Fred Wilson's latest blog post about "grinding" tells the story of how Twitter solved the infamous "fail whale" problem that plagued its platform in the early days. I remember that whale, as I'm sure many of you do as well. It was a problem and, according to Fred, it was a real threat to the business. The solution wasn't all that sexy; though sexy solutions were attempted. The team just rebuilt everything, piece by piece. And eventually the fail whale problem went away.

The lessons here go well beyond just this Twitter example (or at least, it triggers something for me). Here's how Fred ends his post:

If given a choice between a flashy operator or a grinder, I will take a grinder every time. It is a much higher percentage bet. It requires faith and patience and the results are sometimes hard to see. But if you look at the results from grinding it out over a long enough time frame, you can see the power of that approach.

This kind of long-term patient thinking can be difficult, especially in an increasingly instantaneous world. We are all drawn to magic solutions, hot stock tips, and new condos that are destined to double in value over the next year. I suppose that's partially why so many people enjoy playing the lottery, even though the odds of winning big can be as low as 1 in a million.

Being a grinder is largely a higher percentage bet because you're taking a longer, more disciplined, view. Warren Buffet has, admittedly, no idea how stocks will behave over the next week or year, just as I have no idea how condo prices in Toronto will behave over the next week or year. Instead, Warren chooses to bet on "The American Tailwind" and I choose to bet on the role of Toronto as a global city.

Warren first invested in an American business in 1942. He was 11. Over the next 77 years, the S&P 500 would go on to return an average of 11.8% annually. Had he invested in a no-fee index fund and reinvested all dividends, his gain would have been 5,288 for 1. In other words, a $1 million investment would have grown to $5.3 billion on a pre-tax basis. (See: The compound effect.)

77 years is, of course, a long time. But I am sure you get the point: faith. patience, and tenacity -- even when, sometimes, the results can be hard to see. Real estate development is very much that kind of business.

This evening I was at my alma mater, the Rotman School, for a conversation between Roger Martin (the former dean of the school) and Canadian-Jamaican billionaire, Michael Lee-Chin. Michael is one of the most disciplined, consistent, and charismatic people I have never met. (The soothing Jamaican accent probably doesn't hurt.)

One of his points this evening was about compounding. Not just compound interest, which is what many of you are probably thinking, but compounding in life. The thing about compounding is that the real benefits come later on. That's why personal finance people will tell you that the key to financial freedom is to start saving and investing early on.

The problem with this is that, well, the real benefits come later on. And it can be frustrating when the rewards don't seem to match the efforts. That's why grit is so important and why some have suggested that it is a far better predictor of future success than things like IQ or a GPA score. There's no substitute for hard work.

In the development business, projects tend to take a long time. We started working on Junction House back in 2016 and here we are now in 2019 planning for construction. So I thought this evening was a good reminder that there's lots of value in long-term goals and that more of us (including companies) should be thinking along these lines.

Jamaican-Canadian billionaire, Michael Lee-Chin, was in ROB Magazine last week talking about how he grew up, how he got into the investment industry, and how he thinks about wealth creation.

I met Michael once back in 2009 thanks to an introduction by my father. And at that meeting I remember him explaining the five rules of wealth creation. It’s his formula and he’s been practicing it since 1978.

Everybody who creates wealth does five things: They own a few high-quality businesses. They make sure they really understand those businesses. They make sure those few businesses are in strong, long-term-growth industries. They use other people’s money to invest in them. And they vow to hold them as long as they remain great businesses.

That’s consistency. And he’s a pretty consistent guy. The other quote I would like to share from the article is this one here:

Outside wealth is created when there’s a difference between perception and reality, when there are inefficiencies, and when there’s a lack of equity capital flowing into the country, sector or company.

This is something that we have talked about before on the blog. The real value creation happens when you believe in and you’re right about something that most people think is wrong.

As Michael says in the article, you have to be willing to swim upstream, because floating downstream is far too easy and will only get you to the same place as everyone else.

Fred Wilson's latest blog post about "grinding" tells the story of how Twitter solved the infamous "fail whale" problem that plagued its platform in the early days. I remember that whale, as I'm sure many of you do as well. It was a problem and, according to Fred, it was a real threat to the business. The solution wasn't all that sexy; though sexy solutions were attempted. The team just rebuilt everything, piece by piece. And eventually the fail whale problem went away.

The lessons here go well beyond just this Twitter example (or at least, it triggers something for me). Here's how Fred ends his post:

If given a choice between a flashy operator or a grinder, I will take a grinder every time. It is a much higher percentage bet. It requires faith and patience and the results are sometimes hard to see. But if you look at the results from grinding it out over a long enough time frame, you can see the power of that approach.

This kind of long-term patient thinking can be difficult, especially in an increasingly instantaneous world. We are all drawn to magic solutions, hot stock tips, and new condos that are destined to double in value over the next year. I suppose that's partially why so many people enjoy playing the lottery, even though the odds of winning big can be as low as 1 in a million.

Being a grinder is largely a higher percentage bet because you're taking a longer, more disciplined, view. Warren Buffet has, admittedly, no idea how stocks will behave over the next week or year, just as I have no idea how condo prices in Toronto will behave over the next week or year. Instead, Warren chooses to bet on "The American Tailwind" and I choose to bet on the role of Toronto as a global city.

Warren first invested in an American business in 1942. He was 11. Over the next 77 years, the S&P 500 would go on to return an average of 11.8% annually. Had he invested in a no-fee index fund and reinvested all dividends, his gain would have been 5,288 for 1. In other words, a $1 million investment would have grown to $5.3 billion on a pre-tax basis. (See: The compound effect.)

77 years is, of course, a long time. But I am sure you get the point: faith. patience, and tenacity -- even when, sometimes, the results can be hard to see. Real estate development is very much that kind of business.

This evening I was at my alma mater, the Rotman School, for a conversation between Roger Martin (the former dean of the school) and Canadian-Jamaican billionaire, Michael Lee-Chin. Michael is one of the most disciplined, consistent, and charismatic people I have never met. (The soothing Jamaican accent probably doesn't hurt.)

One of his points this evening was about compounding. Not just compound interest, which is what many of you are probably thinking, but compounding in life. The thing about compounding is that the real benefits come later on. That's why personal finance people will tell you that the key to financial freedom is to start saving and investing early on.

The problem with this is that, well, the real benefits come later on. And it can be frustrating when the rewards don't seem to match the efforts. That's why grit is so important and why some have suggested that it is a far better predictor of future success than things like IQ or a GPA score. There's no substitute for hard work.

In the development business, projects tend to take a long time. We started working on Junction House back in 2016 and here we are now in 2019 planning for construction. So I thought this evening was a good reminder that there's lots of value in long-term goals and that more of us (including companies) should be thinking along these lines.

Jamaican-Canadian billionaire, Michael Lee-Chin, was in ROB Magazine last week talking about how he grew up, how he got into the investment industry, and how he thinks about wealth creation.

I met Michael once back in 2009 thanks to an introduction by my father. And at that meeting I remember him explaining the five rules of wealth creation. It’s his formula and he’s been practicing it since 1978.

Everybody who creates wealth does five things: They own a few high-quality businesses. They make sure they really understand those businesses. They make sure those few businesses are in strong, long-term-growth industries. They use other people’s money to invest in them. And they vow to hold them as long as they remain great businesses.

That’s consistency. And he’s a pretty consistent guy. The other quote I would like to share from the article is this one here:

Outside wealth is created when there’s a difference between perception and reality, when there are inefficiencies, and when there’s a lack of equity capital flowing into the country, sector or company.

This is something that we have talked about before on the blog. The real value creation happens when you believe in and you’re right about something that most people think is wrong.

As Michael says in the article, you have to be willing to swim upstream, because floating downstream is far too easy and will only get you to the same place as everyone else.