Self-assessment/personality tests; My high need for new stimulation; How I keep abreast of my work; Readers on my noninvesting writings
1) Regular readers have probably noticed that I'm almost constantly on the go, climbing, trekking, skiing, running, etc., preferably in new parts of the country or the world.
Over the years, I've come to understand that this is just the way I'm wired. Specifically, I have an off-the-charts need for new stimulation, which has a huge impact on my personal and professional life.
I want to share some of the details on how I came to understand myself better in the hopes that it might help others. To be successful in life, every person needs to understand their personality type and what they like, are good at, and derive energy from.
Over the years, I've taken a wide range of self-assessment/personality tests. Some can be done online in less than an hour, such as the Myers-Briggs and Wonderlic tests. (We've even used the latter to screen Empire analyst candidates.)
Others are much longer. A few years ago, I took the Johnson O'Connor aptitude test, a battery of roughly three dozen tests administered over two half-days. (I highly recommend it – I even had my daughter do it when she graduated from college – if you can afford the $750 cost and live in/near one of the 11 cities where there are testing locations.)
But the most life-changing experience along these lines was fairly early in my career in 1998, a few years out of business school. I was running a 30-person nonprofit I'd co-founded, the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City ("ICIC"), which sent me to a five-day program at the Center for Creative Leadership ("CCL") in North Carolina, along with roughly two dozen other midcareer executives.
A month or so before the program started, CCL sent in-depth evaluation forms to our superiors, peers, and subordinates at work – and their coaches shared the results with us while we were there. They also gave us a battery of tests and had us do various group exercises. By the end of the five days, I think the coaches knew us better than we knew ourselves!
Through this experience, I discovered why I wasn't happy in my job: I don't like and am not good at managing people and organizations. Rather, my strength is processing information (via reading, listening, and watching – in that order), coming up with ideas, and acting on them, either by myself or with a very small team. (As I write this, I realize that this is also how Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B) CEO Warren Buffett has structured his life.)
As a result, within a year, I quit my job running the ICIC and started my tiny hedge fund on a rickety IKEA desk out of my bedroom, without a single employee for the first few years.
The other big takeaway, as noted earlier, is my high need for new stimulation. That's one of the reasons I love investing so much: There is an almost infinite number of new developments every day.
You can see why the first few years of running my fund – and my current job at Empire – are perfect for me!
2) In light of my frequent travels and adventures, I'm often asked how I manage to keep up with my work, which mostly comprises reading, responding to e-mails, and writing this daily.
Part of the answer is that I'm very efficient – I waste few of the 16 hours I'm awake during the average day, and over the years, I've learned to read, listen (generally at 2x to 3x speed), and write quickly.
Also, during many of my activities – running, skiing, and hiking – I can listen to books, podcasts, and YouTube videos. Long-form (an hour or more) content that I don't have a chance to listen to during my "normal" days of processing e-mails...
3) I get very mixed feedback from my readers about the noninvesting stuff I write about.
Tony H. wrote:
You also take a lot of space in your newsletters discussing your travels. Maybe some of your readers enjoy this personal side of things, but to me, it just comes off as elitist. Maybe less of these articles taking up all the space in your newsletter and more financial content? Or better yet, create a travel newsletter and send that out separately.
And Ardyce S. added:
I'm about to cancel my lifetime subscription! I subscribe for financial and investment expertise. My time is valuable, and I don't want to read about your trips or anything that you are not an expert in. Please let me know if future newsletters are not going to be focused on finance and investments. Short and to the point.
But I get a roughly equal number of e-mails like this one from Mark J.:
Whitney: Thank you for your perspective on a wide variety of topics. While it was the financial advice that brought me in the door, I respect your opinions on other subjects as well. I don't always agree with them, but I respect your informed opinion. Just as it is up to me to decide whether or not to act on a financial recommendation, it is up to me whether or not to act on any other recommendation you have.
I also appreciate your updates on your outdoor adventures. I'm far from being the outdoorsman you are, but I just returned from mountain biking in Steamboat with my son. I recall you have an e-bike; I took my e-mountain-bike, along with my conventional mountain bike. While both were fun, the e-bike allowed this 65-year-old to ride with the 30-year-old.
Thanks again to you and the rest of the Empire team. Keep up the good work!
I respect both points of view, which is why I've stuck to a reasonable compromise: The first three to four topics of nearly all of my e-mails are focused on investing, and then in the last item, I share whatever I'm doing or is on my mind. In that way, those who are only interested in investing can simply skip the end...
4) Speaking of which, Susan and I hiked to see the giant sequoias in Mariposa Grove yesterday morning. Then, in the afternoon, Gary, Hannah, and I hiked to Lower Yosemite Falls, where we saw a mother bear and her two cubs – adorable! I posted a 90-second video clip of them here, and here are some pictures:
Best regards,
Whitney