If you look hard enough, you will find life lessons almost everywhere. Especially in the heavy metal genre of music.
And it feels right this time
On this crash course we’re in the big time
Pay no mind to the distant thunder
Beauty fills his head with wonder, boy
Says it feels right this time
Turn around, found new high lights
.
Then it comes to be that the soothing light at the end of your tunnel
Is just a freight train coming your way
.
Don’t it feel right like this
All the pieces fall to his wish
Suck up for that quick reward boy
Suck up for that quick reward they said
What I read
Apt description of how the market treats first time, naïve, retail investors. It all begins well and feel right and easy, notwithstanding the rumbling sounds in the background. The final flurry of a bull market just sucks you in to such an extent that you mistake the oncoming train for a soothing light that is there to guide you.
Been there, done that in 2009. This happens to first time investors so predictably that it is not even funny. People who started investing post the March 2020 crash and see budding genius in the mirror because of the 50%+ return from the lows, this might be you once the current cycle ends.
Iron Maiden – Face in the Sand
Everybody’s waiting for something to happen
Everybody’s waiting for something to see
.
Everyone’s looking, but no one is listening
Everybody wants to be in at the kill
.
Everyone’s searching, but nothing’s revealing
Everyone’s looking for the reason why
What I read
Activity is not always progressive, activity without any overarching purpose is simply wasted energy. More so in investing, unless your style is that you frequently trade in and out.
People just want in on the action for the adrenaline rush, for the lack of anything better to do. Even when they are given all the time in the world to search for meaning, most of them have no clue about the why of what they do.
Those who have a why are immune to some of the nonsense that others throw at them. These are the folks who have a vision, not those who walk around with descriptions of being visionary leaders in their CV’s. The very fact that they are trading their time for money (and in the process executing someone else’s vision) refutes most of their claims on this front.
Insomnium – Valediction
By the side, a forsaken path
I leave behind my old shadow
Into the deep, under these shores
I throw my broken memories
.
For something to change, something has to give
For something to grow, something has to give
What I read
We need to turn the corner every now and then and reinvent ourselves, else we run the risk of being an old, irrelevant shadow. Change and growth is the name of the game, though there is always some price to pay. One cannot move forward by constantly looking at the rear-view mirror. That last market cycle/relationship that screwed you over? Learn your lessons but get rid of the baggage.
To carve a new identity, some remnants of the old self must go. The people around us will resist it the most, this is the part of self-improvement that no one tells us about. Sometimes strangers can help in our transformation more than those closest to us.
When Metallica performed with Lady Gaga at the 2017 Grammy’s and some viewers wondered who they were, it was the end of an era in music. Almost every heavy metal concert I’ve attended over the past 3-4 years has an audience with an average age > 40 years. K-pop gets more motors running than does heavy metal these days, not that there is anything wrong with it.
Change affects almost everyone, no matter how talented they are or how great they were in their prime.
