Jack Heald

Nassim Taleb points out that one of the fundamental beliefs that built America was that if you worked hard, were smart with your resources and met the needs of the market, then you would likely succeed. This type of approach Taleb categorizes as “Robust”. Conversely, if you are lazy, stupid and don’t meet the needs of your market, you deserve to fail. Taleb calls this approach “Fragile”. Taleb believes intrinsic to “the American Way” is that whatever is “Fragile” should fail early.

I think he’s onto something, not just in business, but in personal relationships as well.

Rather than performing a bail-out of my ex-wife every time she had an emotional meltdown because the direction of the wind changed, I should have allowed her to “fail”, which in this context means “experience the consequences of her actions.”

Instead, I “bailed her out” and kept her from “failing early”. Preventing those small early failures led inexorably to the ultimate spectacular relationship failure: divorce.

There are two types of apologies:

1. An apology for what you did
2. An apology for what you are

Sometimes the first type of apology is appropriate. Sometimes what you did was wrong, or thoughtless or self-indulgent and it hurt someone. You could have chosen differently.

But the second type apology is never appropriate.

It is wrong to apologize for something beyond your control. And it is wrong for anyone else to expect it.

Never, never, never apologize for what you are.

I thought by the time I was this age I would finally have it all figured out. By “it” I mean “Life”.  ”How to do it.” The “Big Questions” finally answered. But no.

I thought that by this age:

• I’d be financially set. Wrong!
• I’d still be married. Wrong!
• I’d have lots of really good friends. Wrong!
• I’d have work that was deeply satisfying and made a difference. Wrong!
• I’d be surrounded by happy family. Wrong!
• I’d have put down roots and be well known and respected in my community. Wrong!
• All my questions about life, God, love, happiness, success would be mostly answered. Wrong! 
• I would no longer feel like I was making it up every single day. Wrong!

Literally nothing in my life has worked out the way I imagined. Nothing. Not one blessed thing. And life just keeps throwing me curve balls at me. And I keep swinging and missing.

Apparently, I’m not doing something right.

I wonder what it is.

What would you do if the world were already exactly as it should be? How would you spend your time?

Back in November 2009 I made the decision to stop trading. I had been working at it for over 2 years, and had managed to lose a boatload over that time period. It was time to stop, time to regroup, time to rethink. It was a painful decision because trading – in so many ways – is a perfect “job” for me. It fits me in a thousand vital ways. But it wasn’t fitting me in one very important way – making a living.

I stayed away as long as I could – over 3 months. But I have decided it is time to get back on that pony. This time, I am a lot wiser. I learned a lot in those first two years, but the main thing I learned is that I was not being a professional trader. So what am I going to do differently this time?

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One of the behaviors I am working on with my clients to is to train them to take a Goal/Strategy/Tactic approach to running their businesses. A Goal is the end state of whatever you are trying to achieve. A Strategy defines how you will accomplish that goal, and a Tactic is a specific step you will take to execute that strategy. For most of my clients, the goals are clearly defined, but the strategies are not, and for those who have good strategies, few have clearly defined tactics. Without clear goals, strategies and tactics, it is much harder to achieve what you want to achieve. Hard work is no substitute for clearly defined goals, strategies and tactics.

With that introduction, I turn to Brett Steenbarger who (once again) points us to a way to assess the mood of the market daily. One of my continuing failures as a trader has been not recognizing the mood of the market, and trading contrary to the mood. It is a continual struggle for me to find the “sweet spot” between “looking at too much data” and “not looking at enough data”, and in that struggle I often lose sight of what the market is trying to tell me. Dr. Brett helps to point the way towards recognizing the data that matters and the data that doesn’t.

Now that I have identified that particular weakness of mine, I need a plan to overcome it. My goal is to execute trades that are consistent with the market’s sentiment. If I am satisfied with that goal, (and I am), then my next job is to refine my strategies for identifying the market sentiment. With appropriate strategies, then and only then am I ready to define my tactics for executing those strategies.

I know the GST approach doesn’t work for everyone, but for those – like me – who need an ordered approach to accomplishing anything, it is a worthwhile model for to follow.