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Domain Buddy on Public Speaking and Performing

Domain Buddy on Public Speaking and Performing

As an entrepeneur, there will be occasions where public speaking is necessary. In my case, this happened first in the RAF and then later on when I had to address sales teams.

Without doubt the most difficult public speaking experience for me was in 1994 when I talked to a room full of potential investors at Telehouse, first with the aim of persuading them to invest in my new telecoms business, and then again six months later with the different aim of supporting me in a Boardroom battle.

Public speaking is not easy: firstly, there is no-one else on the stage or at the lectern or microphone, and one is aware that all the attention is directed towards you, and what you have to say, and how you say it. For the most part, audiences are friendly and want you to succeed, but this can be difficult to appreciate if you are new to Public Speaking.

Some time in the ’70s or ’80s I had enrolled in a course designed to teach the basics of Public Speaking, and within the course, given by a professional speaker, I learnt several valuable lessons which were important later on in life. And naturally, during the course, one was expected to give a number of speeches on different subjects to other “students”.

Acting is most closely related to Public Speaking where a monologue is delivered – or put simply, there is only you to take the attention of the audience. When you are part of a group of actors involved in a scene together, or part of a musical band or group, it is a little easier on the nerves. Some people thrive on the attention of being the focus for an audience, but most, including myself, are more comfortable within a team and with colleagues close at hand!

Solo musical performances are also a challenge, particularly when – as in my case – it involved both singing and playing the guitar at one of the “open mics”. This leads to two possible disaster scenarios, which are either forgetting the lyrics, or forgetting the chord sequences and the musical score. In my case, I have trouble remembering the lryics in just about any song, but as any musician will tell you, you just have to cover your mistake and carry on – which can be easier said than done!

Is there a Solution to Performance Nerves?

I think that performance nerves are natural and to be expected. As a performer, you should possibly be more worried if you do not have them!

To reduce performance nerves when acting, I always tried to make sure that I was as confident as possible before “taking to the stage”. This involved preparation – for example, with acting, I would make sure that I knew the entire play and would memorise the “lines” and go through the scenes in my head every night before sleeping. Only when I was confident that I knew the script “inside out ” could I then concentrate on other important facets of any Play, which would include “stage positioning” and the Director’s specific requirements for my role.

For any music performance, my experience is that there was nothing better than practice, even when that practice takes place shortly before any performance.

Alcohol And one final piece of advice I am happy to pass on – do not take refuge in alcohol in the mistaken belief that this will “help”. In my experience, it never did! Save the celebratory drink for after the performance!

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Domain Buddy on Global Financial Scandals

Financial Scandals and The Role of the Institutions.

Foreword

I would not say that the general public is gullible, but much of our money is tied up in “fund management” without our express knowledge or permission – for example our pension fund, or any credit balance we may have in our Bank Accounts.

Bank Liquidity.

It is a well-known fact that any major Bank faced with a requirement to return all funds and/or deposits owned by customers would not be able to comply.
Why?
Because Banks and other financial institutions are run as profit making businesses – their shares are quoted on the relevant Stock Market. Success or failure depends on their Share price: and, more importantly, the huge salaries and bonuses paid to the people at the the top of the “tree” are also geared to Share Price, which in turn depends on “profits” and “performance”. And this inevitably encourages risk taking or, better still, insider trading – if they can get away with it – using the funds they control, which are of course provided by the public.

Assets

At any one time, the assets of any financial institution or Bank will be “tied up” in loans and other “money making activities” such as hedge funds: some of these “assets” may well include dubious investments or unwise corporate lending or second mortgages on dodgy properties as happened recently in the USA. When the money making activities turn out to be too unwise or negligent, then the sort of Banking collapse witnessed in 2007/2008 occurs.

Were there any Consequences for the Financial Scandals and Banking Collapses?

Did the guilty parties in the Financial Institutions who really made and were responsible for these negligent decisions suffer financially or were they held to account?
NO
There were of course some “scapegoats” or other “sacrificial lambs” who appeared before the public and Investigatory Committees to be castigated, but the real culprits continued in charge, fortunes and power intact. These people are smart, and they are surrounded by the best legal and accounting advice that (our) money can buy. Any money- making schemes that potentially have a risk of failure are set up in such a way that the bosses are fireproof, and the finger of blame can be pointed elsewhere.

Are some International and National Banks too big to be allowed allow to fail?

YES is the simple answer.

Has Regulation Been Effective? Can Future Reglation be Effective?

No – Regulation and Regulators are simply Useless.
As an example, in the UK in 2012 as a direct result of their failure to prevent the financial scandals and resulting fallout, the Securities and Investment Board (SIB) and the FSA (Financial Services Authority) were axed, and regulatory control passed to the Bank of England.
Did the incompetent regulators suffer in any way for their failure?
NO
In truth, the people who work for Government Regulators are just not competent enough to do the job: they are mostly career politicians, with no experience of how big business operates. To catch a wolf, it is not a good idea to employ a sheep: and – in an effort to be fair to them – it is difficult to regulate an industry which is too large and important to fail, and where that Industry has access to the best possible legal and financial advice.

So is there a Solution?

Probably not. The entire global financial system – for better or worse – holds the world economy together. One possibility is to remove Banks from the “equation” by altering their licences so that they are no longer Quoted Companies, and can only carry out the business of supplying normal banking facilities to their clientele.

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Domain Buddy on Insider Trading

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Insider Trading Explained

My Definition.

Insider “trading” or Insider “dealing” is the possession of certain advance knowledge about an event not commonly available that allows one to unfairly or illegally profit from that event. It is often specifically associated with financial markets.

Examples

A well quoted example happened 200 years ago, when Rothschilds Bank had advance knowledge of the outcome of the Battle of Waterloo thanks to their investment in new technology – the Telegraph – and they proceeded to profit hugely from the rise in stock prices that occurred once Wellington’s victory was common knowledge.

Was this a crime, or just good business?

Another couple of examples of Insider Trading are featured in two of my favourite films from the 1980s – the comedy Trading Places and the drama Wall Street.

In “Trading Places” the bad guys are a couple of brothers running a Commodities Brokerage, and they rely on making their fortune by illlegally obtaining advance knowledge of production figures affecting Orange Juice Futures.

The film Wall Street is primarily about stock price manipulation, arising from “inside knowledge”. Another great film is “A Good Year” with Russell Crowe. In the first few scenes of the film, Russell Crowe’s team of salesmen (or traders or dealers) demonstrate exactly how stock price manipulation works.

Of course, advance knowledge of events does not always only profit one party – for example today’s weather satellites can provide early warning of major storm systems that often saves thousands of lives.

Insider Trading is prevalent in all industries and business in one form or another – sometimes in an obvious way and other times more surreptitiously. The Domain Name Industry as an example, is controlled by a number of large institutions. Where a valuable domain name is being sought by a large company, and one individual or business has prior knowledge of this, that domain name can be safely acquired in the knowledge that a guaranteed profit will arise.

Can Insider Trading Be Prevented?

Absolutely not: everyone wants to be “ahead of the game” especially in Business. Where it could apply in financial trading, techniques to protect firms and individuals from this potential claim have only become more and more sophisticated and so it is much harder to prove.

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Domain Buddy on Fund Management

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Fund Management - The Perfect Business

Win Win

There is nothing complicated about the reasons for the existence of the Fund Management profession: it is really very simple. The more money an individual or a firm have under management, the more money they will make. And best of all, it is not their money. If things go wrong, the customer – normally the general public – takes the loss. It is a perfect risk free business for so-called fund management professionals.

How Institutions Profit From Fund Management.

As one simple example, consider a fund of £100 million (small by stock market standards) where the fund manager is tasked only with “beating the returns” of, or outperforming, one of the leading UK Stock Market Indices – for example the FTSE 100: in this simple example, the fund would not be allowed to invest in any financial derivatives or other instruments, international currency variations would not be an issue, and the only permitted trading would be in the blue chip Company Shares that make up the Index.

The first decision would be as to how much liquidity (univested cash) should be in the fund: after all, if the fund is 100% invested, and no buying or selling takes place, then the result should be identical to the FTSE annual growth – or fall – and so how can a management fee of 0.75 per cent or £750,000 be justified? Of course, the actual trading that takes place in any fund is a closely guarded secret, but the reality is that the “experienced” Fund Manager if he is to outperform the Index will need to “take a view” and alter the liquidity in the fund over a period, maybe for example through profit taking, or possibly for the avoidance of further losses on certain stocks.

Here is where it gets interesting. Every time stocks are traded, this involves a commission – the difference between the buy price and the sell price – also known as the “spread”. This commission – which can be anything from 0.25% and upwards – will be debited to the Fund, and of course the more active the Fund Manager, the greater the commissions generated to the advantage of the market makers concerned, who are aften linked with or associated with the Fund Manager. And it is not uncommon for such a fund to generate far more in dealing commission “earnings” than the basic management fee, which in this example is £750,000 annually.

Of course, if the Fund Manager gets the investment strategy right (or guesses correctly, however you may view the process) then everybody is “happy” – meaning that there are no apparent victims.

Churning If however, the fund performs below expectations, the fund manager may be accused of “churning” or “over trading” with the purpose of generating extra commission. This really is difficult to prove one way or another, as the Fund Manager may argue with some justification that he is “only doing his job” and each trade was a judgement call at the time.

Scratching the Surface But this example of how one simple fund can provide far higher returns than the “management fee” is only scratching the surface. In reality, funds under management are massive – hundreds of billions of pounds or dollars: think of mutual funds, insurance and pension funds. And all the “sophisticated” trading and financial instruments available in use – with hedge funds for example.

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Domain Buddy on Love and Marriage

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Foreword - My Personal Views on Love and Marriage

I should explain that I am not the easiest person to live with – I have opinions about life generally which are unusual and atypical, and there are some things or values in life which are to me more important than others, which can be difficult for a partner to accept.

I am entrepeneurial by nature, by which I mean that I would far rather be my own boss, than climbing up some corporate ladder, with a safe salary. This can go “against the grain” for many women, who naturally prefer the comfort of safety and security in the marital home.

So what is love exactly?

If I am honest – and that is the point of this Blog – or “memoirs” – love has always been a tricky word for me to understand. When I first meet someone of the opposite sex, the first thing that has to happen is sexual chemistry – in other words, I have to find her sexually attractive. For there to be a possibility of an ongoing relationship, I have to continue to enjoy her company, and find her interesting and/or stimulating.

At some stage in that relationship, for it to progress further, I need to feel that I would like to spend my life – or invest my future – in the other person as my permanent partner.

Marriage was introduced many years ago primarily to protect women, and to give them a status in life: this gradually led to emancipation and then (in the UK at least) to explicit “rules” to ensure fair division of property in the event that a marriage was ended or dissolved for any reason. I fully support these principles, even though it does provide the legal profession (one of my least favourite “bodies”) with an unending source of income.

Amongst my values, perhaps the most important of all to me is loyalty. I expect my life partner to be publicly loyal in all matters. Of course there will be private disagreements, which is healthy and part of any relationship, but I need to know that the person I have committed to “has my back”.

Because of my own strong beliefs and my need to be entrepeneurial – with both the risks and rewards that such a lifestyle inevitably bring – I expect my wife to be fully supportive in both good times and bad. In matters of business (or family income and lifestyle) if I am the one doing the work, and creating the income, I also expect constructive support.

My view is that I do not need or want the approval of the Church or Society when it comes to choosing to share my life with another person. I make the committment, and nobody else is involved in my decision. I hope that I choose wisely and that I know and understand the person well enough to make that personal commitment.

Of course, this goes “both ways”, and similarly I hope that my partner knows me and my values well enough to accept the challenge. And it goes without saying that if one is lucky enough to have children, then personal priorities have to change, because a family has been formed, and – in most cases – the wife will need to devote more of her time and attention to the family.

If I had the choice, I would not have been married at all. I would have preferred an open partnership – it is only social pressure “to do the right thing” and the need to “protect” the spouse that did persuade me to get married on three different occasions.

It is not in my nature or character to be disloyal or to cheat on my partner – this never happened except when the marriages had irretrievably broken down and divorce was being initiated. There is no doubt that men are progammed to be more sexually active and to procreate with as many partners as possible – just take a look at the animal kingdom from which we all evolved – and no matter how much “civilisation” tries to intrude, that basic programming will never change.

For me though, much as though I may have been tempted, and important as sexual relationships are to me, fidelity was one of the ways I always demonstrated loyalty to my chosen partner.

In all my marriages, I have been the one to instigate the “divorce” or, as I would call it, the “parting of the ways”.

And in each case, my wife has received the lion’s share of the “estate” and I have not provided any legal challenge in the divorce proceedings, because – in my view – it is the price I paid for not choosing wisely enough in the first place. My overall feeling subsequent to each divorce has been one of disappointment with the woman concerned..

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