26 Ways to Fail at Business and Investing

26 Ways to Fail at Business and Investing Most people focus too much on how to get ahead by making the right decisions. In a world where most businesses go under and most investors trail an index fund, an obsession with how to not fail can be a more effective mind-set. Doing so requires knowing the behaviors that are likely to cause failure. Here’s a checklist of bad decisions I’ve witness over the years. Always remember: Success is due to your intelligence and effort. Failure is due to the political party you didn’t vote for. View “changing your mind” as a character flaw and something to be avoided. Associate complexity with added value. Surround yourself with people who agree with you or are too afraid to tell you you’re wrong. Treat information that goes against what you believe as an attack on your intelligence. Seek the council of people working on commission. Accept past correlations as a clean prediction of the future. Compete on cost rather than service. Prioritize in this order: Quarterly results, annual results, long-term results, and â€" if there’s anything left over â€" reputation. Develop strong opinions for things you have no personal experience in. Study the habits of successful people. Ignore habits which require serious, time-consuming and mentally exhausting effort. Double down on those which mimic your current hobbies. Use current popular sentiment to gau ge future outcomes, especially when it’s highly emotional. Dream big. About your future paycheck. Don’t let the intervening effort or social sacrifices required to get there become part of the story. Expect to achieve overnight what successful people took decades to accomplish. Leverage up to the point of needing your forecasts to be accurate in order to survive. Focus heavily on analytical ability, discounting common sense as too simple-minded. Treat employees as workers rather than people. Always ask, “How can I achieve the same investment returns they did, but faster?” Consider your last day of college the last day you need to study and learn. When you win, adjust your expectations upward by the same amount, ensuring that your ability to feel the joy of progress takes the form of a treadmill. Risk what you and your family rely on for a chance at something superficial and unnecessary. Since failure is not an option, discount contingency plans. Be genuinely surprised at the occurrence of recessions and bear markets. Consider a degree from a prestigious school as an entitlement to success. Look for patterns in complex adaptive systems, like the economy and stock market. Get tired of being patient. Check those boxes and you’ll be disappointing in no time.