Neckar's Minds and Markets

Sometimes it feels like writing saved my life. Not the business of writing. That one’s tricky. I’ll tell you how much I make with it in a bit. No, I am talking about the process of writing, the act of spilling out everything I carry on a blank page. The meditation that connects every thought, every feeling, every opinion, all the good, bad, and ugly stuff that rests within me.

When Warren Buffett and Bill Gates first met over dinner, they were asked what factor had been most important in their success. “And I said, ‘Focus,’” Buffett recounted. “And Bill said the same thing.” Focus. I don’t like calling things a ‘superpower’, but the ability to focus in a world conspiring to distract you might come close. Focus has an inner and an outer dimension: focusing on what is important ismacro focus. Staying focused on the task is micro focus.

Hi everyone, August is coming to an end and New York’s muggy summer is starting to make way for those perfectly crisp early autumn days. I’ve reflected a lot on how to change the Substack and am starting to reorganize the sections. The Alchemy of Money will contain everything money and markets except for Buffett and Munger who have their own section. Books and articles will remain in the Investor’s Library.

“Insurance is not that great a business. It’s a tough game. There are temptations to be stupid. It’s like banking.” — Charlie Munger “When the music stops, in terms of liquidity, things will be complicated. But as long as the music is playing, you've got to get up and dance.” — Citigroup CEO Chuck Prince in 2007 Even though some industries follow a fairly predictable capital cycle, it seems impossible for their participants to resist the urge to play until it’s too late.

Hello everyone, I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Jonny Miller, writer, podcaster, and breathwork facilitator. Jonny wrote some of my favorite recent pieces, including the amazing operating manual for the nervous system and How to Pay Off Your Emotional Debt. Jonny also puts together terrific small wikis like this one on emotional resilience, the ‘spiritual MBA’ and Somalist (‘a global directory of somatic practitioners + trauma-aware bodyworkers’).

In The Shining, writer Jack Torrance slowly loses his mind while housesitting the haunted Overlook Hotel with his wife and son. The hotel grounds include an expansive hedge maze. “It's a lot of fun,” the departing manager tells the family, “but I wouldn't go in there unless I had an hour to spare to find my way out.” After failing to write his novel and meeting the hotel’s ghosts, Torrance descends into madness. When he tries to murder his family, his son flees into the snow-covered maze.

Turns out some deals are actually done on napkins. In 1957, a young dealmaker sat in a coffee shop, Fat Eddie’s in Los Angeles, and did exactly that. What sounds like a scene out of Pulp Fiction was a milestone in one of America’s largest family fortunes. The coffee shop was part of the new Hyatt motel, named after its owner Hyatt von Dehn. The Hyatt was strategically placed by the airport. And it was busy. Sipping on his coffee, young Jay Pritzker must have had a moment of Strategic Intuition.

It’s noon and I am climbing the Cirjoch, a mountain pass in the rugged Dolomite Alps of Italian Südtirol. This is my treat, or re-treat, after trekking all over Germany to visit my family. It’s a gift to spend this time alone in nature. Paradoxically, it is also a productive time. I make my way past jagged rock formations, exhausted elderly hikers, and families feeding their children. Occasionally I draw a concerned look because I wear my orange running shoes.

“Jay was the smartest financial guy I ever met,” Sam Zell wrote. That’s high praise from a legend and immediately triggered my curiosity. Turns out Jay Pritzker, long-time patriarch of Chicago’s Pritzker dynasty, had tried to hire Zell when the latter was still a young lawyer. However, Zell was already succeeding in real estate and had no interest in working for anyone. Instead, he pitched Pritzker on a deal and won him as a mentor and occasional partner.

Sam Zell was a bit of a rascal. In 2007, when the legendary investor agreed to sell his Equity Office REIT to Blackstone, he was not allowed to solicit competing bids. But as Zell, who recently passed away, recounted in Am I Being Too Subtle?, he “sure as hell wasn’t going to discourage one if it was out there.” So, he emailed an old buddy, real estate magnate Steve Roth of Vornado, who “had been circling around the idea of a purchase for some time.” Zell didn’t ask for a bid.