The best part of the holiday was surprisingly spending some time flying elsewhere to meet up with L's cousin, who is currently managing a 2yr old baby girl with two 5mth old twins. It was a fantastic lesson in the benefits of birth control, and has convinced me there is no rush just yet to sign away my life. Just to illustrate the point, now that we are back in Sharm, I stayed in bed until 10am this morning.
What was most interesting and enjoyable for me however, was the chance to meet with the husband of L's cousin on the evening we stayed. Peter is actually an American from the south, so has a fantastic drawl in his accent, and as I was forewarned, was a 'serial entrepreneur' (a phrase he actually derided as ridiculous as in his opinion if you are an entrepreneur you will continuously set up businesses - he's right of course). In his case, he has set up all manner of businesses in the past, from a restaurant, real estate and haulier businesses, to his current bio-tech company, which is involved in stem cell research.
What was most heartening is that when talking to Peter was that I felt like a kindred spirit - we agreed on absolutely everything, and it made me realise how close my mindset is to that of an entrepreneur. I even outlined at a high level my business idea, which he thinks has a lot of potential - and I think he is the kind of person who would have picked holes and been honest rather than tip-toed around.
As an entrepreneur he was very impressive, and it really was an inspirational, lightbulb discussion for me. Seeing somebody who has gone out there and done it - in his case without a college degree and no background in biochemistry, made me realise there and then that the only way I can avoid being my Boss in 10yrs time is to make this happen. I need to devote significant amounts of what little free time I have towards completing the business plan, I need to oversee the site development, build initial partnerships, revenue streams, and push all this forwards so that when we emerge from the recession I have a site ready to capitalise fully on an inherent need from investors.
Some other good news since I have been away was discovering that two people who were fired from my bank at various points last year have now picked up new jobs. It must be a huge relief for them both, and does illustrate how there are jobs out there, even in these tough times. One has moved out of London and finance, the other is a wily old fox unable to do anything else, who has picked up a role at one of the more successful fund management groups.
Otherwise the deadline regarding GGP and bonds was extended by a week until today to give them more time to confirm or reject the proposed extension to the year-end. Meantime Bill Ackman, head of the activist hedge fund Pershing Square has given another interview reaffirming his belief that controlled bankrupty is the best solution both for GGP and the REIT sector as a whole (given that liquidation would have disastrous ramifications for US commercial property prices).
It was heartening to see that Ackman is pushing to join the board of GGP, as his interests are well aligned with shareholders in increasing value. Here's to a profitable outcome, meantime patience on this prevails.
I'm off now to join L at the pool and then down to the beach. I'm not really a beach or sun person but do this occasionally for her - and have an interesting book called 'The Millionaire Next Door' that Peter left for me when we returned the next morning to say goodbye. It seems to be a detailed analysis of the mindset of the 'average' millionaires in society, who are anything but the flash, opulent 'well to do' living people most would expect - actually it comes as no surprise to me, but then I understand the importance of saving, investing and living below your means. Should help pass a few tedious hours as I try to avoid burning...
No comments:
Post a Comment
I'm always interested in what you have to say, in particular negative opinions so feel free to post an insult or two here. Emerging Investor