It's better to be lucky than to be smart.
"["Life is so rich." - Scott Galloway]" - HassyTee
Hi guys,
Hope you’re well. I’m doing okay, Alhamdulillah.
Scratch that. I’m doing greattt, Alhamdulillah. I write this at 10:07pm on a Friday night, and I’m in a really good mood right now. You see, I pushed hard this week.
At work, I mean. I worked so hard man. It wasn’t that I worked till 10pm every night or anything like that (even in the night I was up till 2am, it was because I was rewatching ‘The Office’ on Netflix 😅), but I got a lot done. After being on sick leave for most of the previous week, I guess I was trying to overcompensate. So I worked hard, stayed visible, and tried to be as productive as possible.
And that’s why I’m in such a good mood. It felt great to set a goal, give it everything, and come out on the other side in the right way. Alhamdulillah.
You might be wondering, “Hameed, I’m happy for your productivity and all o, but this is not what I was expecting. Didn’t you just disappear for over a month, talking about needing a break and alladat?”
“Shouldn’t you be giving us some sort of context about what was going on with you and the future (or lack of it) of this newsletter?”
Well, I don’t know.
I’ve thought a lot about my needs, this community, and the most sustainable way to produce valuable content in the long-term.
And you know what?
I’m not sure I have the right answer still. But I’m super glad I took that break. I knew I needed it, but I had no idea how much until I actually took it. In the meantime, I want to continue writing but with one promise to myself.
I will try to prioritize writing for when there’s something I’m genuinely excited to share.
So if I’m stressed, tired, overwhelmed, or could benefit more from spending the day with a fun book or lying in bed watching YouTube videos, then I will do that instead. Seeing as 7 of the last 15 Hameed’s Newsletter posts were #Lite, my guess is that my ‘happy to write’ quotient for actual posts was hovering around 50% and a more ideal frequency is probably around once in two weeks.
Maybe it will be less, and maybe it will be more. I’m trying not to over-engineer it, so I guess we’ll see how it goes.
So what am I excited to share today?
—————
I am currently watching a Stanford GSB interview of Marcos Galperin, Argentine billionaire, and the CEO of MercadoLibre (like eBay for South America). I’m really enjoying it.
What stood out for me in this interview was a story from 1999, when Marcos was an MBA student at Stanford. He had arrived at a class a few minutes early, and the only other person in the room was an elderly white man who introduced himself as ‘John Doe’.
Marcos chatted for a while with ‘John’, but then realized that other students continued staring at them as they arrived for the class. It turned out the elderly ‘John’ he had been sitting next to was actually ‘Warren’, the Warren Buffet.
Talking to his Professor after the class about the unannounced guest, the conversation went something like this.
Marcos: I can’t believe it! I’ve been looking for investors for my new startup and I just spent all this time with Warren Buffet without realizing! *Sigh
Prof: Haha don’t worry about it, he wouldn’t have invested anyway.
Marcos: What do you mean?
Prof: Warren is currently against investing in South America, he doesn’t believe it is an optimal allocation of capital.
Marcos: Oh wow. Okay.
Prof: You know, maybe I could introduce you to someone else that invests a lot in that part of the world, and you can pitch to him instead.
Marcos: Yes, please!
Long story short, the introduction went well, and the VC invested in Marcos’s idea. Several years later, he had built MercadoLibre into the largest e-commerce company in South America, and became the richest man in his country.
My personal lesson from this is that it’s better to be lucky than smart.
Think about it. Had Marcos been an avid follower of the investments and finance world, he would definitely have recognized Warren Buffet immediately.
And you know what?
Warren, using his high intellect and extensive investment experience, would most probably have convinced Marcos that a South America-focused e-commerce startup was a bad idea. And MercadoLibre would never have been born.
Don’t get me wrong. I genuinely believe in hard x smart work, and I still think the most consistent way to get what you want is to put in the required effort. But if I had to choose between being a ‘smart person’ that got talked out of a multi-billion-dollar opportunity and a ‘lucky person’ that had an opportunity fall into my lap because I knew no better, then I know which one I would rather be. 😃
Don’t you?
** Jara content:
قَالُوٓا۟ أَءِنَّكَ لَأَنتَ يُوسُفُ ۖ قَالَ أَنَا۠ يُوسُفُ وَهَـٰذَآ أَخِى ۖ قَدْ مَنَّ ٱللَّهُ عَلَيْنَآ ۖ إِنَّهُۥ مَن يَتَّقِ وَيَصْبِرْ فَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَا يُضِيعُ أَجْرَ ٱلْمُحْسِنِينَ
They replied in shock, “Are you really Joseph?”
He said, “I am Joseph, and here is my brother Benjamin! Allah has truly been gracious to us. Surely whoever is mindful of Allah and patient, then certainly Allah never discounts the reward of the good-doers.”
P.S.
If you got the reference in the sub-header (second title) of this post, high five. 😃
Welcome back Uncle Hameed.
No high 5 o