The Propeller - June 11, 2023 - Ted Lasso, Microsoft, and Beating the Stock Market

Life Lessons from Ted Lasso

I watch very little TV anymore, so when I do watch it I try to make sure it is high-quality entertainment and not just a show that is used to kill time. Ted Lasso is a show that I recommend everyone watch. It is a comedy show about an underdog and inexperienced American Football coach who is hired to coach a professional soccer team in England. He is hired to ruin the team’s legacy by a bitter owner, but in Major League style (A great movie), he turns the team around. I always love an underdog story, and this show is full of love for the underdog.

At the beginning of the series, Ted Lasso tells his players to be goldfish because goldfish are said to have a 10-second memory. The message is to move on from mistakes rather than lingering on them. “Be a goldfish” is about more than just sports, however. Lingering over mistakes is all too easy in life, but this memorable saying from Coach Lasso serves as a reminder that people are defined by how they react to mistakes, not their mistakes themselves. It’s important to accept mistakes in any part of life and be able to move on quickly.

Being a goldfish applies to any aspect of life, but it is especially wise in the context of sports. Regarding soccer specifically, every player is bound to make a mistake over the course of a 90-minute match. It’s essential for any player to be able to forget those mistakes and move on to the next challenge. Little pieces of sports wisdom like this demonstrate why Ted, a man who doesn’t know a thing about soccer, is able to coach the sport. He may not be able to discuss tactics, but as a motivator and a leader, he is able to give his players the tools they need to succeed.

Ted’s son, Henry, saying “be a goldfish” in the Ted Lasso season 3 finale is the perfect way to end the show because it harkens back to what Ted is all about, and it shows that he has instilled these values in his son as well. In the end, Ted is trying to make his players the best people he can. It isn’t about winning or even about the game, Ted treats his players like he treats his son. His real mission is to help the people in his life be the best possible versions of themselves, which the “be a goldfish” saying perfectly encapsulates.

Tech: Microsoft, Copilot, and AI

As a Microsoft employee working with Fortune 500 companies to help them utilize AI and cloud technologies, I get to see lots of cool stuff before it is released to the public. Although I am under a non-disclosure agreement for a lot of it, we recently had our yearly conference Microsoft Build, It is the yearly bellwether event for Developers. A lot of the event focused on all the cool things coming soon in the area of Artificial intelligence (AI). Here is a link to the Book of News detailing all those announcements – https://news.microsoft.com/build-2023-book-of-news/ Most of it is very technical, so for those less “techy” people out there, let me just say, this is some VERY cool stuff!

Also new is the Microsoft 365 Copilot experience that works alongside you, embedded in the apps you use every day—Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and more. It combines the power of language models with your business data and context—including all your Microsoft 365 apps, documents, and conversations. It can help you with various tasks such as writing, editing, summarizing, creating, and more. It is like having a personal assistant.

Here are some possible ways to use Microsoft 365 Copilot:

Copilot in Word: You can use Copilot in Word to draft, edit, summarize, and rewrite documents with natural language prompts. You can also change the tone of your document, add content from other sources, and improve your writing skills with suggestions.
Copilot in Excel: You can use Copilot in Excel to create formulas, charts, tables, and pivot tables with natural language commands. You can also ask Copilot to analyze your data, find insights, and make predictions.
Copilot in PowerPoint: You can use Copilot in PowerPoint to design, create, and present slides with natural language prompts. You can also ask Copilot to generate content, images, animations, and transitions for your slides.
Copilot in Outlook: You can use Copilot in Outlook to compose, reply, and schedule emails with natural language prompts. You can also ask Copilot to summarize your inbox, find important messages, and suggest actions.
Copilot in Teams: You can use Copilot in Teams to collaborate, communicate, and manage meetings with natural language prompts. You can also ask Copilot to transcribe your meetings, generate action items and summaries, and follow up on tasks.

These are just some examples of how you can use Microsoft 365 Copilot to unleash creativity, unlock productivity, and uplevel skills.

I can’t wait for all these tools to be released for all of you to experience how cool they are and how much they can help you.

Finance: You can’t beat the market, so Join it!

Investing in the stock market is like a magical unicorn that can either make you a gazillionaire or leave you penniless, depending on how you handle it. Think of it as a dance floor where you have two moves: investing and speculating. Investing is like doing the salsa with a professional dancer—smooth, calculated, and full of potential rewards. But speculating? That’s like attempting a breakdance routine without any prior experience. You’re just flailing around, hoping you don’t break something (like your bank account). If you want to dance with the stock market, remember: invest wisely or risk looking like a clumsy chicken trying to tango!”

As a general rule, it’s best to assume that you can’t beat the market by picking individual stocks. The data to support this position is far from conclusive, but what we do have suggests that the S&P 500 index outperforms the individual investor by a factor of roughly two over the long run.

Consequently, the vast majority of investors would have both more time and more money by simply purchasing shares in an exchange-traded fund that tracks the index. Tracking the S&P 500 will yield you more than even the best financial advisors can ever make for you. And it is extremely simple to do.

Many investors may perceive a strategy of investing exclusively in funds like these as capitulation — an admission that they don’t have the gravitas to take on the market and win. The best that can be said about this philosophy is that the market isn’t a forum in which to test machismo; its function is to make you money.

Warren Buffett is one of the most successful investors in the world and his advice is sought after by investors of all levels of experience. One of Buffett’s most famous quotes about beating the market is: “The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient.” This quote reflects Buffett’s belief that the best way to beat the market is to invest for the long term and not let short-term fluctuations discourage you. Buffett also believes that it is important to invest in only things that you understand. He says: “If you don’t understand what you’re investing in, you shouldn’t be investing in it.” This is because it is difficult to make sound investment decisions if you do not understand the underlying businesses.

Buffett believes that it is important to be patient. He says: “The most important quality for an investor is temperament, not intellect.” This is because it takes patience to ride out the ups and downs of the market and to stay focused on your long-term goals.

Index funds are passively managed investment funds that track a specific market index, such as the S&P 500. They are a popular choice for investors because they offer a number of benefits, including:

Low fees: Index funds typically have lower fees than actively managed funds. This is because they do not require a team of analysts to research and select individual stocks.
Broad diversification: Index funds invest in a wide range of stocks, which helps to reduce risk. This is in contrast to actively managed funds, which may only invest in a small number of stocks.

Overall, index funds offer a number of benefits that make them a good choice for investors of all levels of experience. If you are looking for a low-cost, diversified, and low-risk investment, then index funds are a good option for you.

Here are some additional benefits of investing in index funds:

Index funds are easy to buy and sell: They are available through most brokerage firms, and they can be bought and sold just like any other stock. (Email me if you need suggestions on specific funds)
Index funds are a good way to save for retirement: They can be used to invest in a retirement account, such as a 401(k) or IRA. This can help you to grow your savings and reach your retirement goals.

If you are considering investing in index funds, it is important to do your research and choose a fund that is right for you. There are many different index funds available, and they vary in terms of fees, performance, and risk. You should also consider your investment goals and time horizon when choosing an index fund.

Think you can beat the market? Try out this online game that has you buy and sell during different times in the market. See if you can, I’m betting you can’t! https://qz.com/487013/this-game-will-show-you-just-how-foolish-it-is-to-sell-stocks-right-now

What I’m Reading/Listening To This Week

My goal of reading one book a week in 2023 is still underway. I am on book number 24 this week! (I’ll be publishing a Blog post soon on my website http://www.LeonardMack.com with full reviews of all these books.)

What I read Last week:

Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don't Know

Wow, I learned a lot in this book and this book was nothing like what I was expecting. Although this book was a bit long and slow at times, Gladwell explored many challenges of understanding people we don’t know in this thought-provoking book.

Here are the main two takeaways from this book for me:

1) We are bad at reading people. We tend to trust people too easily, even when there is evidence that they are not trustworthy. This is because we have a natural tendency to believe the best about people, and we often overlook or discount information that suggests otherwise. This can lead to bad decisions, such as hiring the wrong person for a job or investing in a bad investment. For example, we might think that someone is being honest when they are actually lying, or we might think that someone is being friendly when they are actually trying to manipulate us.

“We are all natural detectives, we are constantly trying to figure out what other people are thinking and feeling. But we are not very good at it.” – Gladwell

2) We need to be more skeptical of strangers. It is important to be aware of our own biases and limitations when it comes to understanding people we don’t know. We should not assume that we know someone just because they seem friendly or trustworthy. We should always take the time to get to know someone before we make any important decisions about them.

“We need to be more cautious about the strangers we meet, we need to be more skeptical of their motives and more careful about the information they give us.” – Gladwell

Gladwell argues what happened in cases like Fidel Castro’s fooling of the CIA, the deceptions of Bernie Madoff, the trial of Amanda Knox, the suicide of Sylvia Plath, the Jerry Sandusky pedophilia scandal, and the death of Sandra Bland in this book. Not something I was expecting, but brought together his points that the “truth” about someone is not some hard and shiny object that can be extracted if only we dig deep enough and look hard enough. The thing we want to learn about a stranger is fragile (just by stressing someone out you can affect their memory of what happened) We need to accept that the search to understand a stranger has real limits. We will never know the whole truth. We have to be satisfied with something short of that. The right way to talk to strangers is with caution and humility.

Listen to this audiobook here: https://amzn.to/45NxS

What I am reading this week:

Never Finished: Unshackle Your Mind and Win the War Within by [David Goggins]

I recently read Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins, and this book by the same author came highly recommended. From the Amazon description:

“This is not a self-help book. It’s a wake-up call!

Can’t Hurt Me, David Goggins’ smash hit memoir, demonstrated how much untapped ability we all have but was merely an introduction to the power of the mind. In Never Finished, Goggins takes you inside his Mental Lab, where he developed the philosophy, psychology, and strategies that enabled him to learn that what he thought was his limit was only his beginning and that the quest for greatness is unending.

The stories and lessons in this raw, revealing, unflinching memoir offer the reader a blueprint they can use to climb from the bottom of the barrel into a whole new stratosphere that once seemed unattainable. Whether you feel off-course in life, are looking to maximize your potential or drain your soul to break through your so-called glass ceiling, this is the only book you will ever need.”

Read/Listen along by getting your copy here: https://amzn.to/3N12yLZ

Have a wonderful and successful week!

This is re-published from the weekly email sent by Leonard Mack entitled The Propeller. To subscribe, visit https://www.LeonardMack.com/subscribe and read it every Sunday evening.

Related Posts