Know yourself and define your own success!

I wrote this article
as an after thought and response, after I received a comment from LP – a fellow
great blogger in my last article
“What
can we learn in stocks from boxing?”
. LP is a great blogger in his own
ways, that I had learn many things from, in my blogging journey. He is owner of
“Bully the Bear”  where you can find so many excellent articles
in life and in financial education. In LP comments to my last article, there
are 3 HARD questions. Not only are the questions hard, it let me think so HARD
as well. I decided to post “my response in this article instead. I also want to
express my sincere appreciation to LP, because those questions asked are really
good ones.


Why are questions and answers good?

While it takes a fair
bit of my time off my usually super busy weekend to respond, having these
wonderful questions help us to think and learn more. It’s fantastic and I
appreciated it!

In fact, some
questions do not have right or wrong answers. Likewise an answer is not
concretely correct or wrong. What it really matter is if the question allows
the person to start thinking on the subject in a different perspective from
what we thought in the beginning. This is because learning together going
forward is more important than getting the answer correct in the first place.

So whatever my
response may be interpreted in the following article, I emphasize that the
ultimate goal is to learn and move forward together. 🙂

Question 1

1. What if Ali didn’t win
this match despite adopting the rope-a-dope strategy? What if he had a plan and
waited for the right time but still failed? Is the strategy wrong? Is it that
he lacked patience? Or is he simply employing the wrong strategy against the
wrong opponent?

Take Action
Of course there is
always a flip side. If Ali went in this match only keep thinking about the
“what ifs he will loose”, he will not even want to participate in the
match then. Unless he was only attracted by the price-money, which I think he
is not.

Irrespective of if Ali
win or lose (which is not important to me), first and foremost, I already
admire his ability to challenge an opponent who is deemed so much stronger than
him during that time. He takes ACTION and PARTICIPATE, which most people do not
even have the guts to do it per se!

I came across so many
people who are so good in theory and giving some fantastic talks, but when it
comes to the real thing, the action is limited. Knowledge alone does not propel
a person, you require organizing it into a specialized knowledge, putting it
into an action, and possibility fail, learn and move forward. And repeat this
process. So I guess Ali is already a winner with the guts to fight the younger
Foreman at his peak.

A strategy is better than none
What if the strategy
does not work?  

Who cares!!! Guess first
having the guts and then having a strategy is better than no action no strategy.
Which strategy always works? 

The great Joe Frazier and
Kenny Norton who fight in their usual styles against the monstrous Foreman lost
in a pathetical manner, knocking out in early rounds. In fact Joe Frazier
fought Foreman twice. The first time was when Frazier was the world champ and
was complacent and was knocked down 6 times and finally KO within 2 rounds.
Then there was a rematch, Frazier became slight smarter this time and survive
more rounds. Still KO but at least performance improved. And Frazier is a man
with HELL LOTS OF GUTS!

As for Ali, he has a
strategy! He is clever and understands not only himself really well, but also
his opponent’s strengths and weakness. Ali will then deploy the appropriate strategy
against his tougher opponent.
Ali could be wrong, but to me, its not important! It’s the
flexibility to adapt, to change and evolve. If wrong, ADMIT it, re-think and
then come back stronger.

Establish true strong belief and be consistent
If your belief is so
strong after doing so much research and continuous improved yourself, you could
have stick to your belief even if it means decades to get just that one success
right.
Look
at Steve Jobs when he was ousted
from APPLE, and then started NEXT. He faced so many rejections in NEXT, and it
will take him more than ten years before he become even more successful with
blossom with so plenty of wisdoms rather than pure hot headedness before!

Look at Jim Rogers. For so long, he has been
talking about commodity and eventual China success and USA failure. To me, even
if USA will not collapse in next decades or so, and even if China is not going
to be successful which means Rogers is wrong, but so what? Are we then going to
LABEL Jim Rogers as a failure? Not for me, at least he is convicted to his belief
(which to some extent do make sense), and he stick with it all this while. And
at least his daughters will be BILINGUAL even if he is wrong.

Another example is Marc Faber a Swiss Investor in his 70s
who published the Gloom Boom Doom report. As per Wikipedia “

“In 2012, Faber claimed that there was
a “100% chance” of a global economic recession later that year or in
early 2013.
On September 23, 2014, Faber said we
have “bubbles everywhere”.
On January 14 2015, Faber predicted
that gold prices will rise by 30% in 2015.
On July 23 2015, Faber stated that
investors must hold cash for better buying opportunities after correction.”

So there is no crash
in 2013 and gold prices did not rise 30% in 2015. Faber is WRONG. But so what? At
least this guy is so strong in his belief and he dare to speak what he
believes. And at least what he says makes a lot of sense to me, rather than
many political leaders of today. Faber continues to predict the upcoming crash.
When….. ? Ask him… haha!

It does not matter what is the outcome –
either one I win!
Honestly for me, it isn’t
important when is the crash or if it is really going to come. It is more
important to me that if there is a crash, I will NOT be wiped out!  And the only way to stay resilient now is to be
prudent and make the right preparations.
Remember bad things sometimes do come in a
bundle, stock crash, job loss, health problems etc. If it does not happen, I am
even happier!
J. Regardless of the
outcome, either ways, I will not be beaten down terribly. It is even more
important for me at this stage of my life as a father.

Another example is Pacqiao
vs Mayweather boxing match. To me, Pacqiao wins the heart of many even if he
lost the match. He still win!  To
Mayweather, he gets what he really wants, which is money and undefeated record.
So getting strategy wrong and losing the match does not necessary mean a bad
thing.

Question 2

How do we know it’s the
high point of his career? I thought career high is only determine when you
start falling and falling and never recovered. In other words, a career high is
formed went you reached a high of your career and then start falling. But how
do we know he won’t recover? So how can we be certain it’s the career high and
not merely a minor ‘correction’ in his career?

High point is not the
highest point
I apologized that I
mentioned highest point in my previous article, which essentially means high
point not highest point.

My definition of high point
is not necessary the highest point, and it need not mean that the next
instance, it started falling. So career high, by all means DOES NOT necessary
means you started falling next and never recover.

Now, I cannot possibly
tell when is the highest point. But I can reasonably identify when is a high
point for myself. For Eg. In careers, it’s not difficult to define high or low
points making ref. to remuneration and promotion/demotion. Of course you may
want to debate that is not necessary the high point, but I am talking from a
tangible point of view and this makes sense!

Signals
In health, we somehow
know what is low point where symptoms show. In stock markets, there are signals
as well.
Whether
it will recover I do not know. All I know for myself is if there are signals, I
stop worsening my health and stay prudent. Same for stock market, I cannot
define what is bull or what is a bear situation. What I know is when there are
signals that I think it is going in a certain direction next, I take action to
prepare. So that either way it goes, I stay resilient and my ultimate goal is
to be sustainable throughout a long period of time.
Of course you can
choose to continue drink lots of alcohol if your health worsen, or continue to
delve into the stock market when it hits its all time high. The decision is
really up to individual. But not me!

Recovery
To recover depends a
lot on mental strength and not just physical strength in life.

For example Foreman
lost his mental strength after the loss to Ali and 3 years later he collapsed
and retire. During his retirement, he regained his mental strength with the
help of religion and come back 10 years later and will then become the world
heavyweight champion at age 45. He also became an Entrepreneur and in fact his
entire character took a change for the better after 1977 retirements.

For Ali, winning the
Rumble in the Jungle is one of the high points in his career, but his even
higher point (to me), is when he experienced Parkinson’s disease (low point?)
and continue to stay strong.  Thereafter
he became a truly different person both on personality, behavior and more
important mentally. That to me is his higher point and not necessary means he
need to fall from there. 

Therefore ability to recover
is related to one’s mental well-being. Mental well-being is all about balance
and accumulated life experiences which translates to knowledge and wisdom. Once
you have that, the fall can be less painful each time we do the same time again.

Question 3

What if we reached the
lowest point and never recovered? Do we write it off and say this experience is
not for me?

Your must know your own high and low points
Again I do not know when are the highest/lowest points in my life only
until when the day just before I die and I look back. This means that I do not
know whether if I will recover if I reach my lowest point. What I am sure is as
of today, I definitely has not reach my lowest point, because every of my low
points, I already recovered and become stronger.
I am not sure
about you or others, but for me, I am very clear the definition of high or low
points in my life now using my own H2F3
theory
.
E.g. I think I am now living in high point, because I am
healthy, family and career intact, no financial problems and able to enjoy my
hobbies regularly. The reverse is true for low point. In my high point,
therefore I cannot be complacent and continuously upgrade myself to prepare for
a possible low point.

Qn: When do we say it’s a
good learning experience and we move on from now on?

Focus on what you will do when you hit a low or high point
When is not important, how and what I will do is more important.

I went through many low points in my life. Family problems since young; relationship
problems leading to bloodshed; health problems facing impending death; career tumble
at high point…

Therefore, using all these experiences, if one day I reach a low point in
my life, I will CRY over it and yes, really loudly for a long time. Maybe also
isolate myself to think really carefully. As an exercise lover, I will also
sweat it out as often as I can. Then I will pour out the troubles verbally by
talking to people close to me to let the “steam off my chest”. The more I talk,
the better I feel. Next, I will seek help and talk to people who had successful
gone through the low point that I experienced, and learn from them. With all
the aforesaid ways, I believe that I should be able to get over the low point
and re-start again. I don’t know?

So the key factors are the mental strength and more importantly focus on
what you will do during the low point and to be able to move on quickly. Rather
than pondering so much if this experience is for me or that experience is for
you. After that and after a while, let nature takes its course to tell you if
it is a good learning experience or not. For me, most of my failures after I
look back are good learning experiences.
If I have the mental
strength and focus on what I should do during the low point, DOES IT REALLY
MATTERS then “
When do we say it’s a good learning experience and we move on
from now on?”

Qn: I think a lot of
success seems like it’s a rationalized story. This happened and that happened
next, and then we have this success. In truth, for all the failures and success
that is happening and unfolding RIGHT NOW, we don’t know anything about it. And
I doubt we will ever know. Is success therefore dependent on results? If we
have the results, then we can talk about how we planned out well and strategise
and then we reach this result?

Delusional!

Fooled by randomness!

Define your own
success
Just like defining high or low points, I already define broadly my
success using my H2F3 as mentioned earlier. Then I will further refine it into
more details for each element of H or F.

In my opinion, it is totally not important whether success is a
rationalized story or not? What is important is I KNOW MY OWN DEFINITION OF
SUCCESS. Furthermore, I need to define the boundaries of my success and boundaries
might change over time, depending on which stage of my life.

Success is dependent of results
Answering
to your question if success depends on results? My answer is YES! But the
results are what I want to achieve in my own definition of success. It is
different for different people. For E.g. let’s say I am very pragmatic and has
a highly result or goal oriented personality, then I will always set my own
objectives and try to achieve it.

For me, I set my PURPOSE/MISSION in life, and then continuously EVOLVE to
achieve it!  

To evolve, I will always need to have new experiences, failing, recover
and move forward and repeat this process. Then I will probably NOT die with
regret.

And that is only for
me! My wife always says I am more different compare to her. She and possibly
many others (I think) prefers a much simpler life.

Fooled by Randomness
I read the book from Nassim Taleb’s Fooled by Randomness. And thanks a
lot LP for recommending this book to me. For more about Fooled by Randomness,
refer to my earlier blog post here.

For Ali and Foreman, they both have their successes and failures. While
there were much painstaking training to bring them to their successes, I also
believe at certain points of their career, they were “Fooled by Randomness”.

Again, it depends on how each individual define their own life. Some
people prefer a simple life and never in their life to be ever fooled by
randomness of successes. It is perfectly fine and admirable too in their own
ways.

Some think it is BETTER to have at least go through that “Fooled by
Randomness & delusional situation” in our life than not.

At least for Ali or Foreman, it is a remarkable experience to be “world
heavy weight champions at least two or more times!” They worked hard for that,
and from this aspect, it is not fair to just label them as randomness. And how
many people can have that kind of Randomness experiences to speak of.


Therefore “to be Fooled by Randomness” sometimes is not really a bad
thing in itself, if we later realized it is a random event, so that we can come
back even stronger.

Related Posts

13 thoughts on “Know yourself and define your own success!

  1. When we have live long enough and when we look back at ourselves and those around us, most of the outcomes are rarely random.

  2. Hi Rolf,

    Hahaha, you are a very good sport! I asked the questions without seeking an answers, it's just a way to let myself think also. I fully agree with you that a question is just a starting point to find out, to explore and to discuss. It's not about who gets the right answer. For that, I salute you for your attempt to take up the hard questions and answer them as fully as you did here. Well done!

    I find myself nodding as I scrolled down, until the last part about being fooled by randomness. Not sure if you misunderstand me, but I'm not saying that success is all based on luck. It's the part where we find ourselves narrating a series of things that we did, and each falling into place to lead us to a desired result that irks me. I admire strength of character, and agree that training all day long and being disciplined to do things to improve ourselves will eventually lead to success. But the sequence of events might be all haywired. Steve Jobs took up a class of calligraphy, without knowing why and without thinking it'll eventually create the beautiful typography of apple computers. He just did it. I'm quite sure he didn't have a great plan and he is doing a sequence of steps to reach that big plan. He just took what feels right, and forge his way towards the end goal with whatever he brings along in his baggage.

    But when we explain our success, we suddenly narrate it in such a rational story. The truth is, sometimes we succeed, and we don't know why. We just succeed and suddenly we're the happy winners of a lottery. Perhaps the hardwork played a part, but i'm sure there are times where we worked like crazy without seeing even an ounce of success. So what gives?

    I don't know. But I do know that to experience more success, we should be open minded and try out different things. It's always the people outside your group of friends that brings in revolutionary ideas and new business to you.

    To me, to be reminded of being a fool of randomness, is a call to be also the lottery winner of randomness. By going out of our usual pathway, and through reflections, we might hit something we never will if we continue our usual way.

    That, I think, is the spirit of the book and the spirit of Black swan by Nassim Taleb.

    1. Rolf,

      Lol!

      Next time someone feedback my comment long, I'll refer them to this post.

      I think this is the longest reply to rhetorical questions 😉

    2. Hi LP,

      Hahaha. I felt that the questions are good and led me thinking HARD. So instead, I decided to use it as an excuse to write myself a post on it.

      Engineer-trained Singaporeans all very obedient. Got questions CONFIRM must have answers!

      I think u probably remember I agreed on the Fool by Randomness part. We discussed before and that is why I was attracted to the book recommended by u.

      Yeah I think I misunderstood u earlier, that's when I felt strange that u can't possibly don't understand that success is not entire random.

      The hokkien song do make some sense "30% fate 70% effort!" And yes plus gut feel and just do it!

      Thanks LP.

    3. Hi Jared,

      hahaha… classic example of not only think too much and talk too much also… hahaha…

      That's why we are still young, you know! I don't believe when I am 60, I still write this long!

      CW – can vouch? Ooops not yet 60!

  3. Hi Rolf

    Wow mind boggling post and interactions you had there with LP!!!

    How do you know it's the highest point if not looking on hindsight? Who is to say that you are successful when your journey of life is not ended yet? Who are these people who commented and bragged so much about themselves? 😀

    1. Hi B,

      Hahaha…. interactions create thinking. Yes, the finishing line is not yet there! Save the best for last.

      But frankly highest or lowest is difficult to tell unless you look back. But we should be able to identify our high and low points on a more current basis, which to me is sufficient to help us tide out most (not all) storms.

  4. Hi Rolf

    Good conversation you have with LP here. Frankly, in another 60 years or so, most of us will be gone. Live your best life and don't look back.

    1. Hi FD,

      Thanks. Don't look back cannot identify the highest point. Haha….. but I agree to what you said. Highest or lowest is not important at all sometimes….. living the best of life is.

  5. Mental strength is everything. You just remind me of Stephen Hawking.
    And you are right, "Chiang se Lau de Lat"
    So is investing in the stock market needs a lot of mental strength.

    1. Hi temperament,

      Yeah you and CW are old gingers! Mental strength sometimes also being developed through great difficulties.

      Thanks for introducing Stephen Hawking. Something new I learn from blogging again.

      In 2006 Hawking posed an open question on the Internet: "In a world that is in chaos politically, socially and environmentally, how can the human race sustain another 100 years?", later clarifying: "I don’t know the answer. That is why I asked the question, to get people to think about it, and to be aware of the dangers we now face."

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