Economics, Original Thinking and Shareholder Protection
Friday Footnotes
What I’ve Been Reading
A couple of weeks ago I shared our Life Library; a series of books in a wide variety of areas that we should probably all read. Wanting to practice what I preach I recently read ‘What You Need to Know About Economics’ by George Buckley. I’ve spent my career working around economic principals, and reading economics books, but never actually read one that went back to the basis. This book is a brilliant summary of the key economic principles, and one I wish I’d read years ago. Definitely a good addition to the Life Library.
What I’ve Been Listening To
A few weeks ago I also recommended the podcast by Michael Lewis called ‘Against the Rules’. If you like Michael, or his books (Liars Poker, The Big Short, Moneyball etc) which I have to say I do, then it is well worth listening to Tim Ferris’ podcast interview of him here. He is a fascinating guy, with some contrarian views, but the talk provides many opportunities to learn.
What I’ve Been Watching
A few weeks ago I got the opportunity to interview Luke Tyburski, who, among other things, attempted to complete ‘The Ultimate Triathlon’. A monumental attempt to swim from Morocco to Spain, cycle from Spain to France, and then run from France to Monaco; a whopping 2000km in 12 days! The journey is certainly not without its hiccups, and it certainly doesn’t all go according to plan, but it is a brilliant demonstration of how far you can push the human body, and how to cope when things don’t go according to plan. Check it out on Amazon here.
TED Talk I’ve Found Interesting
How do creative people come up with great ideas? In ‘The Surprising Habits of Original Thinkers’, organisational psychologist Adam Grant studies "originals": thinkers who dream up new ideas and take action to put them into the world. In this talk, learn three unexpected habits of originals -- including embracing failure. "The greatest originals are the ones who fail the most, because they're the ones who try the most," Grant says. "You need a lot of bad ideas in order to get a few good ones."
Quote of the Week
“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.”
- Jim Rohn
Finance Theme I’ve Been Considering
Earlier this week I was chatting to a client of mine that runs a business with 2 other founders. We got chatting about what would happen to the business if something serious happened to one of them. With no prior planning, they concluded that if one of them died, the surviving widow would suddenly become 1/3 owner of the business. We explored how that would work; never being actively involved in the business, the widow would need income to support the family. The surviving directors on the other hand would want full control of the business as it might well be suffering financially as a result of the loss, and neither the widow nor directors wanted the widow sat at the boardroom table thereafter.
Even if they agreed the terms to buy the shares, would there be the capital available to do so. Being sensible, they had put Key Person cover in place the make sure the company had capital to recruit a replacement and deal with the loss, but they hadn’t given consideration as to how the company ownership would be affected.
