For the small club of companies who trade the food, fuels and metals that keep the world running, the last decade has been sensational. Driven by the rise of Brazil, China, India and other fast-growing economies, the global commodities boom has turbocharged profits at the world’s biggest trading houses. Who are those firms and what…
I often wondered why some people go truly out of control when success, money, and power go to their heads until one day I read this: “Money doesn’t make you an asshole. Money just makes you care less if people know you’re an asshole”… How true. So why does this happen? Is it because the…
Having spent the last three decades of my life in the money world, I am frequently asked what are the smartest investing tips I would offer people looking in retrospect for someone starting his money career today…. Well here are my basic tips – some trivial , others much less obvious – for anyone wanting…
I am often asked what is it to be wealthy that most people don’t know much about. Well here are some facts that may surprise you and that you may or may not have imagined along with some tips as to how to best deal with it. 1. Being wealthy is an incredibly isolating experience.…
I don’t care what you’re doing in your life but you’re walking around with a safety net underneath it. Most everyone is. The safety net keeps you from pushing your limits, your comfort, your ability to see consequences. Don’t be stupid and live like you’re going to die tomorrow. Go to work. Love your family.…
For those of us in the West the answer is pretty simple: “Let’s just stay out and let them handle themselves while we take care of our daily routine” . It is a fact that many today, far too quickly, just dismiss the situation as Bush’s Folly, though few put any real thought into understanding…
I have always been flabbergasted by how ignorant Americans are about Syria and how US policy makers in the Obama Administration have dealt with the Syria file so far. So as a political activist in the region, I thought of sharing with you some basic answers to the most asked questions about Syria in the…
As a businessman and a philanthropist, I am approached by hundreds of people every year pitching me their respective causes and ideas….Some real polished and smart, others amazingly ineffective and clueless. I thought I’d share with you some basic tips as to how you could make your pitch as effective as can be to get…
I have been in the money and private equity business for around 30 years now ; both as an investment banker, company operator/ CEO and venture capitalist and private equity investor. I have seen and met the whole spectrum of people… From the super smart type to the dumb as a rock persona and all…
Most people go through life not knowing what they want and then they wonder why they are not getting to reach their desired goals. Well as a starter, you’ve got to realize that if you really want to do something and you know what it is, you’ll always find a way. If you don’t, you’ll…
You’ve got a blog. You like blogging and you get a nice number of readers every day. It seems like a natural choice to monetize your blog and get something back for your efforts. There is indeed a lot of press about people making a living from their blogs – and some people do, it’s…
With Russia’s increasingly important role today on both the global political and business fronts – especially when it comes to oil trading – , ignoring Russia is clearly no more of an option. The key though is truly understanding Russia and the Russians if you want to be truly effective in there. So what does…
This is clearly a question every non-profit Executive Director thinks about every day as funds for non-profits have been steadily declining for the last 2 years given the harsh economic realities we’re all still going through. So these are a few tips I thought I would share with you all. Whether you are an NPO…
An issue that clearly has been on the table starting with the Obama Administration back in 2009 and with NYC Mayor de Blasio as recently as early this year. Would we allow major social and political institutions to collapse or be severely harmed due to the economic cycle needing “creative destruction” to reach maximized efficiency?…
The world is clearly today a very different place than only 5 years ago. I see it even changing at a much faster pace in the remaining years of the current decade. To be perfectly candid, I believe that modern basic science tends to take far longer to reach markets than it used to (~20-30…
Ziad Abdelnour 