Quote for this month:

“Once we realize that imperfect understanding is the human condition there is no shame in being wrong, only in failing to correct our mistakes.” - George Soros

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Before getting into the update, I want to thank everyone for subscribing and following with me on this journey. Recently surpassing 500+ subscribers is really a big deal for me and I truly appreciate everyone who joins me along the way and always know that you can reply/email me or DM via Twitter/Commonstock with any questions or just to say “Hi”.

As a thank you, I will be doing a giveaway (on this more in the GIVEAWAY segment).

If you know anyone who might find this interesting or useful please do share my newsletter with them (and others) to spread the word.

Now to the fun stuff…

Portfolio Update*

I am NOT a financial advisor, I’m sharing my investing journey. Do your own research.

Portfolio:

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Portfolio Discussion

Not to much change overall except that I been adding (tiny amounts) to my current holdings & with proceeds from that I have exited (fully) and started position in its less then 1% which I’m not planning to really increase until the I see some more developments/optimism in VC world / Public Markets.

A lot of valuations are “beat up” and I’m not expecting SuRo Capital to giveaway dividends left and right like they did before but I do think/hope that management will be picking up some good companies that (later in the future) will go public.

I don’t want to promise but I will try to do my next Deep Dive on SuRo Capital as its pretty straightforward play with management updating NAV every so often which makes it easier for us (investors) to know when is undervalued (like right now). I would prefer to pick up more shares under $6.25 .

I will be trying to keep playing options on and few others to generate some cash.

Dividends for June:

I’m still trying / planning to hold around $10,000 in cash on the sidelines just in case A) my puts get filled or B) stock market decides to go lower.

We can’t predict the future, but we can prepare for it with optionalities.

Comments From Me

Quick note, depending on how the poll goes, I may or may not try to change things around, so if I do decide to change some things don’t be alarmed and if you don’t like or do not think (agree) the changes “suit my style” do let me know…

“Continue to grow and evolve.” - Mahatma Gandhi

… as you know this is evolving project and I do not seek perfection only to get a little better with every change.

I also have a few new cool (at least I think they are cool) ideas to try and bring more value to everyone without getting too overwhelmed.

Stay tuned :)

GIVEAWAY(s)

I was thinking how to reward you (my subscribers) for being so awesome and to celebrate reaching the new milestone…

So, I will giveaway a few things (rules will be explained at the end of this segment):

.ツ Yegor. 🇺🇦 @from100kto1m

2/2 Prize? One Random Lucky Winner will get subscription to any substack he/she wants (value worth of up to $250*) Plus there will be another giveaway that I will announce in July's post, so subscribe at from100kto1m.com and spread the word to help out. Thank you 🙏

*First (Main) Prize will be given to ONE lucky winner a subscription to any substack newsletter of her/his choice (worth value of up to $250!)
- To try and keep it fair for all, I came up with a few simple rules for this giveaway.
  - A) you have to be a subscriber of my substack with at least “one star activity level” by the end of July (July 31, 2022).
  - B) you can’t win main prize and the other prize, one prize per person.
*Second is a two part prize:
- a) 3 people who will like (bonus entry if you comment something that you enjoy about my newsletter or something that you think I can improve on) on this post will enter into 1 YEAR subscription to Margin of Safety Investing that is ran by Simon . Simon puts out awesome articles on stocks and investing related and if you are not subscribed yet. I highly recommend it.
  Margin of Safety Investing
  A personal and insightful take on the best quality businesses available in public stock markets both big and small.
  By Simon Handrahan
- b) I will also put out twitter post at some point in July on another way to win some subscriptions, so make sure to follow me on Twitter.

All this done is in good faith and to give back, neither substack or Simon is sponsoring this and I’m paying out of my pocket for all of it.

I think life is not only about taking but also giving and so I try to give back whatever way I can.

Winners will be announced on the next monthly update.

Sunday Scaries Stock Talk pod featuring @from100kto1m

I was on @Greencandleit ‘s pod:

Green Candle Investments @Greencandleit

gm check out the latest Sunday Scaries Stock Talk pod featuring @from100kto1m 🔥 he brings a ton of knowledge on investing and how to weather this wild ride we’re on 🔥 open.spotify.com/episode/3WV0YU…

His substack:

I enjoyed this conversation with Brandon and hope that some of you can/will get something useful out of it.

Much More Books

This time around I finished 3 audiobooks and 1 physical book…

Powers of Two: How Relationships Drive Creativity by Joshua Wolf Shenk

Powers of Two was given to me by Shai Dardashti. I do not know who SD is but he did twitter post saying he would give away books that he is done with to make room for new books and he would ship them for free. Out of the books that was left/available I took this one.

It’s the one that I would probably not read by myself and I want to say BIG THANK YOU to Shai Dardashti for giving me this book. I have not finished physical book in a while so it was nice to do something different and get satisfaction from reading physical book.

Powers of Two is about “creativity is made in pairs” like Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak, Charlie Munger & Warren Buffett or John Lennon & Paul McCartney. Book goes deep into different creative pairs and what made them work and also what made some break away.

Now I cant say this book can be fully used to recreate creativity in with “your pair” but I think it can be useful to reflect on your own relationship with signification other, friend, co-worker, co-founder, etc to see if you can or should improve in any ways or to get better idea of in what kind of relationship you (potentially) are.

I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars.

The Craving Mind: From Cigarettes to Smartphones to Love—Why We Get Hooked and How We Can Break Bad Habits by Judson Brewer

The Craving Mind goes well after reading An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook's Battle for Domination by Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang.

Judson Brewer talks about our addictions to smoking/alcohol, Facebook/other social medias, stress eating and others… how those addictions work on “the inner body level” and how we can consciously break them without and “magic pills” or expensive subscriptions.

I highly recommend this one for anyone who spends “too much” time on bad habits that they know they should NOT be spending much or at all.

I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know by Adam Grant

This one was also kind of a reminder on “never assume anything and always double check your thoughts” I did not learn anything new but to anyone who has constancy to just believe whatever they read or see and think its probably true because that is what always been said, this book will give examples and will (probably) make you think and RE-think the “truths” that you never questioned that might just not be true.

Makes me think that being humble is almost like a superpower.

I give it 3 out of 5 stars.

Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life by Hector Garcia & Francesc Miralles

Ikigai is probably the reason why Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett are still here with us… good genes and billions of dollars also helps though that’s not the point and is not necessary to achieve Ikigai…

Ikigai talks about doing what you love not for the money, fame, or status but because you LOVE it. Be it your favorite hobby or the work (job) you enjoy… year after year after year after year. I do not believe many of us can say that we are at that level, but most of us probably are trying to get there.

Book goes over some examples via (mostly) Japanese culture, diet, and spirituality of people who are living to 100+ years and going into details of how they are able to achieve that.

Good book to (maybe) make you rethink your priorities in life and maybe switch things around before its too late

I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars.

I also did NOT finish 2 books…

Safe Haven: Investing for Financial Storms by Mark Spitznagel

I listened to over half of the audiobook and still could not figure out what the heck MS is talking about. Again large quantity of numbers is not my thing and what he was talking about for the most part sounded just like a fancy language and gave me feeling MS just wants to hear himself speak.

Sticking to books like Margin of Safety or Intelligent Investor will be way more beneficial, in my opinion.

The Misbehavior of Markets: A Fractal View of Financial Turbulence by Benoit Mandelbrot & Richard Hudson

Similarly as with SAFE HAVEN, I read this one almost half way and can honestly say the only thing I got out of it was that whatever they teach in colleges about markets does not work (have to take this word for it as I never finished college) and so does not work The Modern Portfolio Theory (which I already knew).

If you are more into technical stuff and numbers, you might enjoy this book but for simple people (like me) I will stick to books like Black Swan or any other book by Nassim Taleb but NOT by Mark Spitznagel.

Monthly Munchies

Here are some things to munch on…

Related to my portfolio:

HIBT Lab! Google: Sundar Pichai (Spotify)
PayPal: Beyond the Button (Website - Paywall)
Key notes for $PYPL - Recent Conferences (Substack)
Mitek - Connecting Trust, Identity, & Technology (Podcast)
Spotify - "We're Doing Much Better Than You Think" (Substack - Paywall)

Other:

Title Insurance (Substack)
"Fear of Crashing" (Substack)
The Narrative's Power (Substack)
Guest Interview, Giro Lino (Substack)
7 Billion Sets of Spectacles (Substack)
Buffett ❤️ Apple: Case Study (Substack)
Is the Sum Greater than the Whole? (Substack)
Meb Faber - Two Quants Walk into a Bar (Spotify)
Ashvin Chhabra - The Aspirational Investor (Spotify)
How To Invest Like the Best Investors in the World (Website)
Terry Smith: Characteristics of a quality company (2022) (YouTube)
RWH008: Playing to Win w/ Investing Guru Mohnish Pabrai (Spotify)
The Importance of Building and Guarding Our Own Energy (Substack)
374 - Netflix Part 1 (Spotify) 375 - Netflix Part 2 (Spotify) 376 - Netflix Part 3 (Spotify)

Thank you for reading all the way to the end…

I would love to hear your feedback (both positive & negative feedback is welcomed).

Lastly, I would really appreciate if you would share my newsletter with one person who you think might enjoy reading what I’m writing about.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Mr Zaye

P.S. Check out my LinkTree ⬅️ .

P.S.S. Don’t forget to ❤️ if you enjoyed it.

P.S.S.S…

Please check my previous post “Few quick questions..” in which I ask you (readers) to answer three quick poll questions, if you have not answered them yet, please do so … poll will end in 3 days and your opinions are very important to me.

My Investing Journey "From $100K to $1M"

Few quick questions...

As some of you may or may not know, I recently have surpassed 500+ subscribers on substack, and so I want to say (quick) THANK YOU to all of you! (On the new milestone, appreciation and also a GIVEAWAYS, I will discuss in greater details in the next “Monthly Update” that I will release soon, so stay tuned…

a month ago · 5 likes · 6 comments · Mr Zaye

(Thank you)

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My Investing Journey "From $100K to $1M"

07.07.2022 Portfolio Update (Monthly Edition)