Monthly Archives: July 2009

The Benefits of Embracing Change

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templeton-planWe continue our exploration of John Templeton’s twenty-one steps detailed in The Templeton Plan by reviewing Step 6: Finding the Positive with Every Negative. With the recession still holding strong, we will explore this step and provide some examples of why living a more optimistic life is beneficial.

Throughout his life, John Templeton looked for opportunities to try new things and travel as much as he could. Rather than stay in his comfort zone and rely only on what he already knew, he tried to learn new things all of the time, which resulted in much of his success as an investor.

In this passage from Step 6 of The Templeton Plan, James Ellison details some of the methods Templeton used to try new things:

Another way to accentuate the positive is to welcome change each day. It is human nature to get stuck in a rut and resist innovation, but you must teach yourself to try new paths. Don’t let a day go by without learning something new. The successful life is an adventurous one.

When John Templeton goes to restaurants with clients in connection with his investment counseling work, he makes it a point to order one item on the menu that he’s never tried before. That way he assures himself that the day will not be like any other day; he assures himself of an adventure, a seminar in living, no matter how small.

A successful life depends less on how long you live than on how much you can pack into the time you have. If you can find a way to make every day an adventure—even if it’s only a matter of walking down an unfamiliar street or ordering an untried cut of meat—you will find that your life becomes more productive, richer, and more interesting. You also become more interesting to others.

The same rule applies to travel. For example, make it your objective to visit all fifty states in the Union and at least a dozen other nations. You will thus have a positive goal worth pursuing and, as you begin to fulfill your goal, a sense of accomplishment. You will also begin to develop a worldview that will contribute to building a successful career.

So far, in his seventy-four years, John Templeton has visited forty-nine of the fifty states of the U.S. and seventy-seven nations in the world. He feels that extensive travel has enabled him to have viewpoints not obtainable to those who stay at home; he has also discovered wonderful new opportunities for investments.

The Power of Networking

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templeton-planWe continue our exploration of John Templeton’s twenty-one steps detailed in The Templeton Plan by reviewing Step 6: Finding the Positive with Every Negative. With the recession still holding strong (or is it?), we will explore this step and provide some examples of why living a more optimistic life is beneficial.

networking

Given the uncertain state of our economy, now is a more important time than ever to build a network among colleagues and acquaintances. John Templeton was a very savvy networker who understood that accentuating the positive in every situation was a smart way to conduct business. He describes his networking method to James Ellison in Step 6 of The Templeton Plan:

To reach out, to try the new, is to accentuate the positive. The successful person never stops reaching and trying. When Templeton first became an investment counselor after college, he had a friend, Harry J. Haas, a banker in Philadelphia. Haas formed a habit of making friends with other bankers whom he met at conventions and bankers’ associations. He would write their names on individual cards and file them in his desk drawer. Subsequently, he would keep a sharp eye out for a photograph or any news item relating to them—a promotion mentioned in the business section of any newspaper, a recent entry in Who’s Who, a social event—and whenever he found something, he would clip it out and attach it to the card. He collected cards on thousands of bankers, and he never failed to drop someone a line of congratulations on good news or commiseration if the news were bad. As a result, Haas, who through his thoughtfulness had made thousands of friends, later in life became president of the American Bankers’ Association.

Men like Haas are uplifting forces in the lives of many. They make an extra effort to find the positive in every negative. Their genuine interest in others translates into substantial success.

Link Roundup

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newspaper-pressSir John’s name has been popping up in the news quite a bit lately, so we’re going to take a short break from our Templeton Plan posts to do another Link Roundup!

If you only have time for one, check out the one from Three Fish Limit — it does a great job of distilling Templeton’s wisdom into concise, practical advice (much like what we try to do here!).

Finding the Positive Amidst the Recession

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templeton-plan

We continue our exploration of John Templeton’s twenty-one steps detailed in The Templeton Plan by reviewing Step 6: Finding the Positive with Every Negative. With the recession still holding strong, we will explore this step and provide some examples of why living a more optimistic life is beneficial.

John Templeton championed the idea of finding the positive in every negative, aligning well with his contrarian approach. In The Templeton Plan, he shares this quote from business executive Reginald B. Mansell:

“A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities; an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.”

Given that our deep recession has now lasted more than eighteen months, how are people finding the positive in the negative?

One public campaign is taking a light-hearted approach to finding the positive in the negative. The anonymously funded ad campaign “Recession 101″ features billboards throughout the country that feature brief statements of optimism such as ”Bill Gates started Microsoft in a recession” and “Self worth beats net worth.”

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Finding the Positive in Every Negative

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templeton-plan

We continue our exploration of John Templeton’s twenty-one steps detailed in The Templeton Plan by reviewing Step 6: Finding the Positive with Every Negative. With the recession still holding strong, we will explore this step and provide some examples of why living a more optimistic life is beneficial.

Templeton describes four key points for finding the positive in every negative in The Templeton Plan:

To summarize Step 6, anything that can be formulated in positive terms will lead to harmony among people and productive change. Through practice, you can almost always find the positive in any situation.

Below are listed areas for further study:

1.  When you start to analyze the character of person B while talking to person A, stop yourself. Resist the impulse. It is gossip, and gossip is a negative force that leads away from success and happiness.

2.  Avoid comparisons. They have a way of making negatives out of positives.

3.  Be sure that your life is a seminar in living. You can achieve this by learning something new each day, no matter how small; by reaching out to others; by never passing up an opportunity for a new experience that will enlarge your knowledge; and by traveling as much as possible so that you can see new places and meet new people from different backgrounds.

4.  Read literature that inspires you. Inspiration is a core characteristic of the positive personality.

Putting First Things First: Action Plan

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We’ll wrap up our examination of Sir John’s advice to “Put First Things First” by offering his action plan for incorporating this important concept into your all areas of your life.

  1. List all the virtues that have special meaning for you.
  2. Rank them in order of importance in your life.
  3. Think of examples where you have been able to put various virtues into practice.
  4. Discuss virtues with family members, business associates, and friends. They may provide you with insights into the virtues you need to practice to lead a happy and successful life.

templeton-planHere is the start of a list, which you can add to and change as you produce your own: gentleness, humility, self-control, hopefulness, perseverance, enthusiasm, responsibility, farsightedness, unselfishness, honor, hard work, generosity, promptness, thrift, originality, judgment, calmness, loyalty, forgiveness, thanksgiving, common sense, honesty, bravery, and love.

A Year Later

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1912-2008

1912-2008

Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of the death of Sir John Templeton. What a year it has been and how we wish he was here to comment on these turbulent economic times. Some of the major economic events that have occurred since Sir John’s passing include:

  • A housing crisis
  • The fall of banking giants Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch
  • A nearly 50 percent crash in the stock market
  • A federal bank bailout and a huge government stimulus package
  • Rising unemployment numbers that hit 9.5 percent last week

Although we do not have Templeton here to comment on these staggering economic events, we will continue to explore his wisdom to put into perspective this long recession at “What Would John Templeton Say?”

Gary Moore on John Templeton’s Values (Part 2)

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In as series of two posts, Gary Moore reflects on the religious perspective John Templeton brought to the investing world and how it shaped his investing decisions.

Similarly, Sir John utilized the Golden Rule as a guide to investing and life—he even wrote books about it. I can hear you protesting that the Golden Rule has had nothing to do with Wall Street and corporate America lately. Indeed, it has been the fad in business schools to preach the concept of “shareholder maximization,” or taking the greatest care of the shareholder without consideration of “stakeholders,” or employees, customers, future generations, and so on. Even Jack Welch, once considered a high priest of that concept, recently deemed shareholder maximization one of the “dumbest” business ideas ever. 

Sir John actually told business educators that many years ago when he said: “My advice to a school of business management is to teach the businessperson to give unlimited love and he or she will be more successful.” Sir John saw unlimited love as an element of the Golden Rule. Sir John certainly took care of his shareholders. And he certainly did well for the foundations he funded.

Yet the paradox was that his financial success was an indirect reward of his ethic of seeing how his investments related to others, particularly “the least of these” in developing countries. John’s business as the dean of global investing was established as he believed developed nations have a moral responsibility to invest in developing nations.

He made it a practice to avoid speculation, holding his stocks five times longer than the typical mutual fund manager even back then and avoiding financing companies engaged in the production of potentially harmful products he wouldn’t consume himself. Contrary to most financial practitioners, Sir John always maintained the ethic of being “client and other focused” rather than self-centered, and it actually enhanced his returns. Sure, he may have missed a winner or two each year. But he thought the discipline demanded by the ethic would prove rewarding overall and over the long term. Who can argue with his track record?

Gary Moore was a senior vice president of Paine Webber before starting his own investment practice. He has written five book about spirituality and wealth management, including Spiritual Investments and Faithful Finances 101 (Templeton Press). He lives in Sarasota, Florida.

Gary Moore on John Templeton’s Values (Part 1)

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In as series of two posts, Gary Moore reflects on the religious perspective John Templeton brought to the investing world and how it shaped his investing decisions.

Sir John Templeton thought that belief was crucial to his success as a money manager, businessman, father, and so on. Thirty years ago, in its November 27, 1978 issue, Forbes magazine shared this quote: “Religious views are important to whatever anyone does—investing, writing articles, anything. How you see yourself in relation to yourself and others and your Creator, why, it’s the most important thing there is because you think most clearly if you are at peace with yourself and your Creator” (emphasis his). 

 Things seem to fall in a natural order once you answer that really big question for yourself, regardless of what you do. For example, consider the field of investment management, in which both Sir John and I practiced. Considering the current state of Wall Street, one might assume one’s relation to the Creator and others has been totally irrelevant during recent years. Nothing could be further from the truth.

For example, it has been fashionable in even our most prominent business schools the past thirty years to teach that markets are rational. Yet I know of no religion that has taught humankind is rational with money. Some actually teach that humankind grows its greatest distance from the rational mind when dealing with the stuff; Mammon, filthy lucre and all that.

So after the Bible, the first book Sir John suggested we all read was: Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles MacKay. Sir John even had Templeton Press print a special edition of it. As you can guess from the title, it’s not required reading for professors who teach that investors and businesspeople are “rational pursuers of self-interest” and the “efficient market hypothesis.”

Understanding that reality about human nature helped Sir John avoid the mania for Internet stocks at the turn of the century. Despite investors having more financial education, media information, and research tools available than at any time in history, Sir John thought that was the single greatest bubble of irrational behavior in the history of markets. In short, Sir John’s religious instincts, honed to razor-sharpness during his youth, told him investors are not angels, much less the rational mind. 

 We will continue Gary Moore’s reflections in our next post.

Gary Moore was a senior vice president of Paine Webber before starting his own investment practice. He has written five book about spirituality and wealth management, including Spiritual Investments and Faithful Finances 101 (Templeton Press). He lives in Sarasota, Florida.