Time Has Come Today
Time has been on my mind recently. It is a scarce and precious resource.
“Time Has Come Today” is a psychedelic, cowbell-infused jam by The Chambers Brothers from 1967. The song has been covered by many, but my favorite version is from The Ramones, those iconic punks from Queens. I could listen to this song on repeat forever.
Since starting the fund, I feel demands on my time pulling in all directions. There is of course the essential work of meeting, valuing, analyzing and engaging with companies. I would love to dedicate all my time to this, but that is simply not possible.
There is fundraising to be done. There is administrative work and various reconciliations. There is compliance reporting. And then there are all the miscellaneous things like catching up with investors, creating a web site, or preparing a conference presentation.
I came down with the flu in early October, which knocked me out for nearly a week. It was an unplanned drag on my time that I am still making up for.
One result of this lost time is that this monthly letter is coming about two weeks later than I had planned.
I first became aware of the shortness of time when my daughter was born. Caring for a small child is a full time job on its own. It was then that I realized how spoiled with time I had been up until that moment. Her birth forced me to become much more disciplined around allocating my time. No more dilly-dallying – I had to get things done now.
One reason I decided to start the fund is because my daughter is now a teenager and no longer needs (or wants!) help from Papa. It is a bittersweet situation, but it frees up an enormous amount of time that I can dedicate to investing. For example, I am writing this letter at the office long after everyone else has gone home. Just a few years ago, I didn’t have the bandwidth to work so late.
Even with this newfound time, I now realize that I need to be stringent in its allocation to make this fund a success. I am working with Claude to automate what can be automated and saying “No” to more and more. Each moment I can shift away from non-investing activities, is more time that can be used to create value for our partners.
Busy or Productive
Even with increased time, my goal is not to be more “busy” with investing work.
Busyness is a killer of creativity.
Great ideas often come from using idle time to let your mind wander. Leo Szilard conceived the nuclear chain reaction during his daily walk by observing synchronized traffic lights turn from red to green. From that he theorized that energy released by splitting one atom could split two more, creating a cascading chain. Albert Einstein conceived his theory of relativity while daydreaming at the Swiss Patent Office. Darwin developed the theory of evolution over many years following his return from the Galapagos Islands during long walks around his estate. Used well, unstructured time is incredibly productive.
Why am I bringing this up?
One of the things I look for in CEOs is their degree of busyness.
A company can cruise along for a while if everyone stays busy: Rinse and repeat the processes that won customers in the past.
But when it comes to formulating a long-term strategy, it needs to come from the CEO thinking long and hard about all the ways the world could change in the future. Employees have to focus on their day-to-day work. They don’t have the mandate or bandwidth to think about the big picture.
A CEO who is too “hands on” is at a huge risk of failing to identify future opportunities and risks. Thinking 10 years into the future is mentally taxing. It requires truly idle time to allow your mind to roam free. It is paradoxically easier to be “busy” than “idle.”
I like to see my CEOs doing as little “work” as possible. One way to evaluate their busyness level is to see what the CEO is directly responsible for. If they double as the head of sales, a full-time position, I am worried. I prefer to see a “minister without portfolio” approach. I am encouraged by seeing capable lieutenants fully delegated to run sales, finance, production, etc.
I also ask the CEO directly – how do you spend your day? If the CEO spends a lot of time reading, talking to employees, meeting customers, working on transformational projects, I am enthused. If they are stuck in endless meetings where they need to make every decision that affects the company, I worry the long-term strategy will suffer.
My boss at J.P. Morgan was known to disappear for days on end. Others in the company griped that he wasn’t “working.” In reality, all that time spent quietly sipping espressos in Tokyo cafes resulted in an unending stream of unique and valuable insights.
In Search of Lost Time
Turning back to the Ramones and the shortness of time, Joey Ramone died in 2001 at the tragically young age of 49. His love of music was boundless. The Ramones released nearly an album per year from 1976 to 1995. His final request while on his death bed was to listen to U2’s “In a Little While” just one last time. Joey Ramone was dedicated to his craft until his last breath.
Japanophile readers likely know Katsushika Hokusai, whose paintings depicting Mount Fuji include the famous “Under the Wave Off Kanagawa.”
Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
As he lay dying at the age of 90, Hokusai pleaded, "If only Heaven will give me just another five years of life, then I could become a real painter."[1]
A real painter! If Hokusai wasn’t a real painter, I don’t know who is.
I am inspired by both Joey and Hokusai (who was punk rock in his own way, creating some truly bizarre ghost paintings). A lifelong dedication to honing your craft and an introspective war against complacency took them both far.
There have been times when I thought I was a halfway decent investor. My complacency was always followed swiftly by a thoroughly humbling loss. I now see that the journey of developing my investing craft is never-ending and will occupy the rest of my lifetime.
Time has come today. What we do with it is the essential question of our lives.
[1] 「天我をして五年の命を保たしめば、真正の画工となるを得べし」
