Aladdin Sane

Last Sunday was the fifth anniversary of David Bowie's death.

Too many people separate investing from life. The two are interlinked. Life being far more important.

Investing and investment success are not just about numbers, equations, ratios, algorithms, etc. It is not "value" versus "growth". The stock markets and the price of company shares or value are a function of our and others lives today and the lives of tomorrow. It's about buyers and sellers and their outlook and psychology. Where they see world going and this is reasonably based on what they experience and see in their own world or lives.

Success is about creativity and inspiration followed by hard dedicated work that does involve numbers and ratios and then passion.

Bowie was not just a rock star. He sold over 140 million records worldwide. He was a cultural icon who helped change the way a generation, my generation think.

I remember getting the Aladdin Sane album. 1973 and I was 13/14. The big difference versus today was that the album sleeve and the artwork was almost as important as the music. Kids would replicate band logos on their school exercise books. Iconic images from the Stones “big lips” to the Led Zeppelin graphics. The Aladdin Sane artwork and Bowie's appearence changed everything. Now we had Ziggy and make up, died hair, and a blurring of gender.

Bowie was about change,

"Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

(Turn and face the strange)

Ch-ch-changes

Just gonna have to be a different one

Time may change me

But I can't trace time"

Changes, 1972

Fittingly, "Changes" was the last song Bowie performed live on stage before his retirement from live performances at the end of 2006 and then death in 2016.

Bowie’s influence on the advancement of discussions and attitudes, towards sexuality and gender and growing acceptence of were immense. In an era when it was almost impossible and illegal to come out as gay, Bowie remained unashamedly and loudly open regarding his sexuality and this helped many people’s personal acceptance of themselves as non heterosexual. 

My father exclaiming, "that bloke's a bloody poof" just accelerated my admiration for Bowie's bravery. I died my hair with henna and fashioned it after Ziggy. I was not alone.

"Now you're turning into a bloody poof"

Something along the lines of (rather exagerated),

"You've got your mother in a whirl

She's not sure if you're a boy or a girl"

Rebel Rebel, 1974

As an adolescent boy at that most impressionable of age my perception of sexuality had "ch-ch-ch-changed" from my parent's generation and that carried its way through university and then into adult life. I remain of the view that so much more needs to be done societally in embracing individuality.

Taboos still exist. For example, in my opinion the term "pink pound" is offensive, derogatory and exclusionist.

To me corporate equal opportunities statements suggest "lip service". It should not be something you have make a statement about. It should be just reality and require no comment. Often recruitment advertisements contradict "equal opportunities" with language that is nuanced, Being old, the one that gets me is " Young, bright, enthusiastic applicant sought....." How is that equal opportunity? It might be relevant but it is exclusionary.

Back in the 70's thousands of young people struggling with their identities looked up to Bowie as a champion of hope and change. Bowie, the outsider, made them feel accepted. Bowie made tolerance cool. Bowie helped make me tolerant of the perceived outsiders of the time, including ethnic or cultural.

Bowie was always ahead of the curve. He understood and used the power of the internet before most people had heard of it.

Bowie was the first artist to release a song online. "Telling Lies" in 1996. This showed that Bowie understood that the Internet, which many believed to be a passing fad, would one day be the basis of all communication, entertainment, and education.

Bowie predicted the decline in traditional music sales, in 2002 writing that music would become "like running water or electricity".

Bowie was a very shrewd investor. He was an innovator in the world of finance.

In the mid-1990s, David Bowie, came up with a new scheme to generate cash from his back catalogue.

In 1997 Bowie sold asset-backed securities, named "Bowie bonds", with investors sharing his future royalties for 10 years. A first.

These "Bowie bonds" were bought by US insurance giant Prudential Financial for ￡38m, committing Bowie to repay his new creditors out of future income, and gave a fixed annual return of 7.9%.

His innovation of using his intellectual property or unorthodox assets to back marketable securities is still going strong, and this financial legacy is "Hunky Dory".

Less successful financially but still very prescient was the launch in 1998 of his own internet service provider, BowieNet, offering fans access to the internet through his own portal, and a place for them to connect and interact. An early concept of creating an online community. This is Facebook six years before the launch of Facebook in 2004.

Bowie foresaw something we all now take for granted; the link between celebrities and Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and fanbase. The application of the internet.

In 2012, Bowie declared that BowieNet was "kaput".

In 2000, he partnered with USABancshares.com to start his own online bank “BowieBanc”, with pictures of himself on the ATM cards.

Simon Pegg, actor and comedian sums up Bowie's death perfectly,

“If you're sad today, just remember the world is over 4 billion years old and you somehow managed to exist at the same time as David Bowie.”

When I think about investing I often dwell on the great thinkers and some of the lessons they teach. These thinkers tend not to be from the traditional investment world or the academic world of economics. I far prefer people who actually create the economy and economic activity. People who shape our society and consequent activities.

Investing is not about investing in numbers, it's about investing in life and the best place to start is your own life and the things you do in that life. It's about tomorrow not yesterday. Invest in how you think your world will look in 5 to 10 years time.

"Not everything that can be counted counts and not everything that counts can be counted"(Albert Einstein)

From the late great David Bowie;

"Tomorrow belongs to those who hear it coming" (my favourite, particularly when investing)

“Speak in extremes, it'll save you time. ”

"If you feel safe in the area you’re working in, you’re not working in the right area. Always go a little further into the water than you feel you’re capable of being in. Go a little bit out of your depth. And when you don’t feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting.“What I like to do is try to make a difference with the work I do.” 

"If it works it's out of date"