by: Christopher H. Loo, MD-PhD
Welcome back to another weekly newsletter!
Hope you guys had a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend!
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year, as it occurs in late November with the leaves changing, cool, crisp air, shorter days, and falling temperatures.
It’s a time to look back on the year, reflect, and plan forwards.
This may not be a favorite time for many, but it focuses on the importance of family, relationships, significant others, and being grateful for what we have around us.
Despite what is happening in the world around us, uncertainty, calamity, dysfunction, I am constantly reminded of taking a bigger perspective.
Things could be a lot worse. We just make things out to be worse than they actually are. When we zoom out and take perspective- looking at opportunities, freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom to create our own futures, we really don’t have much to complain about. It also reminds me when I get into comparison mode to zoom out, and focus on my individual thought patterns, emotions, and habits, and create boundaries over what I can and can not control.
Despite our external circumstances (which we can not control), we can control our inner states. By accessing deeper and more meaningful states, then we can begin to create our futures and destinies from these places of higher power. When we try and create from states such as fear, anxiety, frustration, ingratitude, by activating the Law of Attraction, it leads to more of the same. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
However, when we access internal states such as gratitude, creativity, abundance, then we access higher states that activate the Law of Attraction for our good, despite what is happening externally. The top athletes, performers, influencers, public speakers, leaders know this. When they can control their internal they can shape and influence their external world.
The Financial Freedom Podcast reached another milestone with it’s 100th episode released with Julian Hayes II. We discussed the price of success and what are you really chasing after. You can check it out here on Apple podcasts. Be sure to like, follow, share, and subscribe to the podcast for weekly up-to-date content.
I also had the pleasure of interviewing Merrylue Martin (Big Quit Survival Guide) about employee engagement, retention in a post-COVID world where remote work, work-from-home, digital nomadism, and entrepreneurship is on the rise. I anticipate that the future of the workforce, employees will have more choice when it comes to employer choice. Salary will not be the only factor, but core values, location, freedom, culture and quality of life will play a larger factor. I also anticipate that should future workers be unable to find a workplace culture that fits and resonates with their values, they will opt to start their own companies and shape them based on what they believe and value as important. You can check out the podcast here: How to Attract A+ Employees During the Great Resignation.
Books I’ve read:
Leadership BS (2015) — Jeffrey Pfeffer. Great read on the fallacy of leadership, the recent leadership failures, and what to do about it. The main idea I took away from this book is that employees no longer own jobs. They rent them. Employers no longer own employees, they rent them. So each one has to look after their own interests first, whether that is through side hustles, different revenue streams. There is no longer loyalty on either side. There is no job security.
The Power of Curiosity (2015)- Kathy Taberner. This was a great read on conflict resolution. Perspective shifting. Getting curious as opposed to judging and defensive. And looking at conflict and discourse in a win-win light as opposed to an adversarial light.
Latest trends I’ve been following:
Investors hoping for smaller rate hikes- at the most recent FOMC minutes investors were trying to gauge whether the next rate hikes in December 2022 will be raised by 50 or 75 bps. The likelihood of 50 bps is much greater than previous, and so investors are bracing for what’s to come.
Continued fallout from FTX scandal- the contagion from the fallout of FTX continues with BlockFi and other companies such as Genesis struggling in the wake of recent events. It remains to be seen whether Genesis can pull itself out of the mess. Meanwhile the price of BTC, Eth, and other major players appears uncorrelated with the equities markets. Meanwhile developers, coders, and entrepreneurs continue working in the space. This is the cycle of innovation. Bad and weak players get extinguished during bear markets, while the strong and innovative continue to work, build, and thrive.
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