This year, I spent some extra time thinking about my father - and his influence on me and countless others. It's been 20 years since my last Father's Day with him.
My Dad was incredibly loving and demanding. I recognize how much his vision of what I could become helped shape me.
For example, after winning the State Championship in the shot put, my dad came down from the stands onto the field. He hugged me and told me that he knew I could do it. Then, he looked deeply into my eyes and asked whether I was a little disappointed? "Disappointed?" I asked. "But, Dad, I won." He looked at me and said, "Yeah, winning is great ... but you didn't throw a personal best." He was proud and he loved me. He recognized that winning was important ... but he wanted to remind me that the other throwers weren't my real competition.
In life, to be and do your best, the competition is really with yourself; and we both knew I could do better.
My Dad believed in setting high standards. He taught me that most people's lives are defined by their minimum standards. Why? Because once those standards get met, it is easy to get distracted and complacent.
One of his favorite sayings was "The difference between good and great is infinitesimal." This applies to many things. For example, people who are good take advantage of opportunities; people who are great create them. The point is that setting higher standards is one of the best ways to ensure a better life.
As time goes on, I recognize how much of him is inside me.
Nick Offerman via My Tales of Whisky
Many of the lessons he taught me became the lessons I taught my children - and my company. It's easy to focus on the big stories and the big lessons – but as I look back and consider what had the biggest impact, it was what happened in between ... It was his incredibly consistent and unconditional love and his focus on what was possible.
The standards I hold people to are high, and it can be tough for them to meet those standards. Hopefully, they understand that it's because I love them (as my dad loved me) and that I see the greatness in them and available to them.
Happy Father's Day weekend!
Committing To A Bigger Future
I'm a big fan of picking a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (sometimes called a "BHAG") and taking actions that move you in that direction.
I'm also a big fan of Strategic Coach's Bigger Future exercise. It is a 20-year planning exercise where you plan out your commitments and goals to yourself, your family, your career, and your legacy.
While doing this, I realized that my ideal next 20 years involves taking Capitalogix to the next level (and beyond).
As a result, I recently held a two-hour town hall session with everybody in Capitalogix. You'll find a 5-minute compilation of highlights at the end of this article.
Before I share with you, I want to take time to bring you up to speed on Capitalogix's history. Some may know the story, but many of you are new. It's important context for the video and for Capitalogix's future.
A Brief History of Capitalogix
In the 90's, I left a corporate securities law practice to start a company that was an early pioneer in automation, intelligent agents, and rule-based processing.(it is almost embarrassing to compare that to AI today). Nonetheless, we ended up on the Inc. 500 list, won lots of awards and had a great time. Little did I know how important that would be to what we are doing now.
Life intervened ... and 1999 was a rough year for me. My dad died of cancer, I got divorced, and I sold my company. That year inspired my TED Talk on the Time Value of A Life Worth Living, and has inspired the past 20 years of my life.
I threw myself into trading. At first, I was a fundamental trader. But I quickly threw myself into Elliott Wave theory, technical analysis, quantitative analysis, and everything else I could get my hands on. I spent hours on end marking up charts and creating early algorithmic trading systems - predecessors to how we trade today.
I also hired my first two employees - Gabriel and Sean. My dining room became their office. I started to view trading as a business, rather than a hobby. The thought forms that would become our framework for understanding markets were starting to gel.
By 2015, we had 20+ employees working out of my house, and I realized we'd outgrown my home. Here is a picture from the dining room before the move.
After a brief time with employees in three different offices (including one of our partner's offices) we found our current office.
Moving in to our new office represented a positive shift in culture and focus - and another step toward our goals.
Where We Are Today
We are committed to revolutionizing decision science (making better decisions faster). We're creating the future we've envisioned.
Yet, for all we've accomplished, we're driven every day to be better than we were yesterday. That drive comes from that big hairy audacious goal and that 20-year vision.
It comes from knowing who we want to be tomorrow.
Committing To The Future
It hasn't always been easy - but building Capitalogix has been an intensely rewarding passion.
Over the next 20 years, there are a ton of people I want to impact and a lot of goals I want to accomplish. Capitalogix is the way I intend to do that.
I look forward to you all being a part of it as well.
Onwards!
Posted at 05:33 PM in Business, Current Affairs, Ideas, Market Commentary, Personal Development, Science, Trading, Trading Tools, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)
Reblog (0)