TFTLR: 1) Howard Marks, 2) Grow or Die, 3) Monzo Story, and PD) Performance Reviews
Thoughts for the Long Run, 10/2/22
Welcome back to TFTLR! If you read something interesting, please send to me so I can include in next week’s issue :)
Mental Model 1 - The Most Important Thing (Howard Marks): I continue to come back to this book to revisit my investing fundamentals (particularly for public markets, but applicable more broadly). Marks identifies "the most important thing" as a series of important focus areas: 1) Second-level thinking, 2) Market efficiency (and limitations), 3) Value, 4) Relationship between price and value, 5) Risk is capital loss, 6) Risk is highest when prices are high, 7) Taking asymmetric risks, 8) Cycles, 9) Emotional stability (avoid greed and fear), 10) Contrarianism, 11) Finding bargains, 12) Patient opportunism, 13) Circle of competence, 14) Luck, 15) Diversification, 16) Avoid bubbles, 17) Add value, 18) Put it all together.
Mental Model 2 - Grow or Die (a16z): A really fascinating take on turnarounds that involves using "SuperGoals," a single goal that must be accomplished. These are 1) Clear and urgent, 2) Open-ended in means of achievement, and 3) have a single measure everyone can understand. Ravi Gupta has a great experience with one at Instacart (save minutes on delivery), Steve Jobs saved Apple with the iMac, Hubert Joly saved Best Buy with the store-within-a-store model. These goals spark ambition, unleash creativity, and provide clarity. Great employees seem to love rising to challenges
Mental Model 3 - Monzo Growth (Tom Blomfield): Stumbled across an amazing piece of the co-founder of Monzo talking in considerable detail about launching the business: 1) Using a prepaid debit card as an MVP for a digital bank to test for demand, 2) Leaning into press relationships, 3) Iterating in their marketing to find what worked, 4) Using exclusivity to draw customers, 5) Creating community product roadmaps, 6) Combining virality with network effects (single golden ticket to invite a friend once you've used the app for 2 weeks for virality and P2P payments for network effects).
Personal Development - The Power of Performance Reviews: Pretty exceptional framework for providing feedback. Ties in accomplishments, superpowers, and developmental areas with concrete examples into a broader career progression discussion.
Have a great weekend (and week)!
Aimun