Posts
Asset Management types - people who have absolutely nothing to lose if
you lose, and quite a bit to gain if you gain - IF they are managing
your assets that is. In other words, the smartest business types wear
the garb of asset managers. It is your hard earned money, and their
confidence in managing it, for you of course.
Think about it. You need someone who knows what to do with your
money, and that's fair enough. A lot of factors need to come together
to make your money work as hard for you as you have for it, and
chances are you need some guidance. But WHO are these asset managers
who claim to be able to manage anybody's "portfolio"? How qualified
are they? What is their claim to be able to manage YOUR assets?
Here are some primary reasons for you to worry about who is managing
your assets:
1. They have never owned their own business.
Would you trust a guy who has never driven a car to drive you, in your
car, with your family in it? So why would you trust a clown who
claims he can help you manage your assets when he has neither been
part of your effort to earn it, nor has a track record of taking pains
to build a business? Duh!
2. They have nothing to lose.
More often than not, Asset Managers are notoriously well paid for
being educated "professionals", who don't have to deliver anything
while merely "handling" your assets. If they are going to take
chances with your money, they better not be getting paid if they're
not making you any money. If they tell you that is a risk you have to
take, you can take those same risks without paying these fools,
couldn't you?
3. They want to "diversify your portfolio".
Wait a minute. Sure it makes sense to invest in the stock market with
this philosophy, since it is a lottery beyond a point anyway, and
you're playing with money you can afford to lose. But with your
assets? If you made your big money in agriculture and you would like
to explore opportunities in IT, for instance, you will not be
successful until you understand IT to some extent.
You should always have an understanding of any domain you are going to
do business in. You think your Asset Managers know everything about
every domain out there? Think again. They want you to diversify,
because they know nothing about any domain, and would like to play
safe for their own skin, not yours. If they know how to make massive
profits for you doing one thing, why wouldn't they suggest that one
thing to do?
4. They talk about "domain experts" they have.
Why would an "expert" in some domain want to work for a management
company? Wouldn't he be busy making his own business work better?
What are the chances of finding a genius working for a company that
merely manages somebody else's money? Why would any productive
professional ever want to be part of an Asset Management company?
This is a total scam. If any such professional is working as a
consultant, he is getting paid for merely lending his ear and giving
some oral advice, not for taking an interest in any activity in any
business in that domain. In other words, this AM company has one more
useless appendage you will end up paying for.
5. Their worst case scenario is never a complete loss of all your money.
There are extremely high risk businesses, where your money may quickly
be worth less than when you started your investments and worth nothing
shortly after. Such businesses, like motion picture production for
example, are not for everyone, even though they might bring back very
handsome returns to some. If your Asset Manager is not prepared to
tell you you might lose all your money in a certain direction, he
doesn't know what he is talking about. It doesn't matter how great
your actual domain experts may be who drive such investments, and it
doesn't matter how great a job they may do on your projects - you
might very well lose everything, and this is a business reality, not a
doomsday scenario. Your asset manager is an illiterate fool if he
doesn't know this.
6. They mention big names, and other such "credibility indicators".
Their portfolio is full of famous, big, well established companies
that they "worked with". Yeah, right. If they mentioned as many in
their portfolio that didn't go right, you'd not be very impressed.
So, stop thinking that your asset manager has dealt only with success
and big names and trusted companies. The few deals that they
negotiated that did go right doesn't qualify them to be the best
people to advice you on your next business move, either. It is one
thing for a team of seasoned Chartered Accountants to get together and
estimate the worth of a company's shares, and entirely another to grow
that company to a successful position. If you hear only big names and
big companies and success stories, you're being taken for an idiot.
7. They are never under any sort of pressure.
The most important thing for any investor is to be excited about an
opportunity that he can automatically and quickly sense. If your
AssMan company is dragging along happily, taking you to meetings,
setting you up with presentations, and not putting any pressure upon
themselves to deliver for you quickly and efficiently, they are not
worth being anywhere near you. If some business direction doesn't
make any sense to you, and your asset manager cannot recognize it when
you couldn't care less, you're wasting your time with him. He has to
feel and react to the pressure when you're not jumping into his ideas.
If not, you're being taken for a ride.
If you see any of the above in your asset manager, or your Asset
Mangement Company, you need to step away. Kick them out immediately.
Ultimately, it is your business, and it is your drive that will take
you places in whatever line of business you choose. If you need help,
take pains to find someone who will give you the insider's view on the
business you might think of entering - not some fancy "company" that
gets fat off your hard work.
No comments:
Post a Comment