Stoicism expert and prominent author, Donald Robertson, joins Bulls, Bears, and Bourbon to discuss Stoic techniques for life (and investing).

Donald is a writer, cognitive-behavioural psychotherapist, and trainer.

Donald specializes in teaching evidence-based psychological skills and is known as an expert on the relationship between modern psychotherapy (CBT) and classical Greek and Roman philosophy. He was born in Irvine, Scotland, and grew up in Ayr. He worked as a psychotherapist for about twenty years in London, England, where he ran a training school for therapists, before emigrating to Canada in 2013 to focus on his writing and training courses. He now divides his time between Greece and Canada

Donald is the author of several books and many articles on philosophy, psychotherapy, and psychological skills training, including How to Think Like a Roman Emperor: The Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius. See his publications page for more information

Donald is one of the founding members of Modern Stoicism Ltd., a multi-disciplinary team of psychologists, therapists, academic philosophers, and classicists responsible for running Stoic Week.

Stoic Week started at the University of Exeter and grew into an annual international event in which thousands of people take part each year. It involves an online course teaching students how to apply ideas from ancient Stoic philosophy, combined with some techniques from modern psychology.

[01:20] – Introducing Donald Robertson

[5:33] – Stoic Techniques for investing and life

[8:10] – The View from Above

“People think that wealth is the most important thing in life, but he (Socrates) said I think actually they’ve got it back to front, and that what is most important to the good life is…wisdom and self-discipline.”

“Wealth and all the other good things in life are a result of this wisdom.”

“The Stoics without a shadow of a doubt in my mind were way ahead of their time in terms of their grasp of cognitive psychology…they really have a profound understanding.”

[21:40] – Suspending Judgment and Catastrophizing

“If you get too wrapped up in tunnel vision it makes you rubbish at problem-solving because you lose perspective and become rigid in your thinking, and it tends to amplify your feelings and make them overwhelming.”

“We live in a world where we’re surrounded by other people who consider in their vested interest to distort reality on our behalf. IN the ancient world those guys were called sophists…they traded in fear and anger because they wanted to provoke audiences to get their attention.”

[36:10] – Wealth as a Preferred Indifferent

“External wealth (property, money) is a preferred indifferent – what really matters is what we do with it…it’s a means to an end.”

[49:00] – The Contemplation of the Sage

“There’s only one person giving and receiving the advice in this relationship and that’s you. When you imagine what a found investor would’ve done you’re giving yourself advice…you’re having an internal dialogue with yourself about it.”

“You’re accessing your own implicit wisdom actually…you’re smarter than you realize.”

[55:00] – Premeditation of Adversity

“The Stoics believed we need to be realistic.”

[1:19:30] – Marcus Aurelius

[1:39:50] – The Meaning of Wealth

“Wealth consists of having more than you need.”

“As I get older, I spend less money – the more I earn the less I find myself spending.”

[1:42:35] – Advice to Himself

“I’d tell myself to reflect more on my own experience. I’d tell myself to review my life objectively from a detached perspective like I was observing the life of a stranger.”

Links:

Donald Robertson

The Ultimate Life Formula = Happiness = Wealth + Health + Happiness

Max Wojcik joins Bulls, Bears, and Bourbon to guide us through his ultimate life formula. Our discussion breaks down the 24 variables Max has identified as contributing to our happiness. Max’s formulaic, mathematical, and logical approach to defining happiness is intriguing and leads us to a wide-ranging discussion on topics like the importance of a personal brand, stoic philosophy, eating natural foods, and the power of compounding in investing and life.

Max is an engineer, by degree, with an emphasis on biomedical technologies and entrepreneurship. He owns an online publishing company that helps content creators combine and repurpose their content into books - expanding their audiences. He authored the first TikTok-content-based book titled ‘What To Risk.’ He’s a content creator himself and can be found on most major social channels by the handle MaximustoHimself.

[01:22] – Introducing Maxwell Wojcik

[5:20] – Daily Routine:

Journaling – “before you go to sleep at night, write down a question, and then when you wake up in the morning, answer that question.”

[19:05] – The Origin of the Ultimate Life Formula: “thinking ahead while at the same time being able to maintain a present-focused mindset – both of those are extremely important to the decisions we make on a daily basis and our overall happiness in life.”

Wealth:

[22:40] – Personal Brand: “all the power is going to people with brands.”

[27:25] – Platform: cross-promotions partnerships, direct customers, media contacts

[31:40] – The Risk You’ve Taken in Public: proof of good judgment

[35:30] – Capital: “how much money your either have on hand or how much money you have the potential of raising.” “No matter who you are today, there is at least $100,000 in your network that you could raise.”

[37:05] – People: “people leverage is the most competed over type of leverage in human history.”

[41:30] – Intellectual Property: “apps, books, videos, films, bots…anything that exists that you can create on your own time. You don’t need someone’s permission to post a video online. You don’t need someone’s permission to write a piece of code.”

[43:05] – How You Productize Yourself: “what do you do that society struggles to either learn how to do or do on their own that is fun for you to do.”

[45:17] – Compounding Interest: “not only in your money but compound interest in your relationships and in your habits.” “Staying in the game long enough is crucial to acquiring wealth.”

[48:40] – Valuation

[49:25] – Margin of Safety: “the difference between what you make and what you actually need to survive.”

Health:

[50:35] – High Resistance Training: “lifting weights is an important part of your biology because you lose strength quicker than anything else.”

[52:30] – Playing Sports: “not only does it help you stay active, but there is a community behind sports. And there is a competitiveness that we all need.”

[55:40] – Recovery: “if you don’t take the time to recover, you’re not able to maximize your focus and energy.”

[56:40] – Natural Foods: “avoiding anything that is packaged, you don’t know where it came from, was shipped from very far away.”

[57:40] – Intermittent Fasting: “choosing a window of when you are going to eat every day, and there is a certain number of hours when you don’t eat.” “We were meant to fast; we weren’t meant to eat all the time.”

[1:00:10] – Eat More Plants

[1:01:48] – Sleep

Deep Relationships:

[1:13:40] – Regular Contact: “I don’t just mean sending a text – I mean how often do you see them, how often do you facetime them, how often do you hear their voice.”

[1:14:50] – Communities: “groups online, in your neighborhood, gyms, clubs at school…I’m a part of a tribe. ”Being a...

Logistics and supply chains are usually the last things on our minds. We expect shelves to be stocked with our favorite foods and gadgets, and packages to arrive at our doorsteps within days of ordering them online. But recent disruptions have created a new interest in these typically disregarded topics. In this episode of Bulls, Bears, and Bourbon we take a peek behind the logistics curtain to answer some of the common questions that have been asked over the past year.

Craig Fuller is the founder and CEO of FreightWaves, the leading provider of global supply chain market intelligence and news. Prior to FreightWaves, Craig was the founder of TransCard, a major provider of fleet fuel and debit cards. He is also the CEO of FLYING Magazine, the world’s most widely read aviation magazine. Previously, Fuller founded the Xpress Direct division of US Xpress, the leading provider of on-demand expedited truckload services. He holds a BBA from Baylor University and is a private pilot. He lives with his wife and 5 kids in Chattanooga, TN. Enjoy this educational, wide-ranging discussion on the wild world of logistics.

[1:32] – Introducing Craig Fuller

[5:25] – The Trucker Shortage Lie – “the driver shortage is a lie – it never existed.” “The number of new trucking fleets to enter the market has never been higher.”

[13:22] – Trucking Recession– “you have this massive bubble, like you have in a lot of markets, that’s encouraged a lot of new trucking companies to join the market – they’ve been seeing these rates.”

[15:40] – Diesel Prices – “Diesel prices are up $1.85/gallon with no end in sight. So, we’ve seen an acceleration of diesel prices by about 60%. And just to put that into perspective, diesel is the number one variable cost of trucking companies.”

[23:00] –China– “They have the instrument of zero-tolerance for Covid, which means they will shutter their entire economy and basically jail and imprison their own people in their own homes until they sort of get control of Covid and stop the spread.”

“They are starving global markets, global consumers, of goods in addition to shutting down their cities…we can only watch this in shock and dismay.”

“We could see by the end of May, the volume of products leaving China being about half.”

[33:35] – Normal – “we are not going back to normal. We have to stop looking at what normal means. The world has changed.”

“The energy crisis is playing out right in front of our eyes…then you have the supply chain crisis…we’re not going back to the way things were.”

[48:40] Freedom Trade– “You have to ask yourself should be thinking about in the future, a freedom trade – we’re only going to trade with partners that are on a level playing field and treat ESG issues as we do in the West.”

[58:50] –Logistics Tech – “the world has changed because of these logistics technologies that were driven by capitalism and American orientation of global markets…it’s not digitizing the information systems and payments systems.”

[1:06:50] – What does wealth mean? – “wealth is different than what’s in your bank account. Wealth is having all parts of your life satisfied. So I know people who make $40,000 a year and are content…then you have other people who make millions of dollars and are always stressed about money. They’re sacrificing time with their families…that isn’t wealth to me.”

[1:10:40] – What’s one piece of advice you’d give yourself if you could go back in time? – “The two most important decisions you’ll make in life are who do you network with and how do you network…and who their partners are in life (their spouse).”

Links:

www.bullsbearsandbourbon.com

www.vermillionprivatewealth.com