Sometimes a change is as good as a rest, and so this is the final Friday Footnotes that will be sent under the Efficient Portfolio branding. However, fear not, they will continue to deliver the same varied content just under a new look and branded as The Trusted Team. Out with the old and in with the new!
TRIBEathlon Podcast
Eoin Everard is a former international runner with impressive achievements, including being a sub 4-minute miler and a five-time national champion. He has also won the 3k European Indoor Masters Championship.
As a PhD holder in biomechanics and a chartered physio, he has a wealth of knowledge to share about injury prevention, including the most common causes of running injuries and key steps to avoid them. He also highlights the importance of preventing back pain when sitting and how it can affect training. Eoin provides insights into the nuances of training, such as why running too hard is the biggest mistake for distance runners and how to a simple 3-minute routine that can improve your running stride.
Claire and I wanted to chat to him about how to avoid injuries, the importance of your shoe choice for race and training plus the art of marketing your business as the expert.
What I’ve Been Reading
They say that economists have predicted 9 of the last 2 recessions, so you have to take their opinions and thoughts with a large pinch of salt; that said, you should still listen to them occasionally. One economist that I think is worth listening to is Peter Zehan, and whilst I definitely do not agree with everything he says, there is no doubt that he knows his stuff and you will learn a huge amount out about the world.
The End of the World Is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization is jam packed full or incredible facts, trends and predictions. In this book, Zeihan envisions a future where countries must independently produce goods, grow food, and secure energy with shrinking, aging populations. Few nations can manage this, leading to drastic changes in manufacturing, agriculture, energy, and trade. Zeihan’s insightful, witty, and irreverent work explores this world’s end and beginning. Personally, I think he needs to be more optimistic about how technology will make some of his doom and gloom better, but the issues of China, Europe and many other countries are without doubt a huge future challenge.
What I’ve Been Watching
My Octopus Teacher is one of the most unexpectedly beautiful and interesting documentaries that I have seen. Now granted I love the underwater world so I might be biased, but it is still bouncing around in my head for many reasons, one of which is further down this email. It started a little slow, and I nearly didn’t go back to it; but what unfolds in an incredible story of one man taking the time to see a little understood species in its natural habitat every day! What Craig Foster discovers is so much more than its eating habits or its defence mechanisms. I for one will never look at an octopus in the same light again, although I will be watching this again with the family.
TED Talk I’ve Found Interesting
Have you had your daily dose of fun? It’s not just enjoyable, it’s also essential for your health and happiness says science journalist, Catherine Price, in her brilliant TED talk Why having fun is the secret to a healthier life. She proposes a new definition of fun – what she calls “true fun” – and shares easy, evidence-backed ways to weave playfulness, flow and connection into your everyday life. There are loads of brilliant takeaways from this talk, and I’d really encourage everyone to spare 12 minutes to take it in.
Quote of the Week
“The real question is whether China can even hold itself together as a country.”
- Peter Zeihan
Business Matters
Watching My Octopus Teacher got me thinking about the power of delegation in business. One of the benefits of delegating more in business is it means you give up the things you dislike or aren’t very good at and get more time to focus on the activity that you both love and are really good at.
This is usually the activity in your business that actually generates the income, and thus delegating more and more of the other stuff allows the business to grow. When you delegate the other things away, it allows you to go deeper into that one thing that you love and excel at.
If you’ll excuse the pun, freeing up time to go diving to see the same octopus every day for a year was certainly going deeper into one single activity for Foster, but by the end of it he knew more about the octopus than probably anyone on the planet. Bill Gates did the same with programming and I think we can agree that he didn’t do too badly either. So, whilst making more money might be one of the benefits of delegating more, so is becoming the best at what you do. Dive deep!