The Glass Half Full: Lessons From the Home Front

January 31, 2017

Much of what we learn about the world begins in the confines of the home. My own late mother’s wisdom continues to find its way into my business and personal life. Yet, some of her advice would make Machiavelli wince. My favorite line goes something like this: “Better to give people the benefit of the doubt, and be burned once or twice, than to write off humanity entirely.” Simply put, better to turn the other cheek—even if we run out of cheeks--because we never know when our next gesture of grace will change the world for the better.

But there’s another bit of her wisdom I ponder when I have time to muse. Some background is in order.  

Back during my university days, I was rather full of myself, in more than the usual dosage. It was just after my first semester--days that find us remarkably unformed. We look in the mirror and start liking what we see, more so with each lesson learned, book read, and exam taken. In time, we grow in self-importance and independence and upon returning home for the first time, we realize how very little our parents understand about our very “complicated” world.

Those first days home from university found me with the character of an arse, and mom was enduring my onslaught bravely. I cut down everything she had taught me the previous 18 years, which was another way of saying I didn’t much care for her view of life. My mouth was unstoppable and I was driven to divide with hopes of conquering the conversation with my new found sagacity. All the while, she kept her composure with remarkable aplomb.

After a few days of this Chinese torture, her magical mom-ish wisdom, and stern yet loving solicitude kicked in and mom stopped my mouth in its tracks, uttering what could well be said to all of us in these days of unbridled politics and financial insecurity. She had endured just about enough of my musings and told me the following nugget: 

 “If, in a fit of anger or arrogance, you are tempted to destroy someone, or an idea or concept--or your own personal history--make sure you have something positive to replace it with. Otherwise, you’ll be staring down a big black hole with nothing to hold onto.”

This bit of wisdom carries ever greater currency in our day of abused politics, speculation by economists, and sorry advice from many of our leaders and financial advisors.   

Let’s begin with our ex-President, Mr. Obama.  After eight years of homilies, I dare you to recall the last time you heard words of comfort and affirmation from his mouth. Instead, we have come to the end of eight years of excuses, of blaming the other guy, of redefining our collective history, and enduring a dour view of reality.  It started with the so-called “apology tour” in 2008, and it ended like a reprise from an aging rock band--the “last apology tour”--just before he left office.

All the while, no self analysis, no self blame, and no ability to replace negative with positive. We had a President who not only viewed the glass as half empty, but questioned whether we should have paid much attention to the half that remained.

This kind of talk is not limited to politics.  It’s also legend in our business of finance. In fact, entire careers are spun in a web of fear and negativity. Fittingly, there’s a genre of money managers called “Gloom and Doomers,” a term christened in the 1980s by the sage and chief economist of Salomon Brothers, Henry Kaufman, otherwise known as "Dr. Doom." Miraculously, some of Kaufman's DNA found its way to some of today's economists and Wealth Managers like Marc Farber, George Soros and his protégé Jim Rogers, who peddle pessimism for a living.

Because most of us are hard-wired to enjoy living in a tortured state of fear when it comes to money and risk, we are easy targets for these modern hucksters, who urge us to part with our hard earned capital to protect ourselves at all costs. Most of us give ourselves over to fear with little prodding, heeding the wisdom of these gloom and doomers.

Then we have a crop of famous economists like Krugman, Summers and Stieglitz, often tenured at Ivy League colleges and universities and some even earning an occasional Nobel Prize. plying their tools of fear to knock the stuffing from our collective minds. For them, it’s more about what we lower souls on the food chain do not yet understand, than about what they can teach us to relieve us of our ignorance. In the end, even with these experts, we find nothing more than black holes with little to hang onto.  Evidently, they never met mom… 

And let’s be clear: theirs is not the road less traveled. In Philosophy 101 class, we learn that arguing from a negative is the easiest way to plead your case with any opposition. Much easier, the reasoning goes, to knock down someone else’s statement or person, than to build up or defend your own. We listen to the political discussions these days and discover it’s all an attempt to shoot holes through arguments, rather than to commend solutions.    

Let’s hope our new President can shift us into a mode where we’re focusing on possibilities rather than pitfalls. Laugh as you will at the slogan “Make America Great,” it is the equivalent of an arrow straight through the heart of gloom and doomers; perhaps this is the reason volume levels have been running at fever pitch for the past year. Plenty of hucksters--the gloom and dooomers--stand to lose plenty with this refocus on solutions. Their gravy train has just left the last station.

Let’s take a lesson from Trump’s willingness to confound the odds and beat the prognosticators with—yes—a positive message. Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt at least until he’s had his first months in office and he’s been tested by fire. 

And let’s remember, once again, Trump has few political alliances with either the Democrats or Republicans. And by this non-alliance to political parties, he's capable of more flexiblity than most may realize.

For those familiar with the sport of baseball, Trump seems like a guy who can ‘switch-hit,’ send in a designated hitter, pop a sacrifice fly to the outfield to advance the runners, and even steal a base or two before anyone suspects he has the ability to run.  He’s his own man, unburdened by labels--political or otherwise. He works hard, believes in his mission, and seems to have a game plan. Plus, he looks like he’s having a a damn good time.

Maybe it’s worth keeping our eyes on the positive here. A new approach to running government is upon us that may be more colorful and engaging than any of us realizes. A positive approach would be just the kind of thing mom would commend. And she usually got it right.