Change is hard.

It’s a grind.

No one changes in a day. Or a week. Or a month.

I think there’s nothing more important than perspective. Perspective is how you learn to embrace the long grind of change. Who you were a month ago and who you are today are not very different. Who you were 10 years ago and who you are today are extremely different.

After 10+ years managing my own portfolio, this has been the single greatest lesson. You come to realize that all of those “moments,” the ones that felt most important, were, in the greater vision you have for yourself or the domain you work in, not really as big as they seemed now that you reflect on them. Maintaining that perspective is a challenge, but you have to do it. I think back to the Euro Crisis sell-off, the Flash crash, the late 2018 crash, Facebook’s plunge, BP, Boeing… The list goes on. Blips in a bigger vision.

The other day, while driving through a rough area in the Bronx, I learned about the SEBCO housing development. What a fascinating and beautiful thing to learn about. A group of churches, missionaries, non-profits, and local organizations banded together in the early 70s to build massive homes for the homeless, elderly, and those who can’t afford high price rents. From the highway, you can see their towering shelters with names like Sister Thomas Apartments, Father Smith Residence, and Maria Estela. I think they now have 15 of them. Maybe more. Very few talk about SEBCO today, but I imagine their time is coming. The grind will be rewarded for people like Sister Thomas (shown below).

The greats, the best, the people who change things for the better, are built over many years. Sometimes, long after they’re gone. Most great artists turn out to be 100x bigger after they’ve passed on. Sadly, it took that long for their work to spread. But that’s part of the commitment they made when they followed their passion into the profession.

On Twitter, a picture of Steph Curry is getting passed around. Basketball fans out there will get it. Most people who enjoy sports will feel it. The other night, for their last game at Oracle in Oakland, the Warriors wore a throwback jersey from another era, a jersey from Curry’s rookie year. The picture shows Curry then and Curry now wearing his old uniform once again. A you vs. the guy she told you not to worry about.

The before and after pictures of Curry are separated by about 10 years. I see this and am instantly reminded about the process of change and the timeframe it exists on. Your awareness of the journey must always extend beyond a day, a week, and a month. This process is going to take years.

I never thought I would be tying this together, back to my portfolio, and to a moment I had in the Bronx, but here I am. I can’t wait to look back at this in 10 years and see how far I’ve come. I hope you’ll join me in doing the same.

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If you missed it, I wrote about this concept earlier and called it, Don’t do dumb things in seven seconds.