2009....Year of the GRUDGE?

I spent a lot of time the past week thinking about 2009 and beyond. I have pretty much shut down my fund for 2008 and want to be positioned fresh for 2009. I have the luxury of not needing to chase any returns the last month and I have stuck to my guns.

In thinking through my investment thesis for 2009 and beyond, I continue to believe that SMALL and Flexible wins. Since I invest early early stage I will always have more losers than winners, but I am mentally prepared for it after years of doing it.

Trading broken trends is not a skill I possess or want to spend excess time on, so the markets will likely be a sideshow for me in 2009. The great news is Stocktwits.com is about finding the talented voices in any market all the time so I expect to harness some great ideas in different strategies to help pad my returns.

Staying focused and not pissed in 2009 will be key as the hate and grudge factor are nearing all-time highs save for the wonderful village of Amsterdam.

I mean Who the f#$@k is not pissed in 2008 (save me)? That’s the EASY trade of 2009 so I don’t want to take it.

I only had a few days in the village (Amsterdam) this year, but thankfully little has changed. The Religio’s are cracking down on weed and the red light district but you cant win ’em all. Nobody seems pissed in the village of Amsterdam. Lots of beer, laughs, locals, biking and walking. FEW Blackberries.

The rest of the world is going out in 2008 with a shot load of grudges.

As I end 2008, I have a few serious grudges which I cant shake. I am told by trusted advisors that I am crazy. It’s not healthy. A waste of energy…

I say bullshit! Everyone needs enemies. It keeps you focused.

That said, I do hate the time and energy I waste thinking about people that have wronged me. In order to focus my grudges more purely and keep them completely manageable, I will drop a few. No more Mahalo, Tech Crunch, Michale Arrington or Jason Calacanis nonsense over on this blog. There are too many people with ACTUAL grudges against them for me to stay engaged and spend energy. I truly have no beef and the people that do are loudly voicing theirs.

One of my goals is to get Ian and Vanessa, the founders of Spiritual Gangster , and my partners in the venture to allow me to wear the clothing. They don’t feel I am yet worthy :) . Hopefully steps like this help.

As for those I hold grudges against, my razor focus will allow me to better focus my grudge energy. Beware!

America’s grudges are running deep – banking, hedge funds, mutual funds government, corporations, jobs, unions, CEO’s….

The market likes to climb a wall of worry, but what does a market do faced with a tidal wave of hate and grudges.

No one has that crystal ball.

We need ideas and filters to get those with the best ideas, the most bandwith in the years ahead. Thank goodness technology has put us in a position to get that done. Thank goodness the old guard of media did not take the measures to keep the walls up.

It’s about technology and humans working together. Gabe at Techmeme sees it. Ev at Twitter sees it. Soren at Stocktwits sees it.

I am fired up for some big changes in News, Finance and the Social Web in 2009 and feel pretty good about how I am positioned. Take some time to do it yourself. Turn off the blackberry for a week and read less, write less and mix it up.