Welcome to The Journal. My goal with The Journal is to post once a week a list of everything that I found interesting from investing, design, architecture, and much more. Here is what I found interesting this week:
"One of our directors said very simply, 'We should make a list of everything that irritates the customer, and then we should eliminate those defects one by one.' That is the way to compete in a service business."
Welcome to the third issue of The Journal. My goal with The Journal is to post once a week a list of everything that I found interesting. Here is what I found interesting this week:
Since about two years ago, I have been fascinated by Garden room / Studio. In fact, I am thinking about building one in our backyard. A couple of months ago, I found 30X40 Design Workshop and, this week, I watched the 14 part video playlist from the sketches to the construction of a Small Studio.
The ONE Thing
I finished reading The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary W. Keller and Jay Papasan this week on audible. It was a five and a half hours listen. The book was good, but it was extremely long. I think it could be recused to a shorter book. The one-sentence summary of the book is to dream big in life and to focus on one thing in life. There is one idea of Jerry Seinfeld that I will certainly be using in the future. In the book, a person asked Jerry Seinfeld what he does in order to be so good. Jerry Seinfeld said that he has a calendar and, every time he writes jokes, he marks a red X on the calendar. His goal is not to bread the chain. This is the second time I heard about Jerry Seinfeld calendar method. The first time was in last week’s book Millennial Money: How Young Investors Can Build a Fortune by Patrick O’Shaughnessy.
“After a few days you’ll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain.” -Jerry Seinfeld
The Acquirer’s Multiple
I finished reading The Acquirer’s Multiple: How the Billionaire Contrarians of Deep Value Beat the Market by Tobias E. Carlisle. I have listened to Tobias on a couple of investing podcast. For example, I listened to him on The Investor Podcast by Stig and Preston and a couple of others. I found the book really good and learned a lot from the book. The Acquirer’s Multiple is a continuation of the work of The Little Book That Beats the Market by Joel Greenblatt. I enjoyed reading about the early career of Warrant Buffet and Carl Icon. I really loved the book, and I am planning to reread the book in the future.
The 4 Best Books I Read in 2017
Last year, I read 21 books which was a big accomplishment since the year prior I only read one book. I recently wrote a post on The 4 Best Books I Read in 2017. If you did not read it, please check it out here and let me know what was your best read last year.
Welcome to the third issue of The Journal. My goal with The Journal is to post once a week a list of everything that I found interesting. Here is what I found interesting this week:
On New Year day, I finished reading Millennial Money: How Young Investors Can Build a Fortune by Patrick O’Shaughnessy. The book was fascinating. It was filled with useful information about investing and the way a millennial should invest as soon as possible to see the effect of computing. Like the Magic Formula found in the book The Little Book That Beats the Market by Joel Greenblatt, Patrick has his own criteria when he invests in a basket of stock with the help of momentum and value investing. I enjoyed reading Millennial Money and I learned a lot about Patrick’s insight. I would recommend reading the book to new investors and to millennials thinking about investing. Patrick O’Shaughnessy has a very interesting podcast about investing named Invest Like the Best I would recommend listening to it.
Sapiens
Last year, I bought Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari and I wanted to read the book but never got around to do it. Last week, I bought the audiobook on audible and I am happy to say that I finished listening to Sapiens. Sapiens is the best book I have read so far, and I would recommend it to everyone. I really enjoyed listening to the part about The Unification of Humankind and The Science Revolution. I know for a fact that this will not be the last time I read the book. I look forward reading the sequel Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari.
The 4 Best Books I Read in 2017
Last year, I read 21 books which was a big accomplishment since the year prior I only read one book. I recently wrote a post on The 4 Best Books I Read in 2017. If you did not read it, please check it out here and let me know what was your best read last year.
Last year, I read 21 books and here are the four best books I read in 2017.
Here are my top four books:
Life 3.0 by Max Tegmark
I read Life 3.0 by Max Tegmark, a Swedish-American cosmologist, after reading a tweet by Elon Musk. Life 3.0 is a book that talks about AI. By reading this book, I learned the pros and the cons of AI, the need to have something like a Geneva Convention for regulating AI, why something like universal income will be mandatory in the future because of the loss of jobs to machines, and the evolution of humans with AI.
The Dhandho Investor by Mohnish Pabrai
The Dhandho InvestorbyMohnish Pabrai is the best Investing book I read last year. I read the book last month, and I have been a big fan of Mohnish Pabrai. The Dhandho Investor is very interesting and filled with useful information about how to invest in the stock market or in businesses without losing money and obtaining a high return on your investment. I love the mantra that Mohnish gives in the book “Heads; I win; tails, I don’t lose much!” I will be following this mantra in the future whenever I am investing in a company to reduce my risk of losing money.
The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America’s Banana King by Rich Cohen
I heard about Sam Zemurray when I was reading The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday. The Fish That Ate the Whale tells the story of Sam Zemurray from his arrival in America in 1891 to become one of the richest and most powerful men in the world. By reading this book, I learned a lot about business, history, and the incredible journey of Sam Zemurray for running one of the biggest company and becoming a threat to foreign nations.
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
Meditations is a series of personal writings by Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor from 161 to 180 AD, recording his private notes to himself and ideas on Stoic philosophy. Marcus Aurelius is named as one of the Good Emperors. Meditations is filled with a lot of wisdom. It will probably not be the last time I will be reading this book. In fact, I intend to read Meditations once every year because I don’t think reading the book once gives justice to the incredible notes of Marcus Aurelius.
Welcome to the second issue of The Journal. My goal with The Journal is to post once a week a list of everything that I found interesting. Here is what I found interesting this week:
I am currently reading Principles by Ray Dalio. I heard about Ray Dalio a couple of years ago by watching How The Economic Machine Works, a fascinating video. Since He is a private person, I was very excited when I heard that he has a book coming this year. Principles is a three-part book. The first part talks about Ray Dalio’s Career and what it took him to overcome his failure. The second part is Ray Dalio’s Life Principles, which is what I am currently reading, and the final part is Ray Dalio’s Work Principles.
Here are some interviews about the book with Ray Dalio:
How The Economic Machine Works by Ray Dalio – 31 min
Here is an excerpt from the book that made me think about the size of the universe :
“Through our own eyes, we are everything – e.g., when we die, the whole world disappears. So to most people (and to other species) dying is the worst thing possible, and it is of paramount importance that we have the best life possible. However, when we look down on ourselves through the eyes of nature we are of absolutely no significance. It is a reality that each one of us is only one of about seven billion of our species alive today and that our species is only one of about ten million species on our planet. Earth is just one of about 100 billion planets in our galaxy, which is just one of about two trillion galaxies in the universe. And our lifetimes are only about 1/3,000 of humanity’s existence, which itself is only 1/20,000 of the Earth’s existence. In other words, we are unbelievably tiny and short-lived and no matter what we accomplish, our impact will be insignificant.” – p. 149
Thanks for reading, happy new year and see you next week!
A Conversation with Charlie Munger and Michigan Ross – 2017 – 56 min
Mohnish Pabrai Lecture at Boston College (Carroll School of Mgmt) – Nov 30, 2017 – 140 min
Making a Flipbook Machine – 10 min
Vertical Farming
Last year for the first time, I grew vegetable plants in my backyard, and I found fascinating seeing the plants grow and eating fresh plants whenever I want. Now that it is winter, I am looking for a way to grow plants indoors, and I found out about The Smart Farm by Click And Grow. It is a ridiculous 9 900$ indoor farm that can grow 288 plants. When I was doing some research to look at commercial uses of vertical framing and their benefits, I found these two videos very interesting.
For about two weeks, I have been listening to The Investor Podcast. I used to listen to some of their podcasts and now, that I am more interested in value investing, I have listened to all their episodes until episode 123. I have learned a lot from listening to their podcasts, and I would recommend them to everybody who wants to learn more about value investing.
The Dhandho Investor
I finished reading this week The Dhandho Investor by Mohnish Pabra. The book is very interesting and filled with useful information about how to invest in the stock market or a business without losing money and obtaining a high return on your investment. I would recommend the book, like the podcasts, to everybody who wants to learn more about value investing.
SeekingAlpha
For about three years, I have have been very passionate about the stock market and all things business. After acquiring a pretty good knowledge about the stock market, by any mean, I am not an expert I decided to become a contributor to seekingalpha.com. I wrote two articles, one last month and one this week. Please, check it out and any feedback will be really appreciated.
After reading the book Angle by Jason Calacanis, a very successful angel investor, I decided to copy his idea by writing a blog about the companies I am investing. Before I talk about what I like, what I believe can go wrong and my thoughts here is a summary about the company.
Brookfield Asset Management is a global alternative asset manager with over $250 Billion in asset around more than 30 countries. Brookfield Asset Management started investing in real assets 115 years ago and now invests in different sectors, such as real states, infrastructures, renewable power and private equity. Brookfield Asset Management owns large stakes in thesis publicly traded companies: Brookfield Property Partners L.P., Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P., Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P., and Brookfield Business Partners L.P. Brookfield Asset Management is a trader in the TSX under the symbol BAM.A and in the NYSE under the symbol BAM.
Source: Brookfield Asset ManagementPercentage of Ownership In the all the LP. Source: Q2 2017 Corporate Profile p.20
What I like?
Brookfield is a diversified company that invests in real assesses across all its sectors. Essentially, they are the backbone of the economies in their sectors. Brookfield has a world-class management team that manages this business wonderfully with a long-term horizon.
What can go wrong?
The impaction of Brexit or any political situation such as the corruption in the Brazilian government can impact the company, but only for a short amount of time. I believe a global recession can affect the real estate division of Brookfield. Moreover, if the trend continues in the retail, it can also affect the company, which is a big position in their property portfolio.
My thoughts
I really like Brookfield Asset Management for the future because it is one of the world’s best value-investment firms. I believe Brookfield Asset Management is a low-risk company that will go nowhere and that will bring wonder in the future. I certainly will hold my stake in Brookfield for as long as I can or for the next couple of decades.
Disclaimer: I own Brookfield Asset Management and I have invested in Brookfield Property Partners LP, Brookfield Renewable Partners LP, and Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. for my dad. These are my personal thoughts. They are NOT an advice and I do not recommend to buy stocks before doing your own research about the company.
If someone told you there is a way to improve everything and to reduce the percentage of error to a minimum, would you use it? This thing has been used by pilots for the longest time to reduce the risk of accidents and to save lives. Recently, other professions also started to use it. And this thing is free!!! In fact, you have probably used it a couple of times. Of course, I am talking about checklists.
I found “The Checklist Manifesto” by Atul Gawande at a used book sale for 1$ and it was well worth. The information inside the book is worth a thousand times more.
Atul Gawande is an American surgeon, writer, and public health researcher.
When I learned the benefits of checklists, I was sold on the idea of using them in the future. Here is why. Since the implementation of checklists in their day-to-day routine, pilots significantly reduced their rate of accidents. Not only checklists prevented disasters from happening, but it also helped pilots to better communicate and work as a team.
By learning about the success pilots got by using checklists, the World Health Organization (WHO) conducted a pilot program in eight cities around the world to improve the rate of surgeries. The WHO made a checklist for surgeons and their staffs to use in their operations.
By reading this book, I found that in order to improve something or to reduce the rate of mistakes, you don’t need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars. Something as simple as a checklist can be as powerful or even better than high-tech machinery, software or technique.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn how to tackle a problem or a project. I learned a lot and it helps me view things differently. This book taught me that solutions do not have to be complex to be effective.
Since I started investing, most of my investments were domestic investments. To diversify and reduce risks, I wanted to be more exposed to the rest of the world. Especially the US stock market, which is the biggest market. In the rush to diversify my portfolio, I made a big mistake. This mistake was that I purchased US stock in CAD instead of USD. It may seem that this is not a big deal, but it is. I bought shares in Solar City long before its acquisition by Tesla. The process did not go like I was expecting. I thought if I bought the shares in the currency which are being sold ( USD). I would have that amount in my investment account in USD. It went in a whole different way. My SolarCity shares were both in CAD than transferred to USD and then back to CAD. Not only I paid the commission fees, I also paid a premium for the exchange of currency, which brought my average cost higher than the stock bought. If I had converted the amount in USD and it would’ve stayed in that amount. After the premium by average transferred was 44.08$ instead of 43.44$. 0.64$ doesn’t seem a lot but when you multiplied by the number of shares you can clearly see the difference. Not only the problem with this is that I had a higher average cost I had to worry about the currency rate. There are two things to worry about and the volatility is transferred. There is a simple solution for this I wish I found it before but if I had you wouldn’t know the mistake and prevent form. The solution I found, is to open a brokerage account in USD. From that account to buy companies from the US stock market. Like this, you don’t have to worry about the exchange rate because the money will only be converted once.
“Learn to Earn” by John Rothchild and Peter Lynch is a book for any investor and anyone interning to learn how a company earns money.
The book accomplishes on what it sets out to accomplish by showcasing that capitalism is the best economic system.
The author, John Rothchild, is most know for his work as the former editor of Washington Monthly as well as a former columnist for Time and Fortune.
The co-author, Peter Lynch, is an investor know the As the manager of the Magellan Fund at Fidelity Investments between the years 1977 and 1990. Peter Lynch averaged a 29.2% annual return with is mindblowing.
I enjoyed reading the book. The book helps me confirm my thought that the best economic system is capitalism for the company, the consumer and the investor.
I enjoyed the first chapter where the author briefs a quick history lesson of capitalism and explain without a capitalist country like the United-stade would it prosper as it did. I also like the appendix two where the author helps ride a company balance sheet.
The only thing the I did like is that the book isn’t updated and the references are old. Unless this I enjoyed reading the book.
I would recommend this book to anyone interning to learn how a company earn money and to learn about the stocks.
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