06.14.22 - Proofing Yourself for Downturns
The other day I tweeted my favorite way to deal with a recession:
I noticed in 2020 when the world shut down due to Covid, that living in fear seemed to be a full time occupation for some.
They spent their time screening news, watching press releases, glued to Twitter and otherwise disconnected from their mission & their vision. People love a good train wreck, of even the threat of one.
The best way, historically, to wade through a recession is to simply brace for it. However, if you’re like me, you have no intentions of wading through things — you’re after growth. You want to advance. You want to take the lead…
In that case, the best way is pretending it doesn’t exist. There’s a fascinating study (I don’t have time to fine it) that compares a relatively accurate timing of the bottom and the top in financial markets. They compare investing somewhere near the bottom and selling somewhere near the top.
Dollar Cost Averaging beats the timing 90% of the time.
You cannot time anything out here. You must simply operate according to your long term principles and continue moving forward.
What you’ll find, when you look back, is suddenly you’ve “taken the lead.” Not because you worked any harder, not because you were “more strategic,” no. Simply because while everyone else was spiraling in fear, you were simply moving forward.
Bear markets & recessions are nothing new. They happen every 8-15 years like clockwork and the worst of them last 15-18 months (mostly 8-12). By November we will be out of the choppiness and those who pressed on will enter 2023 with an unfair advantage.
If you’re an expert and want to know how my firms (and clients) advance during uncertain times, there are five ways I’m documenting and teaching in next month’s Consulting Memo.
Here are a few screenshots of what people have to say. Definitely worth it from a monetary standpoint however — what I will do for your MIND is even greater.
Happy building.