The ups and downs of an investor
Some days are good and some days are not so good as an investor. Each weekend I take a look back at the week that I had. The days are always packed which is a very good thing. Meeting new people, meeting with investments that I am already in, having board meetings and always spending a little down time out of the work life and more in the personal life. All good.
I bumped into my friend and fellow investor this week and I said to him "today was such a great day". Everything was just good. Great meetings with many companies that seemed to be on an upward trajectory and making progress. New meetings with new possibilities.
The life of an investor definitely has its ups and down. All ups would certainly be delightful but obviously impossible. There are so many bumps on the road and a bit like a rollercoaster but the highs are seriously one of the best feelings ever.
Comments (Archived):
I guess it goes the same for those invested… 😀
absolutely
I think investors probably learn a whole lot more than most about different personalities and human nature.On a very unrelated note, have you heard about virtual piggy? Just heard about it yesterday (may be old news–didn’t do much digging) and loved the idea. It reminded me of so many of your posts about how you taught your kids to budget, and figured Id mention, on the off chance that you would find t interesting and haven’t heard about it yet–also two women on the team.
have not. will take a look.
So true for investors and entrepreneurs. Last year I had one week in particular when I received devastating news, and it was such a crushing weight to bear. The next day changed the possibilities, and it was a high I’d never experienced before.
a roller coaster. can be daily sometimes hourly
With a roller coaster, at least you know that it will end well and where its going to stop. For entrepreneurs and investors, in addition to the usual rides up and down, the end is not clear either! I am having one of those days! :))
True true. We all hope it ends with a great landing!
True, but with a roller coaster, we aren’t in control of the ride at all; we’re completely dependent on the abilities of the team who built the rollercoaster and the guy operating it. One of the things I love about being an entrepreneur is that I am still partially in control of what happens in my company even when things go really south. I get to work with my team and my investors to decide the next part of the ride. Some things are obviously out of our control as entrepreneurs, but we do have the significant advantage of being in control of our reactions – and that can make the difference of success or failure.
So true
Love the photo!
“Some days are good and some days are not so good as an investor.” Same for an entrepreneur! Maybe even a bit more so. What matters more is going through those rough moments, and typically I say to myself, there’s got to be another better day around the corner.I want to win and succeed as much as the other person, but I’ve become more pragmatic. If your health is bad, that’s a bad day. Otherwise, it’s a good day, every day.Through the hardness of life, emerges the softness of success.
The things I love about being an entrepreneur are the highs, yes, but also weathering, being scrapping and getting through the lows. So gratifying. It makes even the smallest victory ever so sweet.
That’s “scrappy”… sheesh.
One of my favorite phrases that I’ve been using for over 15 years is “Every day something new is completely fucked up somewhere in my world. Rather than fight it, I look for it, long for it, relish it. It’s just part of the amazing ride.”
I love that.
I often tell my kids, when they complain about having a bad day, that the good days can only truly be appreciated by also having some bad ones…
just like failure is not a bad thing.
…as long as you learn from it, and experience it for different reasons each time… 😉
our businesses are quite different (in mine, the best win ~60% of the time and the key is to minimize losses; in yours, the best win what, 30% of the time, and the key is to maximize winners), but in both the keys to sanity and success are in making sure that losers if/when they occur aren’t total disasters (ex ante), not beating yourself up about losing as it is inevitable (ex post), and then obviously learning from any losses/mistakes (ex post).
For sure. I am still sad but have learned a tremendous amount
All ups would certainly be delightful but obviously impossible.I’d have to disagree with that!!! The thing (to me at least) that makes deal making exciting and interesting is that it’s a challenge where you don’t win every single time. So it’s intermittently reinforcing. The intermittent reinforcement is the draw at it’s core.Take as an example the weather. If you have nice weather every day you don’t have the excitement of the weather being nice. Same with sports (say skiing) or with taking pictures or with programming and many other things that take talent. If you take the failures out and only have success to me it would get boring. That said I’d prefer it was sunny most of the time. [1]And how many people would watch sports (I don’t btw.) if the team that they watched won every single game?Not to sound all profound or anything but from the pain of an (hopefully occasional) failure comes the joy of success.[1] I spent several months out in the bay area in the 90’s and it was nice every single day. I liked it but quickly got used to it. I didn’t feel the same way as when I get nice weather on the east coast or have a nice day down the shore or anything like that.