My Impressions: The 48 Laws of Power

I listened to the audio version of this through Overdrive.  Basically an app that links with local libraries (I got a library card).  I don’t have to pay for books this way, and the selection is actually pretty great.  The downside for me personally, is speech speed is just much slower than my reading speed.  Finishing a book around 9 hours vs. finishing a book around 3 hours…  Big difference.  But, since this is utilized during downtime (commute), then it’s not that bad at all.

The 48 Laws of Power 

There are a few reasons why I went through this book.  First, I confused it with another book.  I remembered another book about leadership that was in the format of “Laws”…  Thought it was this one.  Nope.  Second reason is, this is one of those books that keep on getting recommended by different people or on different lists.  It keeps on showing up!  So it had to be read at some point or another.  Other books on that list include Zero go One, Lean Startup, Why Hard Things are Hard…

The third reason I went through this book is to use this as an opportunity for my memory exercises.  I recently went through an online course that basically said, don’t be a person that reads through information really quickly but end up remembering nothing.  I feel like I am kind of in this mode right now.  The good thing is, most people are in the mode of reading through everything slowly, and still not remembering anything.  Though, majority of people simply just don’t read. 

I’m sure many people have read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, since it is one of the all-time best sellers.  My dad still has 3 copies on the bookshelf.  He made me read it when I was in middle school.  I had to have another discussion with him on it in college…  The truth is, how many people that read the book still remember what the 7 habits are?  I mean, there are ONLY 7 habits.  But…  Be truthful, most can’t remember them.  This is why the 48 Laws of Power is a great practice.  

My methodology of remembering this book.  There are 48 laws.  This is a great number because it is a multiple of 12.  So I use Chinese Zodiacs.  I link 4 laws with one animal, and create a story. So for the first four laws:

     1. Never outshine the master

     2. Beware of your friends

     3. Conceal your intentions

     4. Don’t say more than needed

The first animal of the Chinese Zodiac is Mouse.  Now creating a story with any mouse is kind of ridiculous, so it came down to Mickey or Master Splinter.  I remember in my childhood when I watched the TMNT cartoon, there was a scene where Master Splinter was still human, he was training with Shredder (?) under the same master.  They were trying to bow down, and Shredder stabbed a knife into Splinter’s shirt against the wall so he couldn’t bow (law 2).

So the story goes like this.  Master Splinter was betrayed be Shredder.  He got pissed, took out a concealed firearms and shot Shredder to pieces without saying one word.  This short two-line story helped me remember 4 laws just like that.  Good practice, and a lot of bragging rights if someone asks you about the 48 laws.

Impressions on the content itself

I think the book purposely has a tone of darkness and cynicism in it.  Though most of these principles can be rephrased in positive light, the market is already full of them.  I think there’s a lot of marketing reasons behind this.

The laws itself are interesting, they provide me a framework to think about a lot things.  There are a few coworkers that constantly do things and say things that sounds my internal radar BEEP BEEP BEEP constantly.  I don’t know why or what words to use to describe how they are fucking me, now I do.  They paint a rosy expectation, they make me do their work, and they take the credit (all are Laws of the book).  I do think a lot of the Laws work, but they don’t always have to be used so negatively.  The most important is, if you use them in such a cynical fashion, know that it will backfire on you like a bitch if others know what you are doing.  I don’t think you should play with fire if you’re covered in gasoline.  

Another book I’m currently reading, Driven – by Robert Herjavec from Shark tank, provides a lot of business insights.  I was able to map a lot of Robert’s insights into these power laws instead of having to try and remember every little piece of wisdom Robert throws out.  In terms of numbers though, some Laws are similar or variations of the same concept.  I do think it could be trimmed down to maybe 36 Laws of Power, which is still a cool number, and you can still use the Chinese Zodiac (or Western Horoscope) for memory practice.  

My Impressions: Barefoot Executive

I wanted a lighter read than all the Options Trading stuff.  This was a light read.  

In the book, she focused on 3 common mistakes for entrepreneurs:  

1. Chasing someone else’s dreams

2. Chasing too many rabbits

3. Chasing dollars

The Barefoot Executive: The Ultimate Guide for Being Your Own Boss and Achieving Financial Freedom

I guess the most important here is the first one: Chasing someone else’s dreams. Usually, this statement is understood as if you’re not in business for yourself, then you are achieving what the boss tells you.  You are achieving his/her dreams instead of yours.  This is also what I thought about the statement for years.

Here, Carrie adds a slight twist into the statement.  Instead of “taking orders,” she says don’t follow the same path as others because you’re jealous/envious or whatever.  For example, a lot of people are creating apps on the phone and making a killing.  You may go into business to create an app and sell it to the world.  You are not “working for someone else.”  But the problem with this thing is, maybe you have no experience at all in making apps.  Instead of leveraging your current strengths, you are stepping into a domain which you need to go through 100% learning curves in multiple areas.  

And truthfully, that does sound kind of ridiculous right?  You think you are going to do something better with 0 experience when everybody in the game already has been doing it longer than you?  Not impossible, definitely.  But…  Why not leverage your current strengths and double down what you’re already good at?  

And here are a few inspiring quotes in the book:

A lot of you are too busy being busy.  The difference between business and busyness is the “I” and the “y” (why).

Done trumps perfection, every time.

People will spend more money to solve their problem and to fix pain than they will for prevention, pleasure, or privilege.  E.g. selling weight loss will always outsell wellness.  (The opposite is also true, if you can bring yourself to pay/prevent ahead of time, you will save tons down the line)

My Impressions: How to keep people from pushing your buttons

This is a tool book for keeping people from pushing your buttons.  Since I’m an Asian Male, I definitely have temper issues.  I want to blame it to both genetics and upbringing.  But then again, I want to be my own man and be a better man.  Often times I identify closely with fictional character Sameen from the TV show, Person of Interest – self diagnosed with Axis II Personality Disorder, basically means I rarely feel anything except for anger.  Graduated college/MBA, happy?  Nothing.  Parents didn’t come to either ceremony, sad?  Nothing.  Got a job, happy?  Nothing.  Got laid off, sad?  ANGER!!

So I got this book because: 1. It was on sale for 1.99, and 2. I wanted to fix my anger issues. The book claims it is not a “think positive quickie,” but rather a tool book to teach you a specific skillset against people pressing your buttons.

How To Keep People From Pushing Your Buttons

There are exercises that I believe are helpful to developing this skill.  You have to really do it like any exercise book to actually improve the skill.  I’m in the opinion that most people fail at improvement is because they think they “know it” once they “understand it.”  I’m on the side of, “If you don’t live it, you don’t know it.”  Being financially responsible or eating healthy is not rocket science.   Most people “know it.”  But they don’t live it.  If that’s the case, then, do you really know it?  If you bought a TV for 300 and a sound system for 500, would you hand a check for 2,000?  No. 
300 + 500 = 800.  It sounds dumb enough.  You know the math.  You live what you know.  Then why don’t you live other things you know?  

Anyway, my understanding of meditation is very limited.  But to me, the skills in this book are a breakdown of steps on how to meditate.  Instead of just being all zen-like or sleeping while sitting, you try to find internal peace. 

     Separate your thoughts from you. 

     Look at yourself from a 3^rd person. 

     Look at your reactions from a 3^rd person. 

     Look at your feelings from a 3^rd person. 

     Look at how ridiculous you reacted.  Then don’t do that. 

Like any skill, this takes conscious effort and practice to develop.  

The book gives a solid 4-step framework tool to use anytime you feel like your buttons are being pushed.  Just these two days, I had a few instances: Dumb ass on the road making me furious, speculating options making me anxious, and some regretful mistakes I keep on thinking about.  I walked through the steps.  I feel less jumpy.  I guess the most important piece is having a very specific tool instead of trying to wing it and calm yourself down.  

In addition, the last few chapter of the book actually goes through very specific examples that are very relevant and very real for everyday life.  How to deal with the boss, with a spouse, with kids, job interview…etc.  It’s a good template to get started on.  I’d recommend it.  

My Impressions: Volatility Trading

Can’t remember where I read reviews on this book, and apparently it was one of the must read books on trading options.  Going through the contents, what appealed to me most was there was a section on Kelly Criterion (which I used a variation of when I was card counting).  I still think card counters are the best bankroll management people compared to average traders, poker players, and investors.  This is because to be a successful card counter, each one of us probably played hundreds of thousands of hands to get to “the long term.” During this long and lonely road, most of us probably experienced “3 standard deviations” to the left.  Basically this is a grueling time where we question the meaning of life and our existence and if it’s statistically possible to lose so much for so long.  

Money managers, traders, poker players “go bust” a lot easier than card counters. They take it lighter too.  They either leave the game (fired, bankruptcy, quit), or start a new bankroll.  Going bust a few times isn’t that big a deal for these non-card counters.  This is even more so if the money isn’t theirs.  Card counters grind a lot harder, so we guard our money a lot closer.  I don’t see myself making 100k trades a year, or even my whole life.  But I can easily play 200k hands of blackjack in a few months.  This is probably also why it’s hard to tell if someone is a good trader, because even after 10 years, they probably haven’t made 200k trades.  The sample is too small, luck plays a huge favor. 

Volatility Trading

Now asides from bankroll management, the main thought the book gave me was how trading is portrayed as the polar opposite of entrepreneurship. 

One home run.  In entrepreneurship, you only need to hit it once and you’re set.  One homerun, it doesn’t matter how many failures you’ve had prior.  However, people generally seem risk averse in trading/investing.  There seems to be a huge preference of taking small steady profits (and potential large downfalls) selling net short options instead of evaluating the game mathematically.  Instead of one homerun to make it, money people trade one strike out to lose it all (again – shitty bankroll management even if they played a positive expected value game). 

Ignorance could be bliss in entrepreneurship.  Many successful entrepreneurs admitted to saying they wouldn’t have started their business if they really knew how hard it was (check Guy Kawasaki).  Overconfidence was mentioned in the book as one of the top major thinking errors.  In entrepreneurship, a lot of successful people defied all odds to become successful.  Overconfidence helps.  On the long and suffering journey of entrepreneurship, being constantly optimistic and confident helps to stubbornly move forward towards success.  The society is a better place because of them.  The rest of us also gain value from their creation.  However, in trading, overconfidence leads to you blowing up your bankroll.  Then you’re broke or fired.  In trading, there is no collateral benefit for you being cocky.  The society does not gain. 

If my opinion mattered, I believe the minimum quality all traders should have is be a net-positive blackjack player after 500 hours (100 hands / hour) without replenishing bankroll.  Playing that much with real personal money, a little something dies inside and a little something else is born.  But then again, wtf do I know about trading?  

My Impressions: The Financial Times on Options

I’ve been trying to read a lot of books on Options.  Since Options is such a complicated topic, it’s really hard to learn about it from “one book” because the depth and technicality of the subject varies greatly across different books.

Usually there are books that give the basics, and pump out a lot of “strategies” -> Or basically ways to mix and match buying/selling call/put options.  To me, these types of books are generally boring.  Once you know your ABC’s, these fancy names aren’t really that special… Candors / butterflies / something bear / something bull / something spread…  Meh.  

The other extreme are books that get super technical with all the formulas and unless you’re a math major…  Good luck…

Financial Times Guide to Options: The Plain & Simple Guide to Successful Strategies, 2nd ed. (Financial Times Guides)

This book is neither, nor in the middle.  Although this book gives strategies for traders to contemplate on and gets technical on certain aspects about hedging Greeks… To me, it feels more like a, “Here are my thoughts on the market as a whole after many years of trading, don’t do stupid stuff such as XYZ.”  Because of this tone, it feels like you’re reading a book written by a human rather than a robot.    

Some key stupid stuff to not do include:

     Don’t take a net short position

     Know why your strategy is working (and why it not)

     Markets change (strategies should follow)

     Keep the bell curve in mind

I don’t think I ended up using any specific strategies mentioned in the book. However, based on new information I learned, I actually came up with new ideas and looked at new places such as the VIX and XIV.  

Check it out. Pretty cool book. Slightly different flavor than the other books on the market.

My Impressions: Two Awesome Hours

I bought the book because I needed something not as “heavy” to read.  This was around 150 pages of content, so I thought it would be a good quick break for me.  

Two Awesome Hours: Science-Based Strategies to Harness Your Best Time and Get Your Most Important Work Done

Instead of cramming more hours into a day and trying to optimize the efficiency of everything you do, the author suggest focusing on the broader/macro picture and making 2 hours really effective.  The five main strategies are:

     1. Consciously recognizing your decision points

     2. Manage mental energy (emotions)

     3. Stop fighting distractions

     4. Leverage mind-body connection

     5. Make your workspace work for you.  

Strategy 2 was fascinating to me in particular.  The book goes into how certain emotions are a lot more useful in specific situations.  And if we channel the right emotions to the right situation.  Looking at recent events of my own life, lots seem apply.

Anxiety and readiness are physiologically the same.  Next time when you are performing or public speaking, if you feel nervous, change that mindset to “I’m ready.”  Beyonce says she’s always nervous before a great performance.  I was nervous in my recent Karate belt test.  Apparently I messed up a karate-form and didn’t even realize.  If I primed myself to think “I’m ready” instead of “I’m nervous,” maybe the outcome could have been different.

Sadness makes us less trusthworthy.  If you’re buying a house or a car and the sales person is painting a fancy picture of you owning all this awesomeness…  Think of your dead childhood dog that got ran over by a car or something.  When someone’s pumping me up, I just think of all the people that fucked me over – e.g. laid me off, cheated on me, stole credit…etc.  All of a sudden I’m not so trusting.   Someone else submitted an offer?  Yeah bullshit.  My offer is off the table if any of the other sales rep calls me back and gives me what I asked for.  Whoever calls first gets it. 

Anger is helpful when we need a push on taking a risk.  For example if you want to risk current sales by increasing price, or go sky diving with your buddies…  The emotion helps in situations that are not pleasant to begin with.  Recently I’m planning to make huge binary bets in the options market.  If I am wrong (or if I am right, but it doesn’t work out), I would lose A LOT of money.  The same token, if it does work out…  Then I’m a huge step closer to financial freedom.  I am so excited thinking about it.  I want to do it.  But as the time comes closer…  I’m having doubts. I’m kind of scared.  I don’t know if I can actually stomach the loss… 

Then, these days I have meetings with a manager that belittles everybody and talks down to everybody…  Shows up late to meetings, high-jacks the meeting, makes me feel stupid and useless, barks out orders, and leaves.   I felt physically sick being in the same room as this manager.  I wanted to quit my job (and I don’t even report to this person).  That’s how bad it was.  I was so hungry.  FUCK THIS.  WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?  It was YOUR fault on the first place for sitting on this damn thing for four fucking months.  Took 0 action even with my weekly reminders.  Then someone CCs your boss (not me) and you get all upset because you didn’t do your job.  Fuck you and your bullshit!  I can’t stand any of this shit.  If my options bet work out, then I won’t have to.  Fucker. 

So yeah…  Anger helps push to certain risk taking behavior…  We’ll see how that turns out soon enough. 

You can help me by buying a lot of airline stocks and pushing them up.  Thanks!

My Impressions: Made in USA (Sam Walton)

I think it was Tai that was spamming/scamming my youtube or something that made me aware of this book.  He basically said, if you want to be an entrepreneur, how could you not know/read about the man who made Walmart.  I guess that was a convincing argument. 

I had this book on my wishlist for a while, then one day my BookBub daily e-mail alert had this book on sale for $1.99…  So I bought it…  Buying a lot of books…

Sam Walton: Made In America

I don’t think this book was inspiring in an entrepreneurial way.  However, what is really interesting is to read the story of Walmart from its early days – how it was operated, the beliefs, the struggles, the strategy…  That baby Walmart is a very different one than the one I grew up and knew about.  Seeing how the tides have turned, seeing how the culture is different now compared to then…  Very fascinating and very interesting. 

The most interesting for me was seeing the relationship between Walmart and P&G change over time.  From the beginning of the book, P&G didn’t care about Walmart.  After Walmart increased in size, the two became good business partners near the end of the book.  Even later than in the book, one of my college professors was describing a negotiation deal on operating efficiency between Walmart and P&G.  Walmart expects its suppliers to have margin improvements and economies of scale.  So after a certain amount of time, they will come, sit you down, and give you a new (lower) price.  And there’s nothing you can do about it besides nod and say thanks.  Who knows, I wasn’t there.  But even with exaggeration, seeing this relationship take a complete 180 shift is also thought provoking for me.  And fun fact: P&G sells more product to Walmart than to all of Japan…

And finally, I’ll end with a quote from the book with Sam Walton commenting about how 76 of the top 100 discount stores in 1976 went out of business:

It all boils down to not taking care of their customers, not minding their stores, not having folks in their stores with good attitudes, and that was because they never really even tried to take care of their own people.  If you want the people in the stores to take care of the customers, you have to make sure you’re taking care of the people in the stores.  That’s the most important single ingredient of Wal-Mart’s success. 

Does that still apply to the Walmart today?