Investing in Life
I Invest in Life
"Assets are ownable. They are devices, skills, connections or properties that allow us to amplify our effort and do our work with more impact." (Seth Godin)
I've been a long-time subscriber of Seth's blog. I've read several of his books and like the man he seems to be. Authentic, unique, generous, and human would probably be the first adjectives I would use to describe how I view him. He is also a wizard as he convinced me to pick up a marketing book ("This is Marketing") when everyone knows I hate marketing.
Guess what? I enjoyed the book. Sorcery!
What I often like about Seth's takes is that he adopts a very personal point of view and voices his opinions differently than what you would read ad nauseam on the Internet. It has substance and nuance.
When I started this Substack publication in March, I had to set up the entire account:
naming the blog
designing a logo
setting up an About page
drafting a welcome email for new subscribers
choosing a publication theme
Fortunately, this platform makes life easy for their users as they seem to understand what their customers want and have built the tools and resources to help us writers.
One of the choices I made was to use the following "bio" under my user profile:
"I invest in life"
Now that I look at it, I see I used a nearly identical one under my publication name:
"Investing in Life"
Reading Seth's short blog post, reminded me I had planned to explain that bio in one of my publications. Here it is.
Investing in Life has become a mantra of mine in the past decade. However, I haven't formalized the process in detail.
My personal and professional lives have a common guiding thread of managing risks and embracing change. However, my navigation was mostly opportunistic and serendipitous until my 30s. Adding investing in life to this thread solidifies it as if it were a missing piece.
What is investing?
It is not a Chanel bag.
Or maybe it is. What do I know?
Seth's take
Realtors say customers decide to buy a house in the first twenty seconds of their visit.
"Assets are ownable" Seth starts. I was sold. The idea aligns perfectly with my views. And as we say in Bitcoin, "not your keys, not your Bitcoin" (but that's a story for another day).
Seth's definition is also voluntarily wide-ranging. This is how we should all approach the topic of investing in our lives. You have the keys. You are in the driver's seat. You get to choose what assets you want to acquire and develop. And the reason you do it is to create leverage.
How I Frame Investing
Life, Not Financial Assets
I specifically want to address areas outside of financial assets. I conducted a few quick Internet searches while organizing my thoughts. My query: "Investing in life".
19 of the 20 links on the first two pages of Google exclusively cover financial assets.
1 article - from lifehack.org - gives you a brief top 20 areas of your life where you can focus your investment attention
I find that pretty incredible, albeit not surprising, that such an important topic is not covered more widely.
Here are specific areas I look at when I think about investing and where I should focus my attention and efforts. There is no particular structure to the list or ranking. Again, I would suggest everyone make their own list of categories. We are unique. So are our investments.
Skills
Skills are one of the most obvious areas you can invest in. It is an evolutionary process as I would argue that a child learning to walk and talk is the most glaring example of conscious and unconscious desires to grow.
Today, industries such as traditional education and the fast-growing #edtech are living proofs that people want to invest in their skills and abilities.
Hard Skills
When you elect to learn a new programming language, accounting, or masonry, you are investing in your skill set. These are hard skills. You can demonstrate them. They might be the skills that bring you a paycheck at the end of the month and power your professional career. Pick one, or better yet, pick several. I will not list them. The possibilities are endless and personal. This article is not a guide, only a framework.
As an example, I recently chose to invest in writing. I covered some of the reasons for this choice in a recent post which I can summarize:
It improves my thinking
"The best way to improve your ability to think is to spend time thinking.
One way to force yourself to slow down and think is to write. Good writing requires good thinking.
Clear writing gives poor thinking nowhere to hide, making a lack of understanding visible." (Farnam Street)
It is the perfect medium for my personality and my desire to communicate
"Writing is networking for introverts" is such a great blog post title. I recommend you give this article a read. I enjoyed it.
Another example is Spanish. As I've mentioned in a previous blog post, I am taking full advantage of mobile language learning apps to learn a new language. Less than two years in, I am starting to grow comfortable with my Spanish and might hop to Spain this year to try it out in the real world!
Heck, who knows, maybe I'll start writing in Spanish in a few years, combining two of my acquired skills into something that would not have been possible before.
Mastering skills opens up new possibilities. The more you possess, the larger the upside.
Soft Skills
Skills do not have to be technical though. Soft skills are as inherent to us as hard skills are. Emotional intelligence, diplomacy, leadership, and adaptability are frequently mentioned as desirable qualities when you are looking for partnerships and collaborators. They are the perfect pendant for those hard skills you have invested in.
Think about it.
Who doesn't want to deal with an organized wedding planner or a creative illustrator?
Again, the possibilities are endless, and investing in soft skills allows you to develop a deeply personal skill set in line with your values and convictions. It will help you stand out as the unique and valuable person that you are.
Tools
While some might argue that mastering a specific tool is nothing more than a hard skill, it is important to highlight the leverage tools can offer to the skillful worker:
a farmer with a horse and a plow
a photographer who mastered Photoshop
a project manager with post-its ;)
a developer with git
People
One of the best aspects of life is that we are not alone and stranded on a desert island. People surround us. It is what gives life its spice, joys, and heartbreaks.
For years, I have cringed at every mention of marketing, communication, or networking. However, I believe these words should be rehabilitated. It will most certainly be the goal of a future post, to restore their letters of nobility.
In essence, marketing, communication, or networking are nothing more than understanding others and being understood. Just like money is the currency of trade, communication is the currency of human relationships. That those terms have been stripped of their true meanings to fool customers or voters should not alter that fact.
The ability to communicate with others, whether they are family, friends, or co-workers is paramount. It enables you to build durable and authentic relationships. These relationships are the ones that count and you should invest in them. They bring you joy, guide you through hard times, provide you with growth opportunities, provided you invest in them honestly.
Values
Values are your foundations. You cannot build a house without solid foundations.
Unlike the other areas I mentioned above, values are not acquired and refined. However, you can invest in them. The process is a little different.
Life sometimes puts you in a position where you are offered opportunities to gain something with relative ease if you choose to overlook some of your values. When you are at such a crossroads you can either:
take the easier road and break a commitment to yourself, allowing a crack in your foundations
stand firm, sending a message to you and others that your values cannot be compromised
Culture
Invest in culture. Culture, through language, art, food, history, etc, offers perspective. It brings entire civilizations together. All you have to do is be curious and open to new ideas, different customs and take the time to learn.
Time
Time will be the last area I cover in part 1 of my Investing in Life series. It will also be a topic I address in the second part, "The Investor Mindset", which should hit your mailbox as soon as next Wednesday.
Investing is not a task you undertake with hopes of immediate results, especially when you consider the thesis of this publication, set in a lifelong timeframe. If you invest in your life, you should be ready to invest for its entire duration. The best way is to tend to your body and mental health. As with the skills above, there are myriads of ways of doing so. Some people exercise, others meditate. Some join clubs to play bridge every week or golf with their friends. A healthy mind in a healthy body.
"Mens sana in corpore sano"
Take care of yourself.
And check back in next week for part 2, The Investor Mindset.