Business and Personal Development

I’ve been teaching Chinese managers who use English as a second language advanced techniques in persuasion, speeches and negotiations for over half a decade now. Although these skillsets can be taught separately, I have found over the years how much more closely interdependent these skills are. I will demonstrate in just a moment the key elements in persuasion and speeches, which you may or may not be familiar with already, and further how to fit all these separate elements into a framework that works extremely well in speeches with a few examples from famous speeches.

First, why do I focus so much on persuasion and not influence? After all, influence is a powerful tool that we can use to get people to follow our lead. However, influence if not used correctly can also have a negative impact on the people you are leading. Influence is also a very direct form of leadership that a lot of people may not be comfortable with.

The main purpose of persuasion is to give people a direction so that they can then make their own decisions in a matter. Empowering others to their own right to make a decision allows them to create more trust in you (good for negotiation), and if they are persuaded by what you have said, they feel best when they make their own decision to follow the direction you suggest, not because you told them to, but because they’re doing it out of their own free will. In other words, I can still ”influence” others, but I use an indirect approach, one that I believe is at least 20% more effective than the direct one.

Now let me introduce some basic elements of persuasion. Continue Reading »

“In the long term, I think our stock markets are generally efficient. Though I’d admit they do go crazy from time to time.” — Professor Burton Malkiel, author, A Random Walk Down Wall Street

“In the short run the stock market is a voting machine but in the long run it’s a weighing machine.” — Benjamin Graham, author, The Intelligent Investor

“The basic ideas of investing are to look at stocks as businesses, use market fluctuations to your advantage and seek a Margin of Safety: That’s what Ben Graham taught us. A hundred years from now they will still the be the cornerstones of investing.” — Warren Buffett, CEO, Berkshire Hathaway

Rule #1 investing is all about buying $1 of value on the stock market for 50 cents or less. Continue Reading »

In medieval times, a moat protected a castle from attacks. You’re looking for something comparable here. You’re trying to find a business to invest in with a sustainable competitive advantage that means it will be difficult for other companies to compete against it. The wider that figurative moat is, the more difficult it will be for someone else to enter the market. And in turn, the greater the degree of certainty for you as an investor.

As a rule of thumb, you want to invest in companies that will continue to perform well for at least the next twenty years. You want to look for companies that have a sustainable moat. In the modern world, the five usual business moats are: Continue Reading »

Always remind yourself that you’re buying an equity stake in a going concern and not just a stock to speculate on. You want to be proud of what you own and what you put your money into rather than being in it just for the anticipated gain. Therefore, what makes a wonderful company is personal. A great business for someone else will not necessarily be a great business for you to invest in. You want to invest in businesses that are aligned with your own values and interests.

To decide whether a specific company has meaning to you, consider two follow-up questions: Continue Reading »

I worked for a mutual fund when I was younger and just out of school, got my Series 6, and on my way up to becoming a stock broker. A young gun who thought he had it all made you might say. Having always been interested in business, I took a sabbatical abroad to gain some new skills, and well, ended up staying to seek out new business ventures.

But I have to tell you that from those days I learned quite a bit about the mutual fund industry from the insider’s point of view. Most importantly, Continue Reading »

Venture capitalists know something the average investor does not — in business, you always bet on the jockey, not on the horse. An experienced and successful CEO with a great track record of success can always attract start-up backing for a new venture that an unknown CEO cannot access. Experienced venture capitalists never bet on new technology until they have faith in the person who will be responsible to guide the early-stage company to long-term success.

In the context of Continue Reading »

A wonderful business will be one that has four characteristics:

1. Meaning — you understand and value what it does
2. Moat — it has financial strength and predictability
3. Management — a great management team is there
4. Margin of Safety — it is available at a great price

In essence, what you try to do is identify a business you’d like to own completely because you relate to it rather than just looking for a stock that will make you money.

Continue Reading »