#investing
# Getting Rich vs Staying Rich
#Thread

I like the idea that systems are better than goals, bcoz once you reach a goal you tend to stop doing the thing that made achieving the goal possible.(1)

' I am going to work everyday' is better than ' I am going to lose 10 kgs' bcoz once you lose 10 kgs you will probably stop working out. Same thing happens when a successful business or career hits a big goal. (2)

Paranoia is a trait newcomers used to combat how deeply the odds are stacked against them. But it tends to die once a goal is hit. The only thing harder than gaining a competitive edge is not losing that advantage when you have one.(3)

That's as true for careers & investing strategies as it is for business. And since people are naturally optimistic, there's a tendency to put more thought into finding an edge than not losing it once you find one. (4)

Competition & incompetence are usually blamed when a competitive advantage dies. Getting rich can be biggest impediment to staying rich. (5)

It goes like this. The more successful you are at something, the more convinced you become that u are doing it right. The more convinced you are that you are doing it right, the less open you are to change, the more likely u r to tripping in a world that changes all the time.(6)

There are a million ways to get rich but there is only one way to stay rich. Humility, often to the point of paranoia. The irony is that few things squash humility like getting rich in the first place. (7)

Andy grove, Intel's founder, put it this way ' Business success contains the seeds of it own destruction'. It is not skill or market insight or even hard work which matters for staying rich. It's fear & humility. Humility doesn't mean taking fewer risks.(8)

Sequoia takes as big of risks today as it did 30 yrs ago. But it's taken risks in new industries, with new approaches & new partners, cognizant that worked yesterday isn't what will work tomorrow.