As a prelude to outlining the course of events which led from my position as a Quant to that of a retail side player I thought I’d share with you quotes I wrote down as significant in that process. They are presented in chronological rather than logical order. Bit like life. I’ve not attributed any of them are some are from people who would wish not to be attributed and I like a clean profile. If anyone is interested in attribution, try google or failing that, ask me and I’ll tell you - if it’s appropriate for me to do so.
• The opportunity of a lifetime must be taken during the lifetime of the opportunity.
• Do what you must do, when you must do it, whether you like it or not.
• Life is not determined by the future, it is determined by this very moment.
• If sense and meaning collide, be content to suspend judgement.
• Information is not the data required to answer the question, but the answer itself.
• For things to happen the way you want, you have to take the right actions at the right times.
• You cant move toward one thing without having to move away from something else.
• One of the tricks to mastery is to stop trying.
• When there is mutual ignorance, confidence indeed is king.
• We run our businesses as a succession of follies interrupted, we hope, by moments of brilliance, or at least, long stretches of competence.
• Reality, as you experience it will conform to your beliefs about how it is.
• Markets influence events they anticipate.
• Looking for significance tends to lend significance to that which is otherwise unremarkable.
• Direct knowing, without conscious use of reasoning, can only come after extensive training and preparation.
• Don't fool around with the masks of reality until you can handle the reality of masks.
• Thoughts are but dreams till their effects be tried.
• Security puts a premium on feebleness.
• Nearly everyone overlooks the significance of the obvious.
• I think I am more intelligent than I am.
• There's no alternative like no alternative.
• We bear our heresies quietly - if we’ve any sense.
• Life is as Simple as You Care to Make It.
• Real Power is the realisation that Presumption of Power is Real Power.
• What you believe Limits you.
• The Great Way knows no difficulties except for those that have preferences.
• Appreciation of the Universe is a matter of the Heart, not the Intellect.
• The ability to cheerfully, easily and comfortably adapt to circumstances when they deviate from expectations is what separates the winners from the whiners.
• The good trades present no barrier to entry.
• The real trouble with this world of ours is not that it is an unreasonable world, nor even that it is a reasonable one. The commonest kind of trouble is that it is nearly reasonable, but not quite. Life is not an illogicality; yet it is a trap for logicians. It looks just a little more mathematical and regular than it is; its exactitude is obvious, but its inexactitude is hidden; its wildness lies in wait.
• It's impossible for your past experience to include all the necessary information upon which to base a model to deal with the exponentially expanded reality the future will comprise.
• When considering societal problems over the long term, news-worthiness is often in inverse proportion to frequency. If problems become commonplace, they are not new - so do not qualify as 'news'. This means the media often guides us to focus on less serious acute problems at the expense of more serious systemic problems. The key part of which is that we are led (probably not just by the media, but by others and even ourselves) ...to focus on less serious acute problems at the expense of more serious systemic problems.
• Stay on your feet.
• There is no point being free to do what you want unless you go ahead and do what you want.
• The most common cause of any problem is failure to explicate the obvious.
• An Englishman's mind works best when it is almost too late.
• Riches do not exhilarate us so much with their possession as they torment us with their loss.
