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As for the hemp argument...it is absolutely true. I have done several research papers and oral reports on the subject. Forget the legalization of marijuana, the benefits of which pale in comparison to those we could derive from the legalization of hemp. Realize that the most versatile plant the world has ever known is illegal because our politicians are more concerned with their own welfare than that of the American populace.
Thank you Andrew Lahde, it's too bad your lesson will be in vain.
It is a well written and interesting perspective by Andrew which I'm sure conveys publicly a wider feeling in the US and the world. The difference is that some people bottle up this passionate, intelligent thinking whilst others have the edge to stand up and say what they believe. It is the latter that make the difference in the world and no more so than in the current climate.
Looking forward to your posts on investment lessons.
Cheers,
Chris
Thats why I only invest in things i did myself. If its about my money i like to have all the control. Dont like the Idea of other (maybe greedy people) handling my money.
There are many many people across the banking sector who are finally thinking, like this but havent the b*lls (or cash) to leave.
Great post, thanks you
Saving it all up for the big pile at the end leaves you stressed, fat and frankly uninteresting. We get a short time on this planet and I don't think our lives were meant to be lived the way he was living it. If this isn't a shining example of avoiding the deferred life plan- I don't' know what is. Thanks Tim for helping us never have to write that letter. Excuses are over. It's time to live!
Best
Rob
I agree, Canada does benefit greatly from the US buying our oil, lumber, fish, wheat, etc and then really only giving us money and some trinkets in return. The money though, its great.
I would like to create my own company and sell infoproducts. The problem is the following:
How to start? What kind of info can I sell? Should I prepare reports about an specific subjet (f.e. Enterprises social responsability, Cause-related marketing...) and then try to sell my reports in a web site?
I have the tools to work as an infoproduct sales woman but I feel really lost about the way of make it real. Thanks in advance for your advice, Maria
What we need are leaders, not politicians.
Darlene
Oh, and just to make sure credit is given where credit is due: Adam Smith was Scottish, not American. The dearth grows deeper.
Mark
How the hell do we expect the world to be in shape when these are the rules of the game at the core of modern capitalism?
Great letter!
Nate: yeah, sorry but we are quite often laughing at the US... but we wouldn't do it to your face though, we don't want anyone to feel bad.
Taxes do suck up here, and the weather.....and our TV isn't quite and entertaining.
Check out the link for a little recent US/Canada social study.
Cheers
His scorn and hatred for anyone who was lucky enough to come from more advantaged circumstances than his own borders on the pathological. The message would seem to be " I wouldn't have had to clutter up my life chasing money at a job I hated, if only I had been a 'rich kid'."
Moreover, the idea that George Soros is a "great man" who should be the architect of a post-capitalist society is a point of view which is not only bewildering, but laughable. George Soros, who was convicted of insider trading in France. George Soros, who by shorting the British pound for personal gain in 1992, damn near collapsed the entire economy of the U.K. George Soros, whose political vision is to remold America into some sort of Western European "nanny state." Sure, Andrew, let's trade in our exceptionalism for some feel-good mediocrity.
Andrew's screed also tells us by indirection, when he refers blithely to "figures", that his modest retirement requirements are something less than one hundred million dollars.
Andrew is not part of the solution. Andrew is part of the problem. Andrew is a financial predator and a jerk.
Most of the classical liberal economic/political philosophers of the Jeffersonian tradition are involved with the Mises Institute at www.mises.org.
Cheers,
Jose
Indeed, marijuana is illegal because of politicians. But, Anheiser Bush (I think that's how you spell it) is the largest contributor to those who oppose it. The idea is that they are substitutes and if people smoke weed they will not drink Bud. Who knows? They may actually be complements, but AB is probably right to be afraid because weed would be cheaper than beer and have more kick.
John
So please read this article and then take a look at your life what are you going to do to avoid becoming a victim?
PS
The section on the US Government is mind blowing, if the last philosophers, we could trust to watch out for the common man were Thomas Jefferson and Adam Smith, then we are truly screwed.
I El Oh El as I type this. ;]
I think it is important to also look beyond the words "hedge fund manager", hemp, financial markets etc. and look at this as a metaphor of what the corporate world has evolved into or should I say dissolved into.
Many people won`t understand this before it`s too late. (ref. Credit crunch)
It`s sad...I`ll quote Andrew... "I believe there is an answer, but for now the system is clearly broken."
Still we can do alot. Through hard times (Financial and Personal) I believe it is important to REMEMBER to take extra care of yourselves and your closest....as well as contributing to communities that work towards goals you care about and stimulating others to contribute for making changes. The world has never been more potent for making strong communities, the power of technology and web that has removed so many limitations and enables people to speak out with less fear.
Just look at what we did with the Donorschoose project. Yes I say WE because it is extremely important too see yourselves as a part of a community, dedicated to do whatever is in your power to make a impact, allow yourself to take credit for your engagement, It will only give you more energy to reach out even further. Just look at the viral power of the web and communities like this. You can do so much more than you think is possible...if it`s not there...create it...the tools are available...just make a small step and people will be there to help you and support you...Do something! Don`t just sit back and wait for stuff to resolve or "heal". Feeling that you can make a impact together with others is pure Personal Development that takes you to new emotional heights.
I encourage people to respond to my opinions as I don`t claim to be right on all points...and I might be missing some important points here. Empower me and the others here if you care.
Meanwhile....trash your blackberry and enjoy life! Go for a walk and clear your mind...no interruption...
Thanks Tim and Ryan for the article being brought up.
Bendik
High leverage creates enough short-term volatility to wipe you out. As a result, you are constantly anxious, which ruins your health.
To quote Philip Fisher, "conservative investors sleep well." They can also do well, if PF is any indication.
"They will all be forgotten in fifty years anyway. Steve Balmer, Steven Cohen, and Larry Ellison will all be forgotten. I do not understand the legacy thing. Nearly everyone will be forgotten. Give up on leaving your mark. Throw the Blackberry away and enjoy life."
I couldn't agree more.
I commonly think back on the "Unplug from the Media" recommendation made by Tim when I first read 4hww. I've been on a media-fast since high school (20 yrs) when I realized I was far more educated about politics than the legal voters who put a ridiculous man in office. Lately I find myself tuning back to the NPR end of the dial instead of listening to the same old Commercial Alternative singles in heavy rotation.
There's something so compelling about listening to hardcore capitalists sell socialism into an urgent political process. Maybe I just like being right.
On to this public unveiling of the largest economic heist in history. If you choose to remain an American (in North America) and wish to conduct yourself in this economy, I recommend Killing Sacred Cows by Garett Gunderson. http://www.killingsacredcows.com/ It was written before everything went sideways, or at least before the pile swept under the carpet became larger than the carpet, and it's a simple read that dismantles the harmful practices that got us into this mess in the first place.
I prefer to look toward people who's message hasn't changed after all this and to those who have been saying all along, "Follow principles!"
I have a few investment banker friends who are nearly ready to poke their heads out of the sand. I'm hopeful they can have careers after this. I TRULY hope they don't go back to their old ways.
The US has a distinct opportunity right now to review the doctrines we were founded on and correct course to re-adopt the principles that once made us great!
I propose a campaign slogan: "It's better to smoke bud than to drink it."
The end of $1200 per year per taxpayer of support for Israel, a nation whose sole benefit to us is shepherding Middle East oil out the Gulf and through the Suez Canal.
"I propose a campaign slogan: “It’s better to smoke bud than to drink it.”"
Bud could also do another campaign, "Drink Bud with real Buds in it".
Afterall adult beverage companies often cover a lot of vices, look at Altria.
Also, I think hops are in the Canabis family and THC is alcohol soluble at least to some degree. But that would be one potent brew. Talk about "synergy"...
His disgust for the industry he worked in was bearable until he had made more money than most people in this world will ever see or even dream possible. If he was so appalled by the work - why did he not leave much earlier? Perhaps because of his own place in society insecurities and "need" to be a financial winner.
He knew he was part of the machine that contributed to breaking the financial system. But hey, look at all the money to be made, why worry about it? Reminds me of the Enron traders laughing at the economically challenged Californians who would suffer with higher power prices as a result of ruthless behavior in the trading room.
He talks negatively about the rich kids but let´s face it he is of the self-made elite, he is highly intelligent and working in a first world country that allows him to make big money if he wants to sacrifice his health to do so.
Good for him that he can now focus on quality of life.
The big lesson is that we are all connected. Get ahead at the expense of the vast majority of those in society and you´ll find you don´t have much of a society to live in. You´ll be enjoying a high standard of living in a secure compound.
But this post has really helped me to put things in perspective, thanks Tim.
Hasta luego
I'm sure you can found the same kind of reaction in real estate agents even if they are more "useful".
Take a look too all the unemployed traders in London right now ! I recommend reading "The black swan" which is a wonderful enlightment on this stuff.
A bientôt !
It's "amazing" how so many managers, brokers, capitalists etc... are all now feeling sorry for the Lives they have, is it realy because they've seen they're wasting their Lives and hurting other people? or is it because the system colapsed and they can't keep on filling they're million dollars pockets? After making 100 million dollars it's easy to retire and see the light, but this is just a thought...
I am reading your book and wanted to get some love b/c I built a life like you talk about when I started my company. As I have hired staff my life has become 9-5. I would love some support from you since you are all about our ideal lifestyles.
Carenna Willmont
I liked the part about forgetting the legacy. There are some people out there who are so damn concerned about leaving a legacy that they forget to enjoy their own lives. Crazy!
With regard to everything that has happened lately I think it is important people see these as the symptoms and look deeper to see the causes.
If I was American I would have voted for Ron Paul because he is the only person who isn't controlled and bought and speaks sense. He also was greatly influenced by Atlas Shrugged and Ayn Rand who is someone else who I deeply respect.
Until the money supply and The Federal Reserve is completely changed these situations will continue to occur. A perpetually indebted society isn't healthy.
It's kind of like an economic version of "original sin" if you like. Before you even earn anything you already owe money because the Government has to pay interest on it to the Fed.
It is the government that causes nearly all of the problems due to the vested interests and its monopoly on the use of force.
On a somewhat lighter note someone asked about how to sell Infoproducts online.
Here are some good places to get great information:
http://WarriorForum.com
http://Income.com/blog
http://Gurumastermind.com/blog
Hope this helps!
Best Wishes
Kenneth
The problem with the stock market is that it has been destroyed by the hedge funds.
The idea of investing in companies via stocks is a very good one in theory, but in practice what we are seeing now in practice are "trading moves" and a series of artificially created and deflated bubbles.
When the markets swing 800 points in one day, and the media says this is due to investors, that is not true. Hedge funds are not investors, they are trading operations.
I spent one year trading and did very well, but it was too unreal so I got out. I think that is also reflected in the letter you published.
I learned that money is both real and unreal at the same time. But after having got sucked into trading, I no longer believe in the stock market.
Look forward to reading your thoughts on investing.
David
WTF?!? This douche bag took advantage of people, got rich doing so, and now wants to spend his time getting high. Capitalism isn't the problem...guys like this are.
This is not that interesting--while a nice screed against the "status quo", it also belies a stunning lake of comprehension regarding how interconnected this whole mess is. I wonder how ambivalent Mr. Lahde would be if his own personal safety were at stake. As Mr. Bill Gates once said, its not enough to have $50 billion. Others around me must be happy as well.
I am not shocked at such an attitude, i.e. "The money was reward enough." This seems to sum up much of this movement...become as rich as possible and then turn the mirror toward others to show themselves how shallow they are. Unfortunately I see this all too often on this site, Tim. I applaud your efforts to move toward something more substantive in terms of truer forms of happiness through self-giving and discovery.
RAM
@Tim - You have a large readership, and you clearly aim to help them as much as you can. I don't think you're going to figure out investing in a matter of weeks or months. If you go back and read my previous comments on your blog (especially on Picking Warren's brain), you may find that I can be helpful on the topic of investing.
I've been helping people grow their wealth outside of the stock market for the past 7 years. I own the world's only full service self directed retirement plan provider, and I offer an open invitation for you to contact me to discuss working together on a blog post or mutual interview.
There is so much to do or to contribute on this planet that does not revolve around feeling important or omnipotent or competitively driven. Unfortunately, it's not the systems (ie Capitalism) we design but who we are as humans. And only the truly self-actualized will have that epiphany and the courage to strike out into a new direction.
This reminds me of one of the best movies I have ever seen - Network, where they say, "I am mad as hell, and I am not going to take it anymore." An excellent, but scary adaption of what the world has become - only it was filmed 30 years ago!
Very often the idea of walking away from a career is seen as a bad thing. I think lifestyle will continue to grow as a reason why people make a switch.
If he has though, I'd be interested to see what kind of education he thinks is fit for them.
In Boston and NY next week. Fancy a bottle of wine, when around, Tim?
Best,
M
I'm glad this guy (and his hate) are out of the business. I think we need more people like him to retire so we can restore some healthy competition to the economy.
The problem isn't Capitalism or greed - it is the Government. The Government needs to be restricted - not the people.
As to the constant struggle to obtain and keep material wealth, I to, at age 51, have decided that the constant hamster-like lifestyle was killing me, and have decided to jump off! Since we know that death is ceratin, and time of death is uncertain, and we cannot take anything material with us when we die, WHY do we spend so much time pursuing such illusory objects?
Cheers
Jose
The related point is that it is no longer capitalism. Capitlism is about people creating value with capital. Not about enriching yourself through stock trading, which is just a transfer of wealth (tax) from the middle class (401Ks) to those ontop the pyramid.
As a Canadian now living in the US, I can tell you that the "horrendous" taxes pretty much even out after even moderate health care costs. Sure if you're living on your own and young you may be better off in the US. But for working, middle-class families, the cost of taxes + health care insurance + medicare ends up very close to the cost of taxes in Canada.
Of course, in Canada, everyone is covered (not just 50%) and bankruptcies due to medical conditions are dramatically lower.
Lets also talk about "wait times" as a metric. Waiting sure is annoying, but aren't we really worried about the amount people who receive timely care and the amount of people who survive medical emergencies?
And yes, the author is right, Canadians do a lot of laughing at the silly things that happen in the US.
LOL, yes we are. :-)
No system is perfect.
Capitalism does have it's flaws, but it is dictated by the masses. If something falls out of favor within a capitalist society, it goes away. People pull their money out and put it somewhere else. It will have down turns and hardships, but all in all it is fairly flexible. If people are stealing money or taking advantage of others they will eventually get caught and prosecuted.
Governments are a whole other animal. They are dictated by the few. Yes we vote Reps into office, but then they have full control along with the special interests. Once they start to grow the govt they never stop. The govt will continue to consume and want more and more from the taxpayers. It is a never ending cycle that will eventually grow to the point of collapse, ie USSR. And when corruption happens, hardly anyone goes to jail.
I will always side with capitalism because it give more individuals the freedom to do what they want. Stop relying on govt to fix your lives, they will fail every time.
Good Luck,
Dana
Smart people converted their housing flips to cash and CD's and just took the 6% a year. They are riding pretty high right now. Those who flipped a property and then took their earnings and tried to flip 2 more properties are the ones who are foreclosing today. Just got a little bit too greedy, and a lot of them already had their "earnings" spent and could not imagine that those home prices would ever stop continuing to rise. They were simpy bad investors. However, they can just bail themselves out by foreclosing. It's rather easy to foreclose. You just stop paying. Then the bank owns the home and then it's a real problem for the bank because these homes they now own are worth a lot less than the 10 huge home loans that they just gave to 10 other people to purchase more "flip" properties. But most of the banks got bailed out too, and the resiliency of these banks is suprising on some level. It's the investment banks that got hurt the most as they bought security instruments that represented many, many of these foreclosed mortgages. Some of the investment banks got bailed out too as the Fed realized that some level of investment banking is vital, and hopefully the current Fed and their successors will remember the lesson of too-low interest rates and overspeculation by the large investment banks.
The real winners in all this were the ones who had actually lived in their homes for 20 years and sold it at the peak of the housing bubble. Most of them had no intention of flipping a house or even knew what that was. Instead they simply bought a nicer house with their massive earnings and hopefully put most of it in their down payment or kept it in savings accounts or CD's. If they put it in stock, I would tell them to hold onto it and ride it out if they can. The market will be up in another 3 years and roaring in another 5-7 years as the psychology shifts and the very real cash and industrial production that is still out there is transferred back to the stock market in a grueling, trickling fashion. True 5-7 years is a long time, but it's inevitable. When all the world markets are down 60-70%, there is bound to be a huge comeback on the horizon. Look around you. The X-box 360's and Nintendo Wii's and Playstation 3's aren't going away and mankind will continue to move forward and innovate. This lesson of history has been shown several times before and as long as people are working hard and being productive then it will happen again. So remember, mini-retirements are fine, but overall, in your life, we need everyone out there working their ass off to create and build the world around us. It's not good to say that Steve Ballmer and Larry Eliison are stupid because they are out there creating and marketing software and they work really hard. The power grid uses that software and so do many of the city services. My job uses that software and it's on the computer in my house. Most likely guys like Ballmer and Ellison love their jobs, and I'm glad they do. I don't think the goal should be to "drop out", but instead the goal should be to find a job that you like to do and try to add to society by doing it well.
The author was a hedge fund manager. I wonder if he has ever created anything?
As for hemp. Smoke it.
p.s. This guy is a real class act. What kind of arrogant bastard says "Fuck You" to the whole world?
Did merchants of these goods feel already the smell of smoke?
The smoke of her burning - a sweet savor unto Lord.
* Deficit spending is a subsidy to the rich.
* Keynesian economics is all about keeping us running on the rat race. The ideal economy should have unemployed resources -- another name for wealth!
*Pay as you go Social Security is a way of keeping the working class from owning the means of production.
* The Federal Reserve system assists the privately owned banks in their ongoing game of Chicken with the economy.
* The tax code encourages excessive leverage on the part of homeowners and corporations.
There is always a time after the years of stress that we think of reducing hours and living off what we have. Unless you enjoy it, why spend all of your time on it? I look forward to exciting new prospects, and I know there are many out there that share that feeling. Life is meant to be lived. We have to be careful not to get caught up in "working just to work". Again, as always, 4HWW spells it out just right.
Why the need to attack people who went to elite schools? Why tell the whole world--presumably including your friends and co-workers who helped you on the way up--that you'll not be responding to them any longer.
And he doesn't want to do any deals? Ever again? Sounds boring.
For a better example of how to sail off into the sunset with grace, see Lucky or Smart by Bo Peabody. He made $500 million as the founder of Tripod, was smart enough to realize he was very lucky, sold out, and then wrote a book to help other people understand when they've gotten lucky and should cash-in.
"Lucky or Smart?" by Bo Peabody is great. Fast read and highly recommended. There is something to be said for timing, but I admire people who can admit the role that pure luck plays in a lot of huge successes. Chance and fortune (in the Seneca sense) are always a factor.
Good suggestion,
Tim
My congratulations for this great success & fame that you are recieving thru your book 4HWW.
This is a really well designed blog and i wanted to know if you can give me some tips on making such a blog and which blog service are you using?
Thanks
You should be able to create a blog with a similar feel to it with wordpress. You will need a hosted version (not the free wordpress blog from wordpress.com) that you can put on a server, and either purchase, build, or download a free template for the blog.
My website was done from a wordpress template, (click on my name to see it) and turned out very well.
I agree this 4hww blog looks great, and is quite comfortable to navigate.
It seems no matter what your view if you hang onto it long enough you will be lucky or smart. Getting out when you should just isn't possible for most of us unless we are really lucky or smart.
Rick