In this week's Five Good Questions, we're interviewing Bogumil Baranowski about his book Money, Life, Family.
Bogumil K. Baranowski is a New York City-based investment professional with almost fifteen years of experience. He is a founding partner of Sicart Associates, a boutique investment firm catering to families and entrepreneurs on both sides of the Atlantic and the Pacific. He is the author of Outsmarting the Crowd and a TEDx Speaker ("The Great Investor in You"). Bogumil greatly enjoys speaking about investing and family wealth around the world. He likes to say that he was born Polish, grew up European only to become American later on. In his free time, he reads, writes, flies single-engine propeller planes, scuba dives around the globe, and sails.
Five Good Questions:
1. How have your early life experiences shaped you as an investor?
2. What are the three types of “remote” we need to live a good life and be a successful investor?
3. Warren Buffett has a quote that he’s a better businessman because he’s an investor and a better investor because he’s a businessman. What do you think of the idea that you’re a better investor because you’re a traveler, and a better traveler because you’re an investor?
4. What are some of your best tips for insulating against the noise of the news cycle and financial markets?
5. Most family wealth was built from a severe lack of diversification. How much diversification is necessary to maintain wealth?
The Hikecast is a show where interesting people take me on their favorite hikes or walks and we talk about big ideas in an unconstrained format. No planned agendas, just deep conversations, recorded out in nature.
The idea is for you to put on The Hikecast and get outside to simulate taking a hike with us. I want you to feel like you're there with us out in nature.
Care to join us on a hike? :)
My guest for this episode is Bill Brewster. Bill is a research analyst at Sullimar Capital Group. After getting a degree in Finance and Accounting from Auburn University, he got a law degree from Loyola. Bill ran a flooring franchise from 2007-2009 and worked as a credit analyst for BMO Harris Bank.
We went for a brisk morning walk in Virginia. Please enjoy this hike cast with Bill Brewster.
*********************
Also, please check out my first literary effort: The Rebel Allocator
It’s a coming-of-age story of a young man who learns about business and life from an unlikely teacher. Imagine The Karate Kid meets Thorndike’s The Outsiders. You’re right, it’s probably not what you were expecting, but I have my fingers crossed that you’ll really enjoy it. It's available on amazon now in print, digital, and audiobook formats.
With gratitude,
Jake
Alan Klement helps individuals, teams, and companies become great at making and selling products that people will buy. His own experience as an entrepreneur helps make him effective at helping others. He is the author of When Coffee and Kale Compete.
Five Good Questions
Robert Greifeld is the former CEO and Chairman of Nasdaq, Inc.
He is currently Chairman of Virtu Financial, a leading financial technology and trading firm, Managing Partner and Co-Founder at Cornerstone Investment Capital, a financial technology investment firm, and a Board Member at Capital Rock and Financeware. Bob is Chairman and Founder of USATF Foundation, an organization dedicated to supporting both athletes from disadvantaged backgrounds and our next generation of Olympians. Bob also serves on the NYU Stern Board of Overseers.
Five Good Questions:
The Hikecast is a show where interesting people take me on their favorite hikes or walks and we talk about big ideas in an unconstrained format. No planned agendas, just deep conversations, recorded out in nature.
The idea is for you to put on The Hikecast and get outside to simulate taking a hike with us. I want you to feel like you're there with us out in nature.
Care to join us on a hike? :)
My guest for this episode is Nyle Bayer. Nyle is the Chief Marketing Officer at Helios Quantitative Research (HQR), an investment research company which assists financial advisors in creating, implementing, and monitoring quantitative investment strategies for their clients and boasts over $20 billion in assets under influence. Previous to his work at Helios, Nyle served as the President of Up Capital Management, a Registered Investment Advisor and he is the founder of Financial Time Traveler, a financial media company. Nyle is a father of three children, and lives in Roseville, CA with his wife Nicole.
We went for an awesome hike in the Sierra Nevadas.
Please enjoy this hikecast with Nyle Bayer.
*********************
Also, please check out my first literary effort: The Rebel Allocator
It’s a coming-of-age story of a young man who learns about business and life from an unlikely teacher. Imagine The Karate Kid meets Thorndike’s The Outsiders. You’re right, it’s probably not what you were expecting, but I have my fingers crossed that you’ll really enjoy it. It's available on amazon now in print, digital, and audiobook formats.
With gratitude,
Jake
Jon Vroman is a husband and father, who also happens to be the founder of FrontRowDads.com and host of the Front Row Dads podcast. His mission is to help high-performing entrepreneurial men be family men with businesses, not businessmen with families. In addition to his business and family, Jon founded FrontRowFoundation.org in 2005, a charity that creates unforgettable moments for individuals who are braving life-threatening illnesses. Ten years later, he published The Front Row Factor, to share “everything you can learn about living life from those fighting for it.”
Five Good Questions:
1. What inspired you to found the Front Row Foundation and what lessons has it taught you about your own life?
2. The modern world is full of stress--how have you made friends with stress?
3. How do you balance achievement and fulfillment? (Or is that a false paradigm?)
4. What are some tips for making more and better moments? Where are most of us going wrong?
5. It seems like you’ve done a great job to minimize the big life regrets. Yet recognizing that getting regret to zero might be impossible, what do you think could still be lingering for you personally when your time is up?
In this week's Five Good Questions, we're interviewing Lord John Browne about his book Make, Think, Imagine.
John Browne trained as an engineer, was CEO of BP from 1995 to 2007 and remains an influential leader in the energy business. He is Chairman of the Crick Institute, a Fellow of the Royal Society, past President of the Royal Academy of Engineering and former Chairman of Tate. He is a collector of antique books and art and the author of four previous books, including The Glass Closet: Why Coming Out is Good Business.
Five Good Questions:
1. Do you have a sense that much of cutting edge technology relies on intervention into complex, nonlinear systems and fattens the probability tails of undesirable outcomes? Said more simply, does technology invite more black swans?
2. What’s the one new tech on the horizon that you’re most excited for?
3. How was the stirrup such a powerful invention and what does it tell us about the future of technology?
4. How did gunpowder ironically lead to greater peace in the world?
5. Investors like Warren Buffett have borrowed the engineering principle of margin of safety for their investment processes. What’s another concept from engineering that might also be useful for us?
In this week's Five Good Questions, we're interviewing Mark Simpson about his book Excellent Investing.
Mark is a UK-based deep value investor and author with over 15 years of experience investing in individual securities. He writes about finding sources of edge in the market, investor psychology, avoiding investment mistakes and building better portfolios.
Five Good Questions
1. Why do you think the microcap space is inefficient, and how much less efficient is it?
2. Wes Gray has this concept called the “God Portfolio.” What is it and what does it mean to knowing yourself as an investor?
3. What are your thoughts on averaging down when a stock you own drops in price? What are assassins, hunters, and rabbits in this context?
4. A percentage of the Kelly Criterion (½ Kelly or ⅓ Kelly) are popular upper limits for position sizing. What are lower limits and why are they important?
5. What do oxytocin and empathy have to do with story stocks?
In this week's Five Good Questions, we're interviewing Maya Peterson about her book Early Bird.
https://amzn.to/2FUuQWM
Maya Peterson is a current high school student who values the power of investing young, so she wrote a book about it called "Early Bird: The Power of Investing Young" and works to educate those around her about the power of compounding with talks and workshops.
Five Good Questions:
1. Where did your passion for investing come from and what inspired you to write a book at such a young age?
2. What are three of your best tips for young investors?
3. Where do you see yourself in ten years?
4. How did you develop a relationship with the Motley Fool?
5. What are some of the dangers of a Peter Lynch-inspired “buy-what-you-know” investment strategy?
In this week's Five Good Questions, we're interviewing Gautam Baid about his book The Joys of Compounding.
Gautam Baid is Portfolio Manager at Summit Global Investments, an SEC-registered investment advisor based out of Salt Lake City, Utah. Previously, he served at the Mumbai, London, and Hong Kong offices of Citigroup and Deutsche Bank as Senior Analyst in their investment banking teams. Gautam’s views and opinions have been published on various forums in print, digital, and social media. In 2018, He was profiled in Morningstar’s Learn From The Masters series.
Five Good Questions:
1. In your book, you state that “I am a better investor because I am a lifelong learner, and I am a better lifelong learner because I am an investor.” Why is continuous learning so important in investing?
2. What does the equation [Ego = 1 / Knowledge] mean?
3. How has minimalism improved your investment process?
4. Given the increase in the rate of change of business, is there cause for concern about the durability of moats?
5. How do you balance high conviction with maintaining mental flexibility?
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by Gautam Baid are solely his own and do not reflect the views of Summit Global Investments. Any recommendations, examples, or other mentions of specific investments or investment opportunities of any kind are strictly provided for informational and educational purposes and do NOT constitute an offering or solicitation, nor should any material herein be construed as investment advice.
In this week's Five Good Questions, we're interviewing Ashley Goodall about his book Nine Lies About Work.
Ashley Goodall is an executive, leadership expert, and author. He currently serves as the Senior Vice President of Leadership and Team Intelligence (LTI) at Cisco, a new organization he has built to focus entirely on serving teams and team leaders. He is the co-author, with Marcus Buckingham, of Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World and of two cover stories in the Harvard Business Review.
1. In your book you state that culture is a “shared fiction” and similar to plumage. What do you mean by that and what are “we” vs. “me” experiences at work?
2. What’s wrong with management by objectives (MBOs), SMART goals, and Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) that are widely used?
3. What can Lionel Messi teach us about employees?
4. What do “red threads” have to do with work-life balance?
5. As an investor, what are some outside clues that could indicate a good culture exists in a company we might want to invest in? How do we really know?
In this week's Five Good Questions, we're interviewing Brandon Miller about his book, Play to Their Strengths.
Brandon Miller is a certified Strengths Coach through the Gallup Organization and has been coaching and training strengths for over fifteen years. He is CEO of 34 Strong Inc, an employee engagement and strengths-based development consultancy.
Five Good Questions:
1. Could you explain the equation “Talent x Investment = Strength”?
2. We always tell children they can be anything they want to be if they work hard. I was surprised when you called that a lie. Why is that common idea wrong?
3. In your book, you talk about the before and after picture of your family, what has changed and how do you measure success?
4. What’s the “positive sandwich” with respect to punishment?
5. What’s the most common mistake parents make, and a possible solution?
The Hikecast is a show where interesting people take me on their favorite hikes or walks and we talk about big ideas in an unconstrained format. No planned agendas, just deep conversations, recorded out in nature.
The idea is for you to put on The Hikecast and get outside to simulate taking a hike with us. I want you to feel like you're there with us out in nature.
Care to join us on a hike? :)
My guest for this episode is Bogumil Baranowski. Bogie is a founding partner at Sicart and Associates and previously worked at Tocqueville Asset Management. He's the author of the book Outsmarting the Crowd.
We went for a beautiful walk in Central Park in NYC.
*********************
Also, please check out my first literary effort: The Rebel Allocator
It’s a coming-of-age story of a young man who learns about business and life from an unlikely teacher. Imagine The Karate Kid meets Thorndike’s The Outsiders. You’re right, it’s probably not what you were expecting, but I have my fingers crossed that you’ll really enjoy it. It's available on amazon now in print, digital, and audiobook formats.
With gratitude,
Jake
In this week's Five Good Questions, we're interviewing Barbara Tversky about her book Mind in Motion.
Barbara Tversky has three degrees in cognitive psychology at the University of Michigan. She moved to Israel with Israeli husband, learned the language & culture, taught, fought wars, and had 3 kids. Then she was on to Stanford to research memory, categorization, spatial thinking & language, design, diagrams, event cognition. Her kids grew up, her husband died, and she moved to Columbia Teachers College, adding research on gesture, art, creativity, and joint action.
Five Good Questions:
1. What are mirror neurons and how do they unite seeing and doing?
2. How do we use spatial reasoning to navigate the world?
3. What is the first law of cognition and what are some examples to help us understand?
4. What makes maps so miraculous?
5. How can insights of your research help investors and professional decision-makers be more effective?
And make sure you pick up your copy of the Rebel Allocator, available now on Amazon in digital, physical, and audiobook formats!
In this week's Five Good Questions, we're interviewing Mark Moffett about his book, The Human Swarm.
Mark Moffett is a tropical biologist and explorer known for finding rare species and behavior in remote places. His research has extended from the architecture of rainforest canopies to the behavior of army ants. For the last six years he has been merging psychology and anthropology to investigate the role of social identity in holding societies together across species and in humans up to the present day.
Five Good Questions
1. What is so remarkable about being able to walk into a modern day coffee shop?
2. What can ants, with their 250k neurons, teach us about human societies?
3. Can we ever get rid of societies?
4. Is it possible the psychological bias known as the “endowment effect” is an artifact of our avoiding violent territorial conflicts?
5. Tell us a funny or surprising anecdote about E.O. Wilson.
And make sure you pick up your copy of the Rebel Allocator, available now on Amazon in digital, physical, and audiobook formats!
The Hikecast is a show where interesting people take me on their favorite hikes or walks and we talk about big ideas in an unconstrained format. No planned agendas, just deep conversations, recorded out in nature.
The idea is for you to put on The Hikecast and get outside to simulate taking a hike with us. I want you to feel like you're there with us out in nature.
Care to join us on a hike? :)
My guest for this episode is Dan Sheehan. Dan is the general partner of Sheehan Associates Limited Partnership, an investment partnership created in 1999. Dan has a degree in economics from McMaster and an MBA from York.
We went on a chilly hike in Toronto.
Please enjoy this hikecast with Dan Sheehan.
*********************
Also, please check out my first literary effort: The Rebel Allocator
It’s a coming-of-age story of a young man who learns about business and life from an unlikely teacher. Imagine The Karate Kid meets Thorndike’s The Outsiders. You’re right, it’s probably not what you were expecting, but I have my fingers crossed that you’ll really enjoy it. It's available on amazon now in print, digital, and audiobook formats.
With gratitude,
Jake
In this week's Five Good Questions, we're interviewing Betsy Atkins about her book Be Board Ready.
Betsy Atkins is a 3-time CEO, serial entrepreneur & Founder of Baja Corp. Betsy is a corporate governance expert with an eye for making boards a competitive asset. Her corporate board experience is vast and covers multiple industries, she has served on over 27 public boards and been through 13 IPOs.
Five Good Questions (PART 2):
1. What should you look for when selecting board members?
2. How can you get the most out of your board?
3. How do you "future proof" your board?
4. From an investor’s perspective, what does a healthy board look like from the outside?
5. What’s the biggest mistake you see management make with board interactions?
And make sure you pick up your copy of the Rebel Allocator, available now on Amazon in both digital and physical formats!
In this week's Five Good Questions, we're interviewing Betsy Atkins about her book Be Board Ready.
Betsy Atkins is a 3-time CEO, serial entrepreneur & Founder of Baja Corp. Betsy is a corporate governance expert with an eye for making boards a competitive asset. Her corporate board experience is vast and covers multiple industries, she has served on over 27 public boards and been through 13 IPOs.
Five Good Questions (PART 1):
1. What is the best way to get on a board?
2. What are the right or wrong reasons for someone to want to be on a board?
3. What makes for an effective board member?
4. What role do activist investors play?
5. What’s the biggest mistake you see first time board members make?
And make sure you pick up your copy of the Rebel Allocator, available now on Amazon in both digital and physical formats!
In this week's Five Good Questions, we're interviewing Josh Miller about his book I Call Bullsh*t.
Josh is a Master Certified Executive Coach and a creative leader in the personal and professional development field. His career experience spanned both the advertising world and the world of organizational development. In advertising, he was the Creative Lead. He was responsible for the campaign strategy for Fortune 100 brands. Today, he is an innovator, developing and supporting executive development and change management for many of the same companies.
Five Good Questions:
1. You carry a fortune cookie around with you in your wallet. What does it say, and what is the significance?
2. What does it mean to you to live an authentic, happy life?
3. How do we separate out what we want versus what society tells us we’re supposed to want?
4. How do we keep a groove in life from becoming a rut?
5. If you could waive a magic wand and solve one small problem that you see tripping people up, what would you fix?
And make sure you pick up your copy of the Rebel Allocator, available now on Amazon in both digital and physical formats!
The Hikecast is a show where interesting people take me on their favorite hikes or walks and we talk about big ideas in an unconstrained format. No planned agendas, just deep conversations, recorded out in nature.
The idea is for you to put on The Hikecast and get outside to simulate taking a hike with us. I want you to feel like you're there with us out in nature.
Care to join us on a hike? :)
My guest for this episode is Tobias Carlisle. Toby is principal at Acquirers Funds, LLC, and serves as chief investment officer. He is best known as the author of Acquirer's Multiple, Deep Value, Quantitative Value, and Concentrated Investing. He has extensive experience in investment management, business valuation, public company corporate governance, and corporate law.
We went on a blustery morning hike in Southern California.
Please enjoy this hikecast with Toby Carlisle.
*********************
Also, pick up a copy of my first literary effort: The Rebel Allocator.
It’s a coming-of-age story of a young man who learns about business and life from an unlikely teacher. Imagine The Karate Kid meets Thorndike’s The Outsiders. You’re right, it’s probably not what you were expecting, but I have my fingers crossed that you’ll really enjoy it. It's available on amazon now in both print and digital formats.
With gratitude,
Jake
In this week's Five Good Questions, we're interviewing Danielle Town about her book Invested.
Danielle Town is a New York Times bestselling author and corporate attorney who was afraid of stock markets until she realized she had been abdicating the power of her money and could create impactful generational wealth with an investing practice. She now invests and writes her newsletter, The Invested Practice, from Zurich, Switzerland. She wrote her book, Invested, with her investor father, Phil Town, with whom she also banters about value investing and life on their podcast, InvestED.
Five Good Questions:
1. What kept you from learning about investing until you were in your mid-30s, despite having a dad who is a value investor? How did “voting with your money” draw you into learning about investing and help you overcome your fears?
2. I’ve long been fascinated by the “intangibles” of the investment process, like time management, mental and physical preparation, and environmental design. How did you curate your investment environment for success?
3. As a corporate attorney, you got a firsthand view of the asymmetry of information between what gets reported and what’s really happening in the messy world of business. How do you reconcile that in your analysis of a public company where that same asymmetry may exist?
4. Charlie Munger recently said, “If you have trouble finding good investments, join the club… my advice to the seeker of high compound interest is to reduce your expectations. Things are likely to be tough for a while.” My impression was that your dad might have piqued your interest in investing by showing you the magic of compounding returns. Do you think the returns of the last 20-30 years be available to us over the next 20-30 years?
5. How has your background in meditation helped you in investing?
And make sure you pick up your copy of the Rebel Allocator, available now on Amazon in both digital and physical formats!
In this week's Five Good Questions, we're interviewing Kenneth Jeffrey Marshall about his book Good Stocks Cheap.
Kenneth Jeffrey Marshall teaches value investing at the Stockholm School of Economics in Sweden, and at Stanford University. He also teaches asset management at UC Berkeley. A longtime value investor, he wrote the book Good Stocks Cheap: Value Investing with Confidence for a Lifetime of Stock Market Outperformance. He holds a BA in Economics from UCLA; and an MBA from Harvard.
Five Good Questions:
1. Can you walk us through how you built your investing model? I especially liked your ideas that organize efforts around “Know what to do,” “Do it,” and “Don’t do anything else.”
2. Your book demonstrates a clear understanding of accounting. Has the rise of intangibles changed how you use and interpret financial statements?
3. There have been some great studies and white papers on reversion to the mean on returns on invested capital. Do those influence your evaluation of strategic assessment? Are we ever going to see profit margins mean revert again?
4. One of the biases you identify is called “miscontrast.” Can you explain what that is? Do you consider yourself an absolute or relative value investor? (It feels like a lot of the 13F ideas I’ve kicked the tires on the last few years during an expensive market suffer from this biases.)
5. What are the ancillary, non-monetary benefits you’ve found to being an investor?
And make sure you pick up your copy of the Rebel Allocator, available now on Amazon in both digital and physical formats!
The Hikecast is a show where interesting people take me on their favorite hikes or walks and we talk about big ideas in an unconstrained format. No planned agendas, just deep conversations, recorded out in nature.
The idea is for you to put on The Hikecast and get outside to simulate taking a hike with us. I want you to feel like you're there with us out in nature.
Care to join us on a hike? :)
My guest for this episode is Kim House. Kim has been an ordained Zen Buddhist Teacher since 2008. When not leading meditation and guiding students with their mindfulness practice, he works as an information technology consultant specializing in helping non-profits. Kim lives in Wisconsin in the warmer months with his wife. In the winter months Kim is often at his son and daughter-in-law's retreat center (floretreatcenter.org) in Uvita, Costa Rica. Kim helps with meditation at the many yoga and wellness retreats held at Flo.
We went on a balmy afternoon hike near Uvita, Costa Rica.
Please enjoy this hikecast with Kim House.
*********************
Also, I'm announcing the release of my first literary effort: The Rebel Allocator
It’s a coming-of-age story of a young man who learns about business and life from an unlikely teacher. Imagine The Karate Kid meets Thorndike’s The Outsiders. You’re right, it’s probably not what you were expecting, but I have my fingers crossed that you’ll really enjoy it. It's available on amazon now in both print and digital formats.
With gratitude,
Jake
In this week's Five Good Questions, we're interviewing Brent Beshore about his new book, The Messy Marketplace.
Brent is the founder and CEO of adventur.es, a family of companies that acquires family-owned companies. He recently published “The Messy Marketplace: Selling Your Business in a World of Imperfect Buyers” and lives in Columbia, MO with his wife and three daughters.
Five Good Questions:
1. There’s a tremendous amount of information that needs to be sorted through before a buyer can get comfortable purchasing an entire business. What percentage of information do you shoot for before making that final decision?
2. Like any investment, you often have to pay up for quality. What’s your thought process as you balance the quality of the business versus your purchase price?
3. How do you assess capital allocation skills in a small business?
4. What’s the most preventable deal breaker you see sellers making on a regular basis? What about buyers?
5. After analyzing more than 10,000 deals, what’s been the craziest clause you’ve ever seen in a contract?
And make sure you pick up your copy of the Rebel Allocator, available now on Amazon in both digital and physical formats!
In this week's Five Good Questions, we're interviewing James Clear about his book Atomic Habits.
James is an author, entrepreneur, and photographer. He writes about habits and human potential on his website JamesClear.com. His focus is self-improvement that is supported by scientific research. James’s work ends up being one-part storytelling, one-part academic research, one-part personal experimentation.
Five Good Questions:
1. What makes being thoughtful about our habits so important?
2. What are a few best practices for good habit hygiene?
3. What habit would you guess is a commonality among great investors? Or maybe, we should invert and ask what are the bad habits of investing? I’m imagining checking stock prices too often has to be up there?
4. Is there a dark side to habits? Is it possible that too much structure can sap away spontaneity, joie de vivre, and being present?
5. What’s the one bad habit that’s been hardest for you to personally break?