12/2019
Parenting is humbling.
That’s the first lesson I learned from my two-year-old.
We celebrated our 2nd daughter’s Gabryane, 100th Day this month. We were privileged to have a few REITS CEOs and Head of Investor Relations and all our dear friends and student investors of GCP Global attending our joyous event.
As we herald in our 2nd daughter, it is so gratifying and joyful to see our 1st daughter Gabryna, grow beyond 2 years old, constantly talking and jumping while singing. Yes, it is a wonder that she can turn talking into singing and vice-versa at split-seconds!
2 years on and Gabryna has taught me a lot about REITS, investing, business and life.
Two-Year-old are fascinating kids, with budding minds free from the social pressures, biases and cognitive deficiencies that investors and adults think and react.
A few things I have learned: -
Communication is Key
Gabryna is growing into a stage where she will be able to form full sentences soon, but she communicates more effectively than many CEOs and Head of Investor Relations that I have encountered in my past 30 years’ experience.
Two-year old do not beat around the bush. When they want something, they tell you – loudly and immediately. If they are uncomfortable or unhappy, they let you know right away. When they are done with something, they just drop it and walk away. Don’t expect them to put their toys back in their storage space or wipe their mouths cleanly by themselves.
Too many adult conversations and misunderstandings are dragged out over long conversations over long periods of time. Then finally when one says “I wish that you had just told me how you felt from the beginning”. Babies have no tolerance for that. Their ability to get to the point actually save many countless hours of deliberations and second-guessing the other.
In this respect, I have learned to ask many REITS CEOs and Head of Investor Relations to come to the salient points during our regular REITS meetups and updates (I have been the Presiding Judge of the Fortune Times REITS Pinnacle Awards and one of the judges for the Singapore Corporate Awards – Best Investor Relations 2017). It is always crucial that certain facts and figures are verified during meetings rather to have gone away with vague comments like “prospects for next quarter will be good”.
Just Do It
Anything can upset a baby instantaneously. But they recover and move on astonishingly fast. The time between Gabryna’s world coming to an end and the greatest moment of her life can be measured in nanoseconds.
Adults, however, dwell on situations for days or weeks and procrastinate. We probably spend too much time talking and musing, rather than doing.
Two-year old don’t hold grudges. They forgive as they forget. They live in the present and they look forward to what is ahead of them, be it a lollipop or ice-cream?
Be Always Curious
Babies are voracious learning machines. The cognitive progress they can achieve in a short period of time is just unbelievable especially when you see and hear it for yourself first-hand. Gabryna practically repeats word for word what I said in close earshot and hence my wife has warned me of swearing while driving (some Singapore drivers are just very inconsiderate), definitely one of my weak points.
What amazes us as parents is that two-year old are practically curious about everything. To them, life is a giant learning experiment. Strangely, many of us are like that when we were young, but maybe, age or stress has dulled our curious sense or maybe after having experienced so many things, we inevitably have preconceived idea of how certain things will work out or we are just bias.
For me, when we approach REITS investments, we like to hear from the CEO what he/she seeks to achieve and measure their performances over time. We try to be inquisitive of many asset acquisitions and their attending yields which many-a-times lead to further understanding of assets in certain locations at different times.
Anchoring Bias
By far large, most investors suffer from anchoring or focalism which is a cognitive bias where they depend too much on an initial piece of information offered when making their buy or sell decisions. Objects near the anchor, be it the REIT price or DPU, tend to be assimilated towards it and those further away tend to be displaced in the other direction.
Babies are not anchored on past experiences or hold bias views. They are almost willing to try any combinations of new ideas (boy it gets even more amazing at the playgrounds) that they can think of. The result is – a staggeringly fast mode of learning and discovery. Time to us adults to get childish again?
It is easy to be Happy
Babies are easily happy and their smiles are megawatt. Perhaps it is due to the fact that they have not seen much of the world and means that they spend a lot of time having their minds blown away to a state of pure bliss by simple things. For example, when Gabryna sees Peppa Pig’s house is on fire and runs for cover, she shouts “fire fire” with the highest level of concern and care for Peppa Pig.
I must confess that watching YouTube kids videos with Gabryna have brought to light a wide plethora of emotions that I have long missed – cries, uncontrollable laughter, shock, amazement, disappointment, cringing etc.
Certainly, everything is amazing when you expect nothing.
The same mindset settles me as a REIT investor – have a realistic expectation of a REIT’s DPU capability based on close assessment of its assets in various business cycles. The history of markets is, and always be, the story of things that were unprecedented until they happened. That’s hard to accept unless you have been through it yourself. In our 30 years’ experience, we have certainly experienced the Good, the Bad and the Ugly, as the cowboy song goes.
Hold those REITS in your investment portfolios that do not spring negative surprises and Be Happy when it is time to enjoy their dividends which is every quarter.
Learn from our babies to be easily Happy.
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