Jason Rines (iThinkBig)

My Year in Trading - Why I Looked for 'Survivability' in Companies

1) I admire your writings Mr. Merkle. They reflect a strong level of detail combined with self-analyzation. You put yourself out there not fearing differing opinions.

2) First-In - Ah yes. As an entrepenuar I can appreciate your knowledge of this and your frustrations. I advise taking your five year numbers of how you accumulated wealth by stock-picking into a simple to understand spreadsheet as a value-proposition.

3) Survive then thrive. Any form of middle man will be questioned and re-questioned after the breakdown of trust in everything financial. No, it's not fair we played by the rules and should be trusted. We seem alike Mr. Merkle, we tend to make our goals grandioise. We probably belong being on 3-4 boards and making a fine living that way. However, first we must finish accumulating wealth as we run the risk of becoming too spread out. I own a Consumer Health and Higher Ed marketing business. One of the hardest choices I had to make was realize there was only so much time in the day and give my focus to the best hedge in the survivability equation. That choice was made in February of 2007. I am drawn toward Higher Ed for many reasons, but the timing will not be right until the second half of 2009. Disclipling myself is required.

4) Why won't they listen?!?! Leadership in Washington and Corporate America was used to a heavy-debt model that was non-sustainable. America is going back to Save and Invest economy, despite leadership attempting to patch up a broken boat. It should not be surprising current leadership is still defending the broken model. Emerging leadership is the category both of us fit into. I stopped being frustrated and started doing something about it. But this is part-time public service stuff I am doing. It cannot and will not replace the focus on Consumer Healthcare survive/thrive model. As you seem to relate, family comes first. America chooses it's leadership, they will become wiser (slowly but surely) in this regard as they have in the past during other financial meltdowns.