2007: System Crash. 2008: 'Factory Reset' button pressed. 2009: System booting & reloading...
I enjoyed an all too brief lunch with my brother, Doug today. Doug is a rare individual, someone who lives in the financial stratosphere, managing billions of dollars of investors money, with his feet on the ground.
His fund, the 'Merchant Commodity' fund, (or 'King of Funds' as I call it), is one of the few that has not only survived this year, but thrived, posting a heavy double digit growth for his investors.
He started it with a chap called Mike Coleman just 4 years ago, with just $10m has now earned a stellar reputation for profitable stewardship.
We were chatting about what was likely to happen to the UK, the USA and world-wide and he, like me, thinks the long overdue bursting of the 'superbubble' will eventually bring great benefit to many (although in the short term, there will also be pain as companies and countries readjust to 'the new'.
As the famous L.P. Hartley quote goes "The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there" he believes that 'Chapter New' is going to be a time for great people, to take great risks, and deliver great rewards.
He's backed King of Shaves pretty much since the get-go, he likes the fact I run a company that physically manufactures useful stuff (mainly in the UK too, which is good for our country) and I've tried to give him my 'take' on what's going on in the world - the last time we had dinner was in February, when neither he (or I) could make sense of what was happening, and in true King fashion, he stood firm, took stock and decided "the music had stopped, but for some reason the game was still being played".
So, he's had a great year, we've had a great year and as our global system powers down and reboots itself, are both looking forward to what 2009 will bring.
Keep it real, Doug. We're doing our parents, and Lowestoft, proud!
