I was talking with an entrepreneur/trader friend whom I met as a customer at a cafe I used to run. We became friends when I was tasked by the cafe partners to seek opportunities for a buy-out, and the customer offered some interest. My friend is a bit more emotive than I - and remindsme of the INTJ / Palihapitiya archetype. They are the sort of people who are slightly more resentful about material poverty than myself, so can be somewhat emotive about investing based on beliefs to the contrary, in people and in general.
I find that I don't relate to these, or most people, as investors. The underlying reason is simply that for me, material poverty is not a problem. I mentioned recently to them that I don't invest based on expectations of success. Thinking about what that meant, I guess I administer finance as a tool of discovery, so it is a bit more a matter of science than power acquisition. Of courses, for sundry purposes, we all "do business", "trade", and "invest" to amass just enough power in society to make each one of ourselves happy - but that has generally been a lower priority than science over my lifetime of forty years. I guess we were just raised differently.
Thinking about what "success" is, I remember the question I got from my first interview for a sales position in 2005. My answer at the time was broadly, that if I have time to think about my day, I consider it a successful day. It didn't seem to make sense to the hiring manager - he seemed to want more, in life.
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