The Desire To Be Great

One of the most impressive trips I have made in my life was a cruise around the Greek islands: Mykonos, Crete, and Santorini.

It was the latter that captivated my attention, with its sunsets, its white houses, or the azure blue of the sea. But there was a detail that clicked in my head, and it was when I saw a young blonde girl, gorgeous, get off a large yacht of more than 30 meters in length. This girl was accompanied by a guy, why not say it, rather less attractive than her.

Although I do not doubt the sympathy of the young man, I would put my hand in the fire because she had been impressed, at least at first, by his enormous purchasing power.

This made me rethink what this guy could have done to go so far as to buy a yacht valued at +$5M. Several options came to my mind, but mainly three: he is the son of a millionaire, he is an entrepreneur, or he is a successful investor.

Besides making me very envious, why not say it, it made me think a lot about how to make so much money, or at least enough to never have to worry about it again. What I did understand at that moment is that as an employee, and without doing anything else, I was hardly going to be able to escape from work before I was 67, let alone have the yacht.

Therefore, I started to think about the three options of the man in the yacht, it was clear that the first one, having a millionaire father, could be discarded; and the second one, being an entrepreneur, was going to entail a much greater sacrifice than the expected return (entrepreneurship with money, yes; entrepreneurship without money, no). So I began to read, study, understand and become interested in the investment world.

I had to see what those successful investors had done, I analyzed them very thoroughly and they all followed the same pattern:

√ Concentrated portfolio

√ Use of derivatives

√ Knowledge of the assets in which they were invested.

√ Pre-defined system

These pillars are very powerful, but you have to know how to use them. So I got down to work. Because if there is something intrinsic to every human being, it is “the desire to be great”, as Freud said. And, believe me, it is worth pursuing.

That desire that both you and I share, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading these lines.

Undoubtedly, that has been the purpose of writing two newsletters a week. On the one hand, to share with you my asymmetric portfolio and on the other hand, to carry out the pre-defined system that will get me closer to the guy on the yacht.

Another reason why I decided to start talking about finance to people is because of the amount of “gurus” that are on social networks and on the internet. These ‘sellers of smoke’ (not all) charge barbarities for saying “buy X, Y, and Z” and you see that their portfolio then drops 20% in 3 days (someday I will tell you their names). I like people who go straight and tell you the truth and that the reader is free to choose those who do.

I will never tell you tomorrow this stock is going to go up, so buy. I wouldn’t even think of it. In fact, I think it would be reportable because if there is one thing that is clear it is that the market is totally irrational in the short term, but rational in the long term.

I want you to understand why and then you choose. That is what will set you free tomorrow when you decide to stop paying for this newsletter or even unsubscribe from any kind of email/article I send you.

With this I do not want to change the way you invest or pursue your goals, it is just as valid to earn a lot of money and put it in index funds with regular contributions, and get amazing returns. But I am very clear about my ideas and if you are here it will be because, perhaps, they are aligned.