0:00

What do you have to be grateful for? We'll

0:02

pull up a chair and stay while. Let's be grateful

0:04

together this week. Let

0:06

us reflect on our world at

0:09

the end of another year. Let us rejoice

0:12

in the good things that we have.

0:14

Only on this week's Rule breaker investing.

0:19

It's the Rule breaker investing podcast with

0:21

Miley Full Co Founder, David Gardner.

0:26

Welcome back to Rule breaker investing. A delight

0:29

to have you join me during what is

0:31

for me anyway? I bet for you too.

0:33

One of the busier months of

0:35

the year. So thank you for sparing

0:37

some time to suffer fools

0:40

gladly. Speaking of thanks.

0:42

Well, that's the theme of this week's podcast. Near

0:45

the end of another year, I wanna

0:47

think together from a position of

0:49

gratefulness gratitude, the

0:52

power of that. I

0:54

started this annual series couple years back

0:56

after having a talk with my son

0:58

Gabe. Gabe is a well read young

1:00

lad at the age of twenty six. And one

1:02

of the books he's had on his shelf was thanks.

1:05

How the new science of gratitude can

1:07

make you happier. It's by Robert

1:09

Evans, EMM0NS.

1:12

This book originally came out, I believe, in two thousand

1:14

seven, I still haven't read it,

1:16

but my son Gabe did read it. And while I

1:18

was talking about it with him, he said the thesis

1:21

of the book is the general research

1:23

on just How a bit of gratitude

1:25

every day is one of the few things

1:27

that can increase our baseline level

1:30

of happiness. Now

1:33

maybe you dear listener have a practice

1:35

of gratitude. Maybe you say a prayer each

1:37

morning or have a meditation or

1:39

gratitude can take many different forms. Maybe

1:41

you have a systematic regular

1:44

process. And if you do, Well,

1:46

that's more systematic probably than I

1:48

have, but as it turns out as Robert Evans

1:51

shows through his studies, There's

1:54

a lot of positive psychology in this, by

1:56

the way, for positive psychology fans.

1:59

Well, as the inside of his book flap says,

2:02

quote, did you know that

2:04

there is a crucial component of happiness

2:07

that is often overlooked. In

2:10

fact, I'm just gonna read from the dust cover and

2:12

keep going here. Quote, in the

2:14

pages of this eminently readable

2:17

book, Robert Emmons editor in chief of

2:19

the Journal of Positive Psychology, draws

2:21

on the first major study of the subject

2:23

of gratitude of, quote, one thing

2:26

what we have and, quote,

2:28

and shows that a systematic cultivation

2:31

of this under examined emotion

2:33

can measurably change people's

2:36

lives and, quote, It goes

2:38

on, quotes, readers will discover

2:40

how one. People who regularly practice

2:43

grateful thinking can increase their

2:46

set point for happiness by

2:48

as much as twenty five percent. That's

2:51

sort of your baseline level of happiness.

2:53

By the way, your set point for happiness increasing

2:56

it as much as twenty five Many

2:58

think that's not increaseable, but you're almost

3:00

born with it or it's set for you in early days.

3:03

And Emmins is begging to disagree, and

3:05

I'll continue quoting two,

3:08

such increases can be sustained.

3:11

Over a period of months challenging the

3:13

previously held notion that our

3:15

set points for happiness are frozen. At

3:18

birth, And three,

3:20

keeping a gratitude journal for

3:22

as little as three weeks can result

3:24

in better sleep and more

3:26

energy. It closes,

3:29

quote, Evans also reaches

3:31

beyond science to bolster the case for

3:33

gratitude by weaving in

3:35

the writings of Los defers, novelists,

3:38

and theologians like

3:40

no other book has before

3:42

thanks. That's the title of the book

3:44

thanks. Inspires readers

3:46

to embrace gratitude and all the

3:48

benefits it can bring into our

3:51

lives. End quote. Well,

3:55

before I get started with my six

3:57

gratitude this time around,

3:59

I wanna give a couple of more quotes, and

4:01

I wanna thank speaking of thanking, My

4:03

son Gabe, again, for sharing it out.

4:06

One quote, this comes from the intro of the

4:08

book. Quote, it is gratitude that

4:10

enables us to receive and

4:12

it is gratitude that motivates us

4:15

to repay by returning

4:17

the goodness that we have been

4:19

given. In short, it is gratitude

4:22

that enables us to be fully

4:25

human. Finally,

4:29

the great twentieth century humanitarian physician,

4:31

theologian, and Nobel Peace Prize winner,

4:34

Albert Schweitzer, called gratitude,

4:37

quotes, the secret to life.

4:40

In one particular sermon, he summarized

4:42

his position by stating that, quote,

4:44

the greatest thing is to

4:46

give thanks for everything.

4:49

He who has learned this knows

4:51

what it means to live. He

4:53

has penetrated the whole mystery of

4:55

life. Giving thanks

4:58

for everything. And quote,

5:00

well, everything sounds like

5:03

maybe too long a podcast this week, but

5:05

I do have six things queued up

5:07

to give thanks for. Before I start

5:09

with the first one, let's

5:11

briefly think of the opposite. Of

5:13

gratitude. And that would be in

5:15

gratitude. And for me, it sounds

5:17

a lot like complaining. Complaining

5:20

about, well, everything. I

5:23

hope you don't have anybody like this in your

5:24

life. If I ever did, I don't have now. I'm

5:27

happy to say, but people whose

5:29

first instinct is to

5:30

complain. Whenever

5:32

I have in mind those fever, selfish,

5:34

little clods of ailments and grievances,

5:36

I have to go back speaking of quotes,

5:39

To another of my favorite quotes previously covered

5:41

on a great quotes, rule breaker investing

5:43

podcast, and that would be the George

5:45

Bernard Shaw quote from Man and Superman

5:47

on Living a great life. Let's

5:49

do it one more time right

5:51

now. And I quote, this is the true

5:53

joy in life. The being

5:55

used for a purpose recognized

5:57

by yourself as a mighty

5:59

one, the being of force

6:02

of nature. Instead of

6:04

a fever, selfish, little clod of ailments

6:06

and grievances complaining that

6:08

the world will not devote itself to

6:10

making you happy.

6:12

I am of the opinion that my life

6:14

belongs to the whole community. As

6:16

long as I live, it is my privilege

6:18

to do for it, whatever I

6:20

can. I want to be thoroughly

6:23

used up when I die. For

6:25

the harder I work, the more

6:27

I live. I rejoice

6:30

in life for its own sake life

6:32

is no brief candle. To me,

6:34

it is a sort of splendid torch

6:37

which I've gotta hold of for the moment and

6:39

I wanna make it burn as brightly as

6:41

possible before handing it

6:43

on to future generations.

6:47

End quote. Well, thank you George

6:49

Bernard Shaw for that beautiful contrast

6:51

between

6:53

Feverish clots of ailments and grievances

6:55

complaining the world won't devote itself to making

6:57

us happy,

6:58

and the exact opposite and

7:01

that is gratefulness in Schweitzer's words

7:04

for everything. Graditude

7:07

number one, well, for my first gratitude, darn

7:09

it. I do this every year. Graditude

7:12

number one, I want to thank you.

7:16

Yes, you. Whoever you are, wherever

7:18

you are, you are many places

7:20

you are all different, but

7:22

I'm speaking to you right now,

7:24

you a rule breaker, brother,

7:26

or sister in arms, fellow fools

7:28

all, a community to which I

7:30

can say, with Bernard Shaw,

7:33

my life

7:33

belongs. Thank

7:35

you for being there.

7:38

And not just, of course, to my rule breaker

7:40

investing podcast listeners,

7:42

although most of all, to

7:44

you, but I wanna thank all motley

7:46

fool members and prospective motley

7:48

fool members everywhere. Especially

7:50

I think of people who are not yet members

7:53

today, but who are awakened

7:55

to the beauties of questioning

7:57

conventional wisdom especially around

8:00

money which is at the heart of

8:02

capital f foolishness for

8:04

us. So for all fools

8:06

everywhere, for that spirit of

8:08

challenge, for doing it in a fun

8:10

way, which has to be the case. If

8:12

you're remotely full, it's one thing to be a

8:14

full challenging conventional wisdom.

8:17

But if you're a motley fool, you're bringing

8:19

some humor to it just like

8:21

Shakespeare's gestures. So to

8:24

every fuller spirit everywhere

8:26

I say, thank you. Because

8:29

arguably as much as I apparently enjoy

8:31

often talking to myself from one week to

8:33

the next, On this podcast

8:35

occasion with friends or special guests,

8:37

I wouldn't do it just to talk

8:39

to myself. I suppose I should

8:41

especially thank you. If you're

8:43

somebody who's shared your story, if you've

8:45

shared your question, if you've written

8:47

into our mailbag, any of the mailbags

8:49

this year or Any

8:51

other

8:51

year, thank

8:52

you. This podcast is

8:54

powered a quarter of the time

8:56

by you about one week and every

8:58

four is our mailback, and it's

9:00

your awesome stories, poems,

9:03

and questions which power

9:05

this podcast so and a special

9:08

Thanks to

9:09

you. And a

9:10

quick reminder, our mailback for this month

9:13

is next week. Our email address is RBI

9:15

at full dot com We will be

9:17

recording that early because it's

9:19

the holiday time of year. So get your

9:21

questions in right now. Well,

9:23

if you're listening to podcasts, go ahead and finish if

9:25

you like. But If you are moved by

9:27

anything you hear this week, if you have a question

9:29

about something we did last week or earlier

9:31

this month, if you have a story

9:33

to tell, here near the end of

9:35

twenty twenty two. I would love to

9:37

feature it on next week's mailback

9:39

rbi at full dot

9:40

com. You can, of course, tweet us Hope you're

9:43

still using Twitter tweet us at rbi

9:46

podcast. Alright.

9:48

Graditude number two. This

9:50

one, this year, is to the

9:52

game designers. Yeah,

9:54

the game designers. If

9:57

you've grown up in more than, let's

9:59

say, the last twenty five years, so

10:01

if you're thirty or older,

10:03

you have been raised in an

10:05

environment for games that

10:07

was very different from the

10:09

generations before. In this

10:11

regard, I first started

10:13

noticing that games were

10:15

getting awesome when

10:17

like books Publishers

10:19

began to put the names of the

10:21

designers on the

10:23

front cover, here not of

10:25

the book, but of the game

10:27

box. If you're like me, you

10:29

know that a lot of the games that you

10:31

used to buy before they showed up online

10:33

were in stores like Toys R Us, or

10:35

there might be a hobby comic store somewhere

10:37

nearby. But many of those games from

10:39

Monopoly to Yatzi,

10:41

Parchise, the list goes on. A lot of them parlor

10:43

games we still really I

10:45

still really don't know who designed those

10:48

games. The names of the designers were

10:50

not celebrated. They were not on the

10:52

cover, but for the last few

10:54

decades, they are very much on the

10:56

cover. So when you buy the game

10:58

wingspan from Stonemaier

11:00

Games, you see Elizabeth

11:02

Hargrave's name there. you buy

11:04

a great release from twenty

11:06

twenty two like Ark Nova, you

11:08

see first time designer Matthias

11:11

Vigas, I hope I pronounced his German

11:13

name. Right? Matías, Vigas

11:15

name right there on the front

11:17

cover of the box. And when Frosthaven

11:20

finally ships the most kick started game of

11:22

all time from brilliant game

11:24

designer Isaac Childress that's

11:26

happening somewhere around this time

11:28

right now. Yep, Isaac's name

11:30

is right there on the cover. And

11:32

so for years,

11:34

generations toiling in

11:36

obscurity, the game designers

11:38

were unknown. They were anonymous even

11:41

if we enjoyed their creations on

11:43

our table top with family members

11:45

on a regular or some time

11:47

basis And yet, they were

11:49

always the designers. They were

11:51

always designing in many of the great

11:53

game designers like Reiner Kinesia,

11:55

who's been with me on this podcast before Rob

11:57

Dabbio, many other great game designers

11:59

Richard Garfield, all of whom I

12:01

featured on Rule breaker investing over

12:03

the years They're not just one hit

12:05

wonders. Some are probably

12:07

like some bands too, but most of

12:09

them are repeatedly bringing out

12:11

their next game year

12:13

after year like successful great

12:16

novelists. So gratitude

12:18

number two is to the game designers because as

12:20

much as I love reading, I love playing games

12:22

even more. And I I've probably spent more

12:24

hours playing games than reading non fiction. I've

12:26

done a lot of both. Maybe you have two dear

12:28

listener. But over the course of my life, I

12:30

wanna thank the game designers. Now I

12:32

wanna broaden this a little bit

12:34

past the geeky world of tabletop

12:36

games and go to the

12:38

game designers that I can think of. I can

12:40

think of my friend and motley

12:42

fool cofounder, Todd Eder, who

12:45

for years, has created

12:47

games internally for

12:49

our employees Many of

12:51

our annual employee off sites where

12:53

we all come together, we call it Fula

12:55

Plusa every year. It just happened once again

12:57

this year. It more face to face than it

12:59

had been in recent years. Many

13:01

of those Todd has created a

13:04

dedicated and special game, a

13:06

unique one off for all of our

13:08

hundreds of fellow fools for us to

13:10

enjoy together whether it was an escape the

13:12

room experience or more like

13:14

a puzzle hunt Todd's done all of

13:16

those and created many other

13:18

games. And yet his name isn't on the

13:20

front of any of these because none of these

13:22

is boxed. But I want you to know

13:24

the game designers are all around us,

13:26

and I've done my best to surround myself with

13:28

as many great game designers. Todd

13:31

Eder is one of them, a dear friend, over the

13:33

years. Maybe you have game designers

13:35

in your life and broadening it just a

13:37

little bit more. I love game

13:39

efficacious. That is a major trend

13:41

today. It's happening in evident

13:43

places especially within learning.

13:45

But gamification, whether it's the

13:47

Hydrate Spark pro water

13:49

bottle, I was featuring in

13:51

recent weeks, which gamifies the drinking

13:53

of water from one day to the next and

13:55

makes it a communal competition

13:57

and celebration. Right through to

13:59

duolingo, the language teaching

14:01

app, and the streaks that you can rack up,

14:03

whether it's wordle, duolingo, or

14:05

whatever your favorite app is of choice.

14:07

Increasingly, I find as game of

14:09

find the world around us, and for me

14:11

anyway, That makes it a lot more

14:13

engaging and a lot more fun. So,

14:15

yeah, you betcha. I could have said this

14:17

any other year, but I said it this year.

14:19

Thank you. Designers

14:22

of games. Alright.

14:24

On to gratitude number three.

14:27

In recent years, on

14:29

my gratitude podcasts, I've

14:32

Focused on that great Jefferson line about

14:34

how lighting your candle, let's say

14:36

it's what you know, your candle is lit

14:38

and you light someone else's candle

14:41

with your taper as I

14:43

believe Jefferson was terming candles in

14:45

the famous line. Your

14:47

own taper, your own candle is

14:49

not diminished. As you light someone

14:51

else's, as you share a good

14:53

idea or thought with someone else

14:55

yours is not diminished and

14:57

the light grows. And that is indeed

14:59

a human dynamic that explains a lot

15:01

of our human progress over the

15:03

centuries that we are a social

15:05

creature we share with each other

15:07

often in the abstract through conversation

15:09

good things, and we all

15:11

win as a consequence.

15:13

Now, That is worthy of

15:15

support and celebration and gratitude

15:17

every year. But in particular, this

15:19

year, I just wanna focus on my

15:21

favorite new app. This fall. And the

15:23

reason I'm launching into this is because the

15:25

way I found out about this app

15:27

was through this podcast specifically

15:30

earlier this month we kicked off

15:32

November on rule breaker investing with mental

15:34

tips, tricks, and life

15:36

hacks, volume seven, always

15:38

fun to do about once a year that

15:41

series and I spoke to my love

15:43

of ebooks and

15:45

specifically of highlighting and

15:47

the elaborate amounts of highlighting that I've

15:49

done in the four colors with their

15:51

individual meanings. If this sounds interesting

15:53

to you and you didn't get a chance to hear this,

15:55

feel free to listen to the November second

15:57

episode this month. But I

15:59

spoke to my love of highlighting

16:01

and a couple of different fellow

16:04

fools came back to me and each

16:06

said in so many words, hey,

16:09

Do you know about read wise?

16:11

You just talked about your love of

16:13

highlighting and books and you said part of the reason

16:15

you don't read more, they said back to

16:17

me is your memory isn't great. And so

16:19

you're wondering, you know, should you spend

16:21

so much time reading if you're not remembering

16:24

a lot of what you're reading Have

16:26

you tried, said my friends,

16:28

Rex, and Kara, who both

16:30

happened to be listeners of

16:32

this podcast and molly full

16:34

employees, both Rex and

16:36

Cara said, have you tried read

16:38

wise? Now for many of you, you're

16:41

already nodding your head. You might

16:43

use read wise, which is sort of

16:45

a content aggregator. Whether

16:47

you wanna point read wise at

16:49

your Kindle app, and your reading

16:51

and highlights of your Kindle app or

16:53

maybe you do Apple books. You can

16:55

also do this with Twitter threads

16:57

There's a tool that you can plug in

16:59

that pulls from podcasts almost

17:02

any content that you'd like to

17:04

save or highlight wise

17:06

can work with, but at least for me,

17:08

in my early first few weeks

17:10

of keeping my daily streak going,

17:12

enjoying read wise, I'm just focused

17:15

mainly on the Kindle app, which I've made

17:17

elaborate use of. The first thing that

17:19

Rex and Cara suggested I

17:21

do, I've done, I

17:23

uploaded all of my Kindle

17:25

library into ReadWise where I

17:27

learned I've read ninety eight books

17:29

on my Kindle and I have

17:31

thousands and thousands of

17:33

highlights and ostensibly

17:35

what read wise does is

17:37

using machine learning I'm sure

17:39

things I couldn't fully understand. It

17:41

just powers back to me five

17:44

highlights from my library of all

17:46

highlights across all my

17:48

books five highlights each morning in

17:50

a daily happy email.

17:52

So I get emailed every morning

17:55

by read wise five

17:57

highlights from all the books that I've read over

17:59

the last ten plus years on my

18:01

Kindle and specifically the

18:03

passages, lines, or moments that

18:05

I wanted to highlight and

18:07

remember. And truly each morning

18:09

as I open up my read

18:11

wise daily email, it brings

18:13

a smile I can go back and

18:15

tag or favorite things. I can

18:17

discard if read wise has sent

18:19

me a particular highlight that I think is

18:21

irrelevant at this point. You

18:23

really are starting to craft your own

18:25

knowledge library with some of your own

18:27

tagging, your own

18:29

resource as a reader if you are

18:31

a very active highlighter

18:33

or saver of content

18:35

that you come across. So

18:37

again, for me, it takes the form of

18:39

the Kindle app But for you, it might work with a different app

18:41

or in different ways in your life. But

18:44

I'm here to give gratitude specifically

18:47

for read wise and more broadly for

18:50

friends like Rex and

18:52

Cara who point us to

18:55

good things in our lives. You know, the people who share with you

18:57

the tools. Kara,

18:59

who also appeared on this podcast

19:01

earlier this month with our company

19:03

culture tips, volume ten,

19:05

our greatest hits, caras,

19:08

motley, her value that she brings every day

19:10

to the motley fool she

19:12

describes as there's an app for

19:14

that. So yeah, the people

19:16

who share with you, the tools, the people who

19:18

know the apps, hey, have you read this great

19:20

book? A friend might ask or someone

19:22

else been to this great restaurant or

19:24

seen this new play

19:26

Let's give gratitude to the people

19:28

who turn us on who light our

19:31

candles because they have wisdom,

19:33

foresight, maybe knowledge of us, or

19:35

just in appreciation of the good, and

19:37

they share it out. Thank you,

19:39

Rex. Thank you, Kara. Thank you, read

19:41

wise. Gratitude number

19:43

three. Okay.

19:45

And

19:45

now gratitude number four.

19:48

Let's just call this one the

19:50

torchbearers.

19:52

If you're somewhere in

19:54

your sixties or older,

19:57

I think you already get this, but

19:59

for me anyway, well, here now

20:01

at the age of fifty six. This is kind

20:03

of a new one. I

20:05

think we need to get high enough up the mountain.

20:07

Reach a certain age

20:11

before we can finally not just

20:12

feel, but articulate

20:17

this

20:17

sentiment. Even if it is itself

20:19

a bit predictable, maybe even

20:22

threadbare. So forgive me if this

20:24

sounds cliche, but yeah,

20:26

the

20:26

torch bearers or put

20:28

another way, the young people.

20:31

I'm not just talking here about

20:34

the beauty of youth

20:36

or of innocence, though

20:38

those are precious ephemeral

20:40

things that we should do our best

20:43

to preserve as they are often

20:45

under threat and on a

20:46

clock, youthful

20:49

beauty, youthful innocence There

20:51

are things we can all appreciate probably

20:54

at any age but at a particular

20:57

age that might be somewhere

20:59

around my age

21:01

you begin to see a third thing in young

21:04

people, writ large, especially the

21:06

ones you love. You start to

21:08

see the torch bearers

21:11

emerge. If with

21:12

Bernard Shaw life is no brief candle,

21:15

to me, if it is

21:17

a sort of splendid torch, which I've gotta hold up

21:20

for the moment. And I wanna make it burn

21:22

as brightly as possible. Well,

21:24

what we then go on to

21:26

is that we we make it burn

21:28

as brightly as possible before

21:31

handing it on to

21:34

future generations And

21:36

those are the torchbearers. And in my

21:38

own life, both personally and

21:41

professionally, I've begun to

21:43

spy them out. To

21:45

see them, for what they are, for what

21:48

they will be. And it

21:50

gives me great comfort and

21:52

satisfaction. Tomorrow with Scarlet

21:55

O'Hara will be another day, and one of

21:57

those tomorrow's will finally not

21:59

include you and me

22:01

living and breathing anymore

22:03

but what we live for

22:06

and why we breathe. That

22:08

can and will persist

22:11

and it's through our torchbearers. They

22:14

may come from all walks of life. They may look

22:16

like you because, well, they're your

22:18

kids or grandkids or

22:21

they may not look like you at all,

22:23

but they are your torch

22:25

bearer because they carry forward

22:27

the things you

22:28

value. They are committed

22:30

They are with you.

22:32

You may have fancied

22:34

them behind you. And

22:36

in years, maybe they are, but

22:39

they're actually coming alongside

22:41

you and they, the young

22:44

people provide you hope In

22:46

such promise, this new generation is the smartest ever

22:48

born with by far more

22:51

worldly experiences and

22:53

more complex challenges than

22:56

any generation that has ever walked

22:58

this earth and to think that you

23:00

have and are finding more

23:02

people who you dear listener

23:04

are connecting with who are readying themselves

23:07

over months or years or

23:09

decades to

23:10

carry. Your

23:12

torch. That's a

23:14

delightful

23:14

thought. If you wanna see what a

23:17

torch bearer looks like to me, well, relisten to

23:19

any number of rule breaker investing

23:21

podcasts. This year or any

23:23

other, listen to the analysts. Joining

23:25

me for review of Palooza's

23:27

or market cap game shows, listen

23:29

to mailbags. Fellow

23:31

fools, capital f, writing in

23:33

who totally get it, who

23:36

share their stories

23:38

or re listen to or hear for the

23:40

first time if you missed it by conversation

23:42

with tennis professionals Sem4Beak,

23:45

last month, October

23:47

twelfth. Barbara

23:49

Fredriksen of the University of North Carolina Chapel

23:51

Hill who may be the world's leading expert

23:54

on happiness and positive psychology puts

23:57

hope among her top ten

23:59

most common positive

24:00

emotions. Hope

24:03

One of my best friends, Wikipedia describes

24:05

hope. This way, hope is

24:07

an optimistic state of mind

24:10

that is based on an expectation

24:13

of positive outcomes with

24:16

respect to events and circumstances in

24:19

one's life or the world at large as a

24:21

verb. Hopes definitions

24:24

include expect, with

24:26

confidence, and to

24:27

cherish a desire with

24:30

anticipation. Well, these

24:32

are really lovely definitions

24:35

and exactly why young

24:37

people to whom my

24:40

gratitude number four pays

24:42

tribute this

24:42

year. Give me

24:45

give us Hope.

24:49

The torch bearers. Alright.

24:52

Well, on to gratitude number

24:54

five, this one I first had to articulate

24:57

at a high school

24:59

reunion. My class was gathering

25:01

back in Southborough, Massachusetts chooses where I graduated

25:03

from Saint Mark's School in nineteen eighty

25:05

four. It was our tenth

25:07

reunion. In nineteen ninety

25:09

four, which On a

25:11

total side note, for perspective's sake was

25:13

also the year the Mottley full launched on

25:15

AOL. The joy of

25:17

our regathering as high school grads

25:19

ten years later, was

25:21

bittersweet in that early

25:23

on that weekend's Saturday

25:25

morning, we gathered at the

25:27

chapel for brief service in mourning of one

25:29

of our classmates, one of our brightest

25:31

classmates who enrolled

25:33

after high school in the naval academy

25:35

and it died during a training

25:37

flight in the Atlantic Ocean,

25:39

north of Puerto Rico,

25:41

having launched from but not

25:43

ever returning to the aircraft

25:46

carrier USS John

25:48

F Kennedy.

25:49

I've been asked to

25:50

say a few things at

25:52

that chapel service and I felt the weight of

25:54

that without really knowing as a young man, what

25:56

to say? These days

25:59

when needing to learn something I'd probably

26:01

start by googling. But

26:03

in nineteen ninety four, well, Google still wouldn't

26:05

exist for four more years, so I don't know how

26:07

I started searching about for for

26:09

what to

26:09

say, maybe Yahoo, but

26:12

I lighted upon

26:14

this. Part of what we

26:17

lose when we lose someone

26:19

Part of what hits us hardest

26:21

is that we actually have just lost

26:24

part of

26:25

ourselves. The part of ourselves

26:27

that blooms, blossoms

26:29

shows itself. In

26:31

only a certain way,

26:33

in the presence of that friend,

26:36

or dear family member. By

26:39

default, that part when they

26:41

go away has to go

26:42

away. The part of me that

26:45

is only with you

26:46

is now gone.

26:49

The

26:49

part of me that is only with

26:51

you

26:52

is no more. I felt

26:54

this two weekends ago at

26:56

another memorial service this fall, this time for

26:58

a family friend felt

27:01

it for all of us there that day. Each of us, because each

27:03

of the people there to pay tributes, was

27:05

a certain version of

27:08

themselves only in the

27:10

presence of that

27:11

man. In the same way that you

27:14

show different sides of yourself to

27:16

your

27:16

mother, or father

27:18

different than you

27:19

showed to your best friend from high school,

27:21

or your cousin,

27:22

or your favorite college

27:24

prof, favorite because saw

27:27

something special in you that

27:30

version of

27:30

you, that unique version of you with

27:32

its own history of differentiated from

27:35

all other sets of stories that

27:37

version of you melts away

27:39

when someone you

27:40

love is gone.

27:43

Gerard Manley Hopkins in his beautiful poem spring

27:45

and fall to a young child begins by

27:47

asking his address, c, presumably

27:50

a young child named Margaret,

27:53

Margaret, are you

27:55

grieving over golden

27:56

grove, unleaving?

27:59

It's fall and the beautiful golden grove is dropping

28:01

all its leaves and perhaps this

28:03

sensitive child cries at

28:05

the

28:05

site, but As

28:08

the poem bends to its

28:10

brief end, the poet asserts

28:12

it is the blight man

28:14

was born for it is

28:16

Margaret. You mourned

28:18

for. And that puts

28:21

me in mind of this same thought

28:23

about loss, part of the loss,

28:25

part of the mourning and part

28:27

of the healing. Very important parts

28:29

too are the recognition and

28:32

acceptance that we have now lost

28:34

something of ourselves. That we

28:36

will never regain. It is the blight

28:38

man was born for. It is

28:40

you yourself that

28:42

you're born for. And

28:45

so during the season of fall where the leaves

28:47

are dropping and we reflect back upon the

28:50

year as it's been including

28:52

our

28:52

losses, which have been

28:55

many. I'm

28:55

here to underline something to

28:58

be thankful for.

29:00

Here too, to be self aware

29:03

about this because though I've recounted a few

29:05

stories of loss and reflection on

29:07

what loss really

29:09

includes the part of me that is only

29:11

with you is no more. I

29:14

wanna be the first to celebrate

29:16

and underscore the part of

29:18

me that is only with

29:20

you very much alive and worthy of

29:23

gratitude for all those we

29:25

are connected with

29:27

today here. Now

29:29

that joke from your school days that can

29:32

only truly be

29:34

appreciated by that friend who was

29:36

with you. In

29:38

those days, that spouse or a

29:41

partner or therapist who

29:43

knows only this or

29:46

that thing about

29:47

you, that person that you can

29:49

or choose only to share

29:51

with that child who

29:54

makes a hero of you, even

29:56

if you don't feel heroic yourself,

29:58

that way that you

30:01

show up that is only in

30:03

that context. Well,

30:06

those contacts, those connections,

30:09

those relationships, which one day cease

30:11

when one of you does those

30:13

things are precious. And an awareness

30:15

of that, perhaps especially

30:18

over the Thanksgiving table this week here in

30:20

the US of a, that acknowledgment and

30:24

appreciation of those with

30:26

whom you are connected, that

30:29

part of me that is

30:31

only with you

30:33

needs to be

30:33

felt, seen, acknowledged

30:36

if you like, thanked.

30:40

Appreciated for however long and

30:42

however rich you can

30:44

make it. That part of me

30:46

that is only with

30:49

you. Is gratitude

30:51

number five. Alright.

30:55

On to number six.

30:57

Final gratitude for gratitude twenty

30:59

twenty two. And

31:01

is this

31:02

surprising? Maybe it is. I wanna

31:04

thank the market.

31:06

I wanna thank the market and

31:09

why we invest. I wanna start

31:11

by saying that we can

31:14

even invest is worthy

31:16

of our gratitude. For many of

31:18

us hearing me right now, you were born

31:20

into a society that

31:23

you probably I included are in

31:25

danger of taking sometimes too

31:27

much for granted.

31:29

It's hard to appreciate all of

31:31

the things that have privileged

31:33

us. That we have inherited in

31:35

some cases or just naturally

31:37

been surrounded by or fallen

31:39

into through serendipity.

31:41

However, we got to where we are

31:44

right now that we can even

31:46

invest for those hearing me right now

31:48

where you could save a

31:49

dollar. And you could actually through the

31:52

stock market put that into part ownership

31:54

of

31:54

a company whose

31:57

products and services and

31:59

work in this world

32:01

you admire, that you can take pride in, that

32:03

you can actually become a part owner

32:06

of that company through

32:08

the small miracle of

32:11

the stock market that we so

32:13

often to often take for

32:15

granted. That that's pretty

32:17

great. What's even better? Because it

32:19

gets even better. If you've invested it

32:21

well and you give time

32:24

time to happen, It

32:26

grows in value over time with

32:29

you. Good news for you. With you doing

32:31

very little. I have

32:33

done very little to

32:35

power the stocks that have powered my

32:37

life and the lives of many who

32:39

followed the motley fool and continue

32:41

to going forward, I hope for the

32:43

next three decades, we're still just

32:45

getting started at full h q, but I've

32:47

done very little to help Amazon

32:50

or Netflix. They have done so

32:53

very much to power for me

32:55

and for many financial

32:57

freedom that the market is even

32:59

there, that we're in a society that

33:02

has that, that protects it,

33:04

that enables it to

33:06

flourish, and to be run properly. There's a

33:08

lot of human fallibility in and

33:10

around business in the markets, we all can recognize

33:12

that as well. But that we even

33:15

have a market we can invest

33:17

in and find financial freedom through

33:19

that is worthy of great

33:21

gratitude. But then I think

33:23

also of this past year,

33:25

When who really wants to thank a

33:27

market that has lost somewhere between a fifth

33:29

and a third of its value for many

33:31

of us depending on what kinds of stocks

33:33

you're invested in and how deeply

33:36

your investor. Why would we

33:38

thank a market that has made

33:40

us poorer throughout

33:43

twenty twenty two and I'm put in mind

33:45

of past guest year's odd

33:47

demeanor and his encouragement to you and

33:49

to me through his

33:51

vehicle of positive intelligence,

33:53

the stories that we tell ourselves and how

33:55

we choose to live our

33:57

lives based often on

34:00

what we allow into our brain and how

34:02

long we wanna hold our hand over

34:04

an open flame or retract it

34:06

and move on to a more comfortable

34:08

place Shirazad said even in our worst

34:09

experiences, he would say,

34:13

these are gifts,

34:16

and opportunities. Part of

34:19

the

34:19

gift of bear

34:20

markets, part of the gift

34:23

of a stock market that

34:25

on average over the last years has lost

34:27

value about one year

34:30

in three.

34:32

out of every three years, if

34:34

you're an investor for life like

34:36

me, you are going

34:38

to lose. And part of the

34:40

gift of that seeing through

34:42

Schirazod's lenses for me is to

34:44

make us appreciate the

34:46

good times. There's something really

34:48

amazing about a dynamic where you

34:50

lose one out of three times

34:52

because the other two times which occurred

34:55

twice as often as the one bad time, the other two

34:57

times, which includes the bad time,

34:59

roll up to a

35:02

remarkable compounding vehicle, whether we're talking about over three years

35:04

or three decades or your

35:06

whole lifetime losing to win

35:08

is one of my favorite repeated

35:12

themes on this podcast

35:15

losing helps you

35:17

and me appreciate winning. And

35:20

hard times make the good

35:22

times even sweeter. And the truth

35:24

is if we

35:26

never lost, If we didn't ever hard not

35:28

be able to savor the many

35:30

good times both behind

35:33

us and yet ahead of

35:35

us. It is a true gift to

35:38

experience loss because it makes

35:40

us truly appreciate

35:42

the good times. Another gift

35:45

of market sell off of watching the tide go

35:47

out. Yep. Is that you

35:49

see, as the wag says, you

35:51

see who wasn't

35:53

wearing pants. You know, if the marker was

35:56

always going up, if speculation was

35:58

always rewarded, then

36:00

all kinds of half

36:02

baked crazy ridiculous business

36:04

models, questionable characters,

36:06

all of these would be constantly rewarded. It

36:08

would be hard to separate the

36:10

silver from the drawers. So indeed,

36:12

it takes market sell offs to

36:16

expose Shekinery to expose fraud, to expose in some

36:18

cases, hearts in good places, but

36:20

with bad business models, we've

36:22

seen that certainly this year any

36:24

number of things that have imploded and often

36:26

for good reasons, we can look back

36:28

to the pump and dumb schemes of

36:31

the past to the ponzi schemes, to the

36:33

difficulties of two thousand eight and nine,

36:35

to two thousand and one. If you wanna

36:37

keep going back, you can Many

36:40

market sell offs over the course of

36:42

time have provided natural

36:44

consequences that need

36:46

to have happened for us to get back

36:48

on track with good things that

36:51

really matter. It is a gift. Is

36:53

it not Shiraz Shahin,

36:56

these market sell offs, they send the tide out,

36:58

and they expose the

37:00

silly. And that is important. And

37:04

finally, I think that there is an opportunity.

37:06

There is an opportunity in

37:09

market sell offs to

37:10

learn. Haven't we done this this

37:12

year to learn When Emily

37:14

Flippen came on the podcast earlier this

37:16

month and said, you know, I'm grateful

37:19

for this time because I

37:22

still have so many years ahead to invest and to

37:24

prosper, but I have just

37:26

lived through a real market sell off for

37:28

the first time I believe Emily said

37:31

in my adult life. And that's

37:33

a real opportunity to learn about

37:35

the markets and

37:38

about ourselves. Is a great line. I

37:40

think this is ascribed to Nelson Mandela. I either win or I

37:42

learn and market sell offs aren't

37:44

about winning. Right? So I think I

37:48

know what they're about. And so it has

37:50

been a gift and an

37:52

opportunity and always

37:54

will be when

37:56

every three years or so, the

37:58

market one year sells off or every

38:00

decade or so, we have a

38:02

so called

38:04

financial crisis often leading to the market losing a third or

38:06

more of its value. It has

38:08

happened before, it is happening

38:10

now, and it will

38:12

always recur again

38:14

and again and that's why it's about

38:16

just keep swimming, persistence and

38:18

resilience not being a weak

38:20

hand who gets shaken out by one

38:22

bad year or one bad era because

38:24

you pay such an opportunity cost

38:27

for not staying invested,

38:30

for fleeing when the chips

38:32

are down, you will be so well

38:34

rewarded for recognizing the gifts

38:36

and opportunities in these

38:38

times and overall the power of

38:39

capitalism, conscious capitalism, and

38:42

the

38:43

market. Well, I said at the start of

38:46

gratitude number six it's about the market

38:48

which I've just spoken to, but

38:50

also why we invest. And that puts

38:52

me in mind of something I've shared. I

38:54

haven't done this in a few years now, but it

38:56

felt right to do it this time

38:58

of this year about why

39:00

we invest because that's another thing I'm

39:02

extremely grateful for, not

39:04

just the market itself,

39:06

but why we invest. So I'm gonna share back with

39:08

you in closing a

39:10

brief essay, which I've turned into an

39:12

audio essay that sometimes recurs in

39:14

this podcast as

39:16

well as a poem that was inspired by it

39:18

to close this week. This is an

39:20

essay I first wrote in Mottley full

39:24

stock advisor when I wrote the intros. This one was back in two thousand

39:26

ten. I think we were even still

39:28

a print newsletter perhaps. There was still

39:30

maybe a print version of stock

39:33

advisor back in two thousand ten. I'm certainly a fan of not having

39:35

print versions anymore, so I vote for that.

39:37

But that's how old this

39:40

is probably And shortly after it occurred on our

39:42

discussion boards at fool dot com, one

39:44

of our members who went under this

39:46

screen name

39:48

Captain Heikhu, which I later understood to be two

39:50

young women who were sisters, composed

39:53

a brief poem in

39:56

on. So I'm gonna share both my audio essay and

39:58

their poem to close, and

40:00

here we go. Gratitude number six, closing

40:02

it out with why we invest My

40:05

favorite episode of my favorite mini

40:07

series, Band of Brothers, is

40:10

entitled

40:11

why we fight. Without wishing to spoil the story for those who

40:13

haven't yet seen it, I won't give away the answer to the

40:16

question, but the episode

40:18

is a beautiful sad

40:21

and gripping piece of Hollywood poetry and the phrase

40:23

why we fight has since stuck

40:25

with me and

40:28

it's morphed. Into my own

40:30

phrase, why we invest?

40:34

Let's peel every layer of the

40:36

onion away at the start, at the root

40:38

of the fruit is this

40:40

simple reality. We

40:42

work hard in this world to build

40:44

up savings. That's savings we

40:47

call

40:47

capital. Our capital represents the sum total

40:49

of our life's efforts

40:52

expressed monetarily above and

40:54

beyond

40:55

what we've When we invest, we're doing

40:57

something very wonderful and very

41:00

difficult. We're forfeiting the

41:02

enjoyment of the use of this capital

41:05

in the near term. All our instincts and

41:08

temptations many of our peers,

41:10

perhaps even a

41:10

spouse, urge us sometimes directly

41:13

or subtly by association Against

41:15

this, spend it now reads

41:18

or sings or shouts any

41:20

one of thousands of messages

41:22

confronting the typical adult

41:24

every day but investors

41:26

take at least some

41:28

of their capital and do

41:30

the exact opposite we forego the

41:33

instant gratification. Well, that

41:36

on its own is admirable, but we

41:38

go on further. We we

41:40

investors, we crazy

41:42

investors forfeit the enjoyable,

41:44

immediate use of our capital

41:46

for no certain reward.

41:50

As stock market investors, in particular,

41:53

we invest willingly knowing that our

41:55

unspent and

41:57

unenjoyed capital

41:59

may actually at least partly

42:02

disappear. If

42:03

there's a better reason for calling ourselves

42:06

fools, I don't know that the world will

42:08

ever find it In particular,

42:10

practicing my own unique style of

42:12

investing is a more aggressive rule

42:14

breaking investors seeking

42:16

to maximize My returns,

42:18

I flat out know that

42:20

I will lose money

42:21

on many occasions. Throw

42:24

in the academic studies that say individual stocks isn't worthwhile

42:26

because you can't reliably beat the indices.

42:28

And now you can see why

42:31

do it yourself investing is

42:33

a niche. It's a niche. We've been

42:36

helping to grow, but it's a

42:38

niche.

42:39

Here's why

42:42

we invest. For our

42:44

children and

42:45

grandchildren. Because our parents

42:48

and grandparents did and made

42:50

our lives, so much better. Because every dollar

42:51

invest helps

42:52

support the companies and

42:55

businesses we admire and

42:57

buy from. Because

43:00

we love and celebrate

43:02

ownership and believe this world will

43:04

be far stronger for

43:06

more owners. Not more

43:08

renters. Because the academics

43:11

are wrong. Because

43:13

with Arthur O'Shaughnessy and his own,

43:15

we are the music makers and

43:17

we are the dreamers of dreams and

43:20

investing is our instrument.

43:22

And making dreams come true

43:25

is even Then Disney, I think a very

43:28

real, motley

43:30

fool end.

43:32

And a hundred other reasons besides

43:34

these are all in part or

43:38

in whole.