EP 076: Investing: Year in Review Episodes

Once upon a time, I was an obsessed golfer.
And when I say obsessed, I mean I played rain, hail or shine six days a week.

At one point, I hit a bit of a rut.
I was continuously practicing and doing drills, but my score was not improving.

It didn’t seem to matter how many balls I hit or what I changed, no real improvement came.

One afternoon I had a particularly bad round of golf and became incredibly frustrated.

I lost my temper and bent my 4 iron around a tree in frustration.

All the effort I was putting in was going nowhere.

I marched straight into the pro shop and asked for their best coach.
I didn’t care what it cost.

I booked a lesson for later that week.

In hindsight, I was lucky I didn’t get asked to leave the club after what they had just seen me do to my 4 iron…

Anyhow, 

When I arrived at my first lesson, he first asked for my last five scorecards.

He wasn’t interested in how I thought I was doing.
He wanted to see the proof.

He would look over the cards and highlight any holes I was consistently doing poorly on or doing well on.

Hunting for what we needed to work on in that lesson to improve my score.

Every week he would get my latest scorecard and check if I made improvements on the holes he had highlighted.

To take things further. 
He would also film every lesson we did together.

He had a camera and a large monitor to review every ball hit during the lesson.

During our lessons, he would continually go over to the camera and rewind and review how I hit the ball.

Sometimes he would spend 5 minutes watching the same shot over.

He would often make sounds… 
“Hmmm, that’s interesting.” 
 “Ah, let’s change that.”

He never made a recommendation without reviewing my score or footage from the lesson.

A very different approach to what I was taking.
I was just hitting more balls and doing drills I found on youtube.

Over the coming weeks, my score improved, and I enjoyed golf again.

It’s not hard to understand why this guy was such a good coach and why I improved under his guidance.

His whole approach to improvement was evidence-based.
He didn’t set wishy-washy goals based on my aspirations.

I believe much of what my golf coach was doing can be brought over to the business and investing world.

Reviewing the year and using the evidence to form your plan for the following year is a powerful concept.

Yet, I don’t see or hear of many business owners doing it.

Most seem to take my approach of 
“just hit more balls and try things they find on YouTube.”

I do wonder how many businesses would do better if they spent more time reviewing their financials and acting based on evidence.

Anyhow,

On this week’s podcast, Grant and I review the investing year that has been 2022.

We take you through our review process and how we think about the year that has been.

I hope you can take some of the insights from our year and apply them to your 2023!

DISCLAIMER:
All information we share is NOT financial or investment advice and is purely intended for entertainment and educational purposes only. Always seek professional advice before acting on any financial decision.