Jan
28
Humility, from Jay Humbert
January 28, 2009 |
One of the strongest traits that Vic speaks of often is humility. I was reading yesterday on the Battle of Waterloo. Napoleon smugly commented that morning over breakfast "I tell you that Wellington is a bad General, the English are bad soldiers; we will settle this matter by lunchtime." And we know what happened next. It's amazing how I get whacked by subtle arrogant moves in my life/markets and am knocked to my knees. GE is currently that example of arrogance as well as friendship, marriage, fatherhood, and DailySpeculations. I have lately been in a spiraling downward depression for about two years in which nothing seemed to go right no matter what the effort was. That has humbled me to the point to where great things are starting to happen due to being brought to my knees in pain and accepting my arrogance and owning it.
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Here here Jay! Welcome to the world of a good dose of humility. That and humbleness are among the strongest virtues.
Coming back from Iraq, the Marine Coprs boasts and encourages pride. Sometimes it’s taken to an extreme of arrogance; when it does, that’s what gets Marines in trouble. Being opininated and outspoken, having fortitude in one’s conviction and actions, do not conflict with humility. If those strengths are pitted against, or support by an understanding of imperfectness — that those convictions can be of err, humility prevailes. Also, it’s the way that pride, conviction and actions are communicated and handled.
For example, going ‘all in’ on a stock, might be deemed as arrogant. However, having an ‘out’, or a back stop, such as stops, explicited demonstrates the potential of err, ergo humility. But riding things, such as a long stock position, adbsent a stop, thinking or convinced you’re correct it the very type of arrogance that will get one in deep doo-doo. I’ve personally repeated those mistakes in my career. I now strive to avoid those silly actions.
‘Owning it’ as you say, is one major step.
Keep pressing,
Chris Monoki
Humility was my first lesson, patience was my second.
Being humble does two things for my trading; one, it allows me to exit my losers quickly, and second, and more importantly, by exiting my losing positions quickly, I never sustain a large single loss, and that keeps me emotionally stable. Holding losing positions (especially large ones) for extended periods of time demoralizes traders. Congratulations on owning and accepting your feelings; it's a big step.
Ah, but then there is one of my favorite songs:
Oh Lord It`s Hard To Be Humble
Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble
when you’re perfect in every way.
I can’t wait to look in the mirror
cause I get better looking each day.
To know me is to love me
I must be a hell of a man.
Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble
but I’m doing the best that I can.
I used to have a girlfriend
but she just couldn’t compete
with all of these love starved women
who keep clamoring at my feet.
Well I prob’ly could find me another
but I guess they’re all in awe of me.
Who cares, I never get lonesome
cause I treasure my own company.
Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble
when you’re perfect in every way,
I can’t wait to look in the mirror
cause I get better looking each day
To know me is to love me
I must be a hell of a man.
Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble
but I’m doing the best that I can.
I guess you could say I’m a loner,
a cowboy outlaw tough and proud.
I could have lots of friends if I want to
but then I wouldn’t stand out from the crowd.
Some folks say that I’m egotistical.
Hell, I don’t even know what that means.
I guess it has something to do with the way that I
fill out my skin tight blue jeans.
Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble
when you’re perfect in every way,
I can’t wait to look in the mirror
cause I get better looking each day
To know me is to love me
I must be a hell of a man.
Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble
but I’m doing the best that I can.
We’re doing the best that we can
Very humbly said Mr. Johnson
The comments on the Marines “getting in trouble for being arrogant” is inconsistent with the pricinples or “Warfaring”; pride by the USMC should not be confused with arrogance. The USMC has had a long and distinguished history of assessing, adapting and overcoming obstacles in the pursuits of their goals. They are also instilled in a culture where they have to challenge assumptions to their commanding officer or group leader (be real opinionated); the commanding officer or group leader knows that this is the Marine’s duty and ideally has to absorb all their comments/objections. Once a course of action is decided (by the leader) then it is followed by all those that objected as well. USMC’s are opinionated in the real world (civilian) because they have been taught to do so. Don’t confuse it with not being humble.
You don’t have to be THAT hard on yourself, Jay. Recognizing the problem and dealing with it is enough. Self-flaggelation is not necessary, and in fact counter-productive.
I’ve hit bottom once or twice in my life and it’s quite liberating (eventually) - that feeling of having nothing more to lose, and even if there was, it not mattering. At that point there is no more pain, you’ve let go of what you were hanging on to, and are free to pursue a new world of possibilities.
Possibly the worst position a person can be in (apart from something horrible happening to a loved one) is maintaining a status-quo that is hopelessly under siege and crumbling. Those situations by definition require all your energy, and literally suck the life out of you.
But it sounds like you’re on a good track now. “Always look on the bright side of life …” Monty Python - The Life of Brian.
Cheers,
George