TelexFree — A quick business case assessment

Ever wonder why fund managers can’t beat the S&P 500? ‘Cause they’re sheep — and the sheep get slaughtered. I been in the business since ’69. Most of these high paid MBAs from Harvard never make it. You need a system, discipline, good people, no deal junkies, no toreadores, the deal flow burns most people out by 35. Give me PSHs — poor, smart and hungry. And no feelings. You don’t win ’em all, you don’t love ’em all, you keep on fighting . . . and if you need a friend, get a dog . . . it’s trench warfare out there sport and in here too. — Gordon Gecko

I built a much better model with more realistic constraints available here

Outside of generating new information or product, risk, diversity and time horizon are only variables I’m convinced an investor can control. This means invest broadly over long time horizons and keep taxes and expenses low. If you want outsized returns, you must take on more risk or make something people want to buy. Most wealth is created by businesses making real products, but wealth can still accumulate from appreciating assets (real estate, land, gold, internet domain names, etc). However, both these methods take a lot of time and effort. Can you make a lot more quickly through selling VOIP services, posting internet ads and joining a Brazilian-focused multi-level marketing (MLM) club called TelexFree?

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“I’m Busy”

As we enter the Christmas/holiday season, I’m asking lots of friends how they are doing and how their year has been. Almost everyone says “it’s busy”. This takes many forms, from “crazy busy” to “absolutely busy” or “scary busy”. Since words often lose their meaning, I’ve thought about a scale we could use to better convey the level of busyness in our lives. I think the best way to delineate levels is by the loss of freedom that occurs at each inflection point.

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New Blog Title

I’ve always been intrigued by the story of the Harvard applicant who penned a three word answer to an essay prompt of “what is courage?” The myth has that he was accepted. I like the story because it highlights the risk and reward trade that we calculate in all our decisions.

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WordPress Development Workflow

When I work with WordPress, I am still a ruby coder in a PHP environment. I spent several years doing PHP only and have watched the language develop nicely, but still like to focus on Concept/Design, CSS3, Ruby and JavaScript when I’m doing web development work. In the hope that someone might benefit from my workflow, I’m sharing my basic setup.

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Daily Morning Routine

One of the most undervalued skills is the ability to set a routine and stick to it.

Modern workflow is constantly inundated by distractions which can knock us off our game. I know a lot has been written about email, how to shut it off and keep tasks and priorities aligned, but phone calls, and the raw ability to go down any rabbit hole you want to is incredibly dangerous to both getting things done and enjoying life.

Even as I tried to write the content above, I was distracted to send out an email, update my books read on shelfari and start building gift lists for Christmas. I also opened four tabs that I want to look at when I’m done with this post.

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Information Dieting Plans

Read not the Times; read the Eternities. Henry David Thoreau I’ve always struggled with how I process, manage and output information. I am basically an information junk food addict. I love consuming new and shiny bits of history, philosophy or modern commentary. A teaching company course catalogue is like a smorgasbord to a junk food … Read more