tractors cost around $4,000.

“It’s very good news,” says Mr Singh, whose organisation aims to dispel the image of backwardness associated with camel ownership and tries to promote higher economic returns for breeders. “We had started to see camels, even female ones, being slaughtered for their meat. Now they are replacing the tractor again.”

Funny how things turn out for our spitting friends. Instead of being eaten because of rising food prices, they are now seen as a viable alternative to tractors - despite rising food prices.