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Anecdote (July 2017): “Think hard about what you would like from your new coach and what you are prepared to give him,” I told Jackson (15). He’d requested a meeting with Darien’s head coach, a lacrosse legend. “Imagine two young people walk into my office,” I continued. “Person A says: I’d like you to help me build a great career. I’m really ambitious. Please help me.” Jackson nodded. “Person B says: It’s such a pri

Hope all goes well… Zipped down to Annapolis for a year-end celebration and the men’s lacrosse quarterfinals. Dusted off an anecdote from 2017 about sports, work, life (see below). Back again after Memorial Day with full weekend notes. E  Marcel Kasumovich and Kartikey Sinha published an interesting piece on resilience in digital asset markets and the relationship between bitcoin prices, funding rates, and volat

Anecdote: I first traveled to the UAE in early 2001 to lead a technology project in Sharjah, one of seven emirates, working out of a windowless warehouse at the airport, a tax-free zone built to entice entrepreneurs. Back then, skyscrapers were rising, sporadically, abruptly, separated by vast tracts of desert, connected by wide empty highways. Fast forward 22 years and the UAE is transformed by ambition, execution.

Hope all goes well… “If a founder comes here with national or regional ambitions I’m not interested,” said the Emirati, a decade or more younger than I, bursting with enthusiasm, energy, capital. He was raised in Abu Dhabi; I grew up in New York City. We attended the same boarding school in a small Connecticut town, although I didn’t mention it. International students intrigued me back then, usually shy, observant, c

Anecdote: “Since 2008, all investors have been punished together and then rescued together,” said the investor at one of the great Sovereign Wealth Funds. “Policy makers panic, the liquidity hose comes out, and there’s no real cost, because there has been no inflation,” he continued. “We’ve operated this way for so many years, and it has created such distinct market behaviors that our governments have legislated to f

Hope all goes well… “Hong Kong is filled with frustrated bulls,” barked Biggie Too, chief global strategist for one of Wall Street’s Too-Big-To-Fail affairs. “And New York is full of frustrated bears,” said Biggie, finishing up another world tour. “People don’t understand why the S&P is here. Look beneath the surface and there’s horrible damage. But you have these 10 tech stocks in a different universe,” bellowed

Anecdote: “You Americans generally do not understand the Chinese,” said the CIO from Asia, visiting us in Connecticut. “And we Chinese generally do not understand Americans,” she continued, a unique thinker, independent, aggressive, blunt. “And this is where I hunt for opportunities, in these kinds of misunderstandings,” she said, our teams brainstorming, looking for ways to work together more closely. “Do you think

Hope all goes well… “When regulators accept transfers of these congressional responsibilities, they not only drift outside their designated lanes, but they also remove the incentive for Congress to pursue legislative solutions,” wrote Jay Clayton and Gary Cohn in a New York Times opinion piece titled The Microsoft-Activision Mess Is a Blow to American Sovereignty [read here]. “Why go through the messy legislative pro

Hope all goes well… “Had this flashback of when I had just started playing, the old grass field in Santa Barbara,” said Jackson, my oldest. “And now I’m here. It just seems kind of surreal that I made it to this place, this team, this game, national television, all of it,” he said, on a high, electric. The Army/Navy lacrosse game was just 18hrs away. Army ranked 8th in the nation, Navy buried deep below, but with thi

Anecdote: “Credit started tightening six to nine months ago,” said the developer, a close friend, entrepreneur, with large residential projects across the nation. “It started with the money center banks,” he continued. “This pushed us to regional banks for our latest projects, but then SVB happened.” The market froze. “The lender for our latest 30-story project in a tier-one city backed out, so we scrambled, and spok