Advertisement

Strength. Scale. Liquidity. All in one trade.

Adtrax: 8559940.1.1.AM.RTL SPD004278
Expiration: 11/30/26

Happy New Year from Boca Raton, Florida.

Three New Year’s Resolutions for myself, we’ll see how I do.

One: Practiced Apathy

I will not get upset because people disagree with me. And if it’s obvious that they are wrong or misinformed, that in and of itself ought not to be something to get offended over. I will remind myself that it’s not their fault, they’re just caught in different algorithms than the algorithms that I am caught in. They are receiving different stimuli to provoke those opinions. They are being manipulated, lied to, lied to by omission and their feeds are being populated with reinforcement, not contradictory content that would force them into an uncomfortable bout of deprogramming. I will not be outraged by the opinions of others. Outrage feeds the machine (and the tech billionaires who control it). Apathy is a stronger response than outrage. It defeats the machine’s power over us. It breaks the spell cast by the algorithms and gives us back our peace of mind so that we may love all the people in our lives and ignore the provocations of strangers.

We’re going to need all the peace of mind, clarity, emotional toughness and focus we can muster to get through the next year. There’s not an ounce to spare on internet provocateurs and their engagement games. We’ll need our mental strength for the actual problems that come in our lives and the lives of people we care about. There’s not going to be any left over for the controversies the machines want us to care about.

And before you tell me that apathy is a luxury not everyone has, and that controversies on the internet are an externality stemming from real-world events and issues that are affecting people’s lives, I will tell you that I am aware. Not everyone on the street protesting and chanting is there for clout. Not everyone crying on camera is doing so for performative purposes. I understand. I just think that most of it is exactly that. We have far too many people marching through the streets day and night (do they even have jobs?), deliberately offending their neighbors and committing acts designed to produce video clips that spread on social media. Apathy, then, becomes a counterbalance, not a cop out. Performatively fighting back and matching outrage with outrage only fuels it.

This is the year I give less of a f*** about people’s opinions than ever before. I’ll be focused on my family, my friends, my business, my employees, my clients and my health. And when something pops up on my phone that doesn’t pertain to any of those priorities, this is the little speech I’ll give myself. The algorithms will make mental slaves out of millions of people in 2026. They will take otherwise normal folks and turn them into issue zombies. I refuse to become one of them.

Two: Skeptical, not cynical

I’ve become increasingly cynical as I’ve grown older and my years of experience on Wall Street have compounded. This has led to a lot of knee-jerk cynicism where a healthy dose of skepticism would have sufficed.

I want to achieve a better balance of open-mindedness and scrutiny as new ideas and ways of doing things present themselves. I want to get back to a place where I don’t automatically assume the worst motives behind the things people on The Street say and do. I don’t want my first response to every change and twist to be “oh here we go again…” as though new = dumb. When people are trying new things, the easiest move in the world for someone with decades under their belt is to mock them, point out all the ways in which it won’t work, roll their eyes and punch down. And sometimes, in hindsight, that response will have proven to have been appropriate. But not everything is WeWork. Not everything is NFTs.

Not everything is “a disaster waiting to happen.” New things catch on all the time and stick. They make our lives better. They speed up our workflows. They open up access. They achieve their initial promise. The skeptic leaves room for this to be the case. The cynic doesn’t. The skeptic can change their tune. The cynic burns bridges, burns the boats, doubles down in the face of being proved wrong.

In the realm of investing, things that have never happened before happen all the time. Skepticism is a survival tactic. Cynicism is a trap.

Three: Don’t say yes when I mean no

My third and final resolution is a big one for me. I don’t know if you can tell, but I am a people pleaser. I hate to see the look on people’s faces when I say no to them. In a lot of instances, I will say maybe or even yes when I know I will eventually come back to them and say “actually, no.” A simple no up front, even if it makes someone mad or dissatisfied in the moment, is better than a wishy-washy “I’ll see what I can do” when I have absolutely no intention of doing the thing they are asking. Putting off the no isn’t actually making anyone feel better. It’s just delaying the disappointment.

I hired an assistant last year for the first time in my life. She’s helping me with this but I still catch myself doing it. Rather than have to say no to people directly, she’s in my inbox saying to no on my behalf all day long, in as nice a way as possible. Now I don’t have to personally disappoint people all day long. It’s an emotional weight lifted off my shoulders. But she’s not always with me and when people have me in-person, one on one, the asks keep coming. And I’m still doing this maybe bullshit. “We’ll see” or “I’ll try” or “I’ll check my calendar.” This is the year I’m going to stop.

One of the problems of having high visibility within the industry is that some people look at you and think you are the answer to all their problems. “If I could just get on stage at Future Proof” or “If I could just get Josh on my podcast” or “If I could just get on TV” or “If only these guys would link to me” or “Invest in my startup” etc, then everything else will fall into place. But it’s just not true.

The human in you wants to help everyone who asks for something, but the truth is that you are not the solution to everyone’s problems. Sometimes a startup’s product is just bad. Sometimes a market commentator is just not good enough for TV. Sometimes a podcast is too boring and pointless to attract its own audience. Sometimes an asset manager is too focused on marketing and not focused enough on generating returns.

The solution is not me bullshitting you that I am going make time for this. Or that I can somehow put you on the map or change your luck. I have problems of my own to worry about and people who are relying on me in my own career and life. So this resolution is not about refusing to help people because helping people is literally at the core of who I am (at least, this is how I think about myself). It’s really about saying no to the things that stop me from helping the people I am supposed to be helping. My people, my mission, my clients, my colleagues. I can’t do side quests and be effective on the main quest.

So no more maybes. No more “we’ll see” or “let me get back to you when I have more time.” In 2026 I’m ripping the bandaid off for everyone’s benefit.

Wall Street’s predictions for 2026

Huge thanks to Sam Ro for popping by. The latest episode of The Compound and Friends is here:

Wishing you a happy and healthy New Year. Talk soon! - JB