And Again

Not eating or sleeping properly can catch up on you. Short-term resilience can hide the long-term damage you are doing to your endurance. 

You need to deal with the patterns of ups and downs and recognise natural rhythms respectfully. Your body is a vehicle that allows you to think clearly. You won’t be able to still the waves of your thoughts if your body is crying out. 

Niggles, knots in your muscles, and points of tension are what stop you from doing what you should be doing. That is when scarcity of attention kicks in. You get big, muscular, sportsmen coming into yoga classes, who (forget touching their toes) can hardly brush their teeth because of the size of their distorted biceps. 

You need awareness of how everything is connected, and to regularly move in a way that reminds your body of its options and tools. It’s a long-term game. Real wealth, and real meaning, gets created through commitment and consistency. 

A long timeframe shifts your reality. Single decisions get taken in context of their broad framing. Instead of all your energy being sucked into one choice with life-or-death outcomes. Where getting it wrong is debilitatingly frightening. Endurance is the bedrock for the confidence to be creative. 

It has to be okay to be wrong, because being wrong is the only way to learn. Endurance is your ability to be wrong... and still be able to try again. And again. And again.

Bedrock

Time and Effort

If you are living hand-to-mouth, you have no option but to solve the immediate problems in the way you are most confident works. 

Building space, to take knocks (Short Term - Resilience) and give you confidence that sufficient time is available (Long Term – Endurance), allows you to look at problems differently. You can afford to try something different. 

This is the capacity that allows firms, countries, and people to invest in research and development. To allocate money to potential. Most people are looking for quick fixes and easy solutions. The higher your required rate of return, the shorter the time frame that is considered. 

One of the strongest competitive advantages you can have is willingness and capacity to commit to obvious, but hard, challenges. Where everyone knows the answer, but it is too much effort. 

Like getting fit and eating healthily. The further down the road the payoff for effort is, the more support you need till that pay off arrives. 

Most of us know how to run, and have done since we were kids. Few of us have run marathons because of the hours of training and effort required. A lot of people just don’t want to run marathons. Some want to. Theoretically. Maybe. Probably not. 

A common skill many Olympians share is the capacity to not have to earn money during the time they are training. Time and effort are significant barriers.

Time and Effort

to overcome barriers

Last Resort

The idea of a “Lender of Last Resort” (LOLR) brings harsh focus to the importance of liquidity. Price isn’t value. If you have stuff no one wants, the price is zero. It doesn’t matter what it is. It doesn’t matter how much you think it is worth in normal times. If you don’t have the capacity to reach normal times. The price may even be negative. You may have to pay someone to take something with long term value from you, because you simply have no option. There is nothing as dangerous as having no options. The role of LOLR is played by Governments or Central Banks. Selectively and inconsistently. Lending to institutions they don’t want to fail when no one else will. The Bank of Mom and Dad plays this role for many surface level risk takers. For the majority of people, there is no last resort. There is no one to step in. They are their own last line of defence. Risk is deeply personal.

Engine and Vehicle

Don’t put good ideas on a pedestal. A good idea is just an intended destination. To get there, you need an Engine (Capital) and a Vehicle (Container). Fundamental Investing recognises that just because something is a good idea doesn’t mean it will be a good investment. A strong company needs a strong Balance Sheet and control of their Cash Flows. Meaning they need to be both solvent and liquid. To survive the long term, their assets need to be worth more than their liabilities. To survive the short term, their liquid assets (easily available) need to be more than their immediate obligations (payable now). A company with assets that are theoretically valuable may be forced to sell them for far less than they are worth if they have short term obligations that are impatient. The same is true for individuals as is true for good businesses. What you do, isn’t the only thing that matters. Your Engine matters. Your Vehicle matters. Step back. It isn’t just activity that counts. Work on the foundations and the environment in which you create meaning. Create space. Create time. Then create.

Good Ideas need Engines and Vehicles

Basic Flexibility

One noticeable difference as a Soutie is how get togethers are organised in my UK bubble relative to my SA bubble. Down South… Nice weather? Braai? Everyone magically arrives with meat and drinks. Up North… enter the logistic nightmare of matching up calendars. Add a month to when the event can occur for every additional person invited. Planning too far ahead means full calendars swallow you whole. Inflexibility is contagious. Financial Flexibility is similar. The more fixed, recurring expenses you have, the less you can adapt and adjust to the weather. If you spend too far ahead. More isn’t the core goal of Financial Security. The Foundation should be very aware of the expenses over which you don’t have control. Which are short-term, regular, and insistent. Again, the lack of flexibility to cover the basics when storms hit is contagious. If we don’t all have the basics covered, it becomes difficult to see people.