Soul In The Game and Who Are You Trying To Beat?

I’m new to being a fan of Nassim Taleb.

It was my friend Marcus who pushed me over the edge watching him successfully trade the COVID downside market panic (the podcast we did last month is here).

Today Marcus linked to this great interview clip from Taleb talking not just about ‘skin in the game’ but ‘soul in the game’.

Here is the clip.

It is so true that ‘people hate you if you love what you are doing‘ and ‘if you do something you don’t like, it sort of corrupts you personally‘.

I am lucky to have a career where my soul is in the game.

I think ‘skin in the game’ is important but not everything. We are also learning that people with both ‘skin in the game’ and ‘soul in the game’ are getting crushed by this COVID pandemic and so I am trying to have more ’empathy in the game’ as we see ‘life is difficult‘ proved again.

Back in my thirties, my self esteem and self worth was tied to ‘beating’ the market. That was mostly a waste of time.

In a way we are all benchmarked, so beating the S&P was/is at least a pretty pure benchmark.

As a venture investor, the benchmarks are not as clear cut and that leaves room for more fulfillment, more art and more soul. No wonder it is all the rage amongst the yoots.

Now that I invest in stocks purely for profit and joy, I have no benchmark to beat as I report to myself. It allows me to pick and choose my battles more carefully.

That is a freedom I wish for everyone.