Blair LaCorte – How Greed, Pride, and Friendship Cost Me Everything

BIO: Blair LaCorte is a dynamic executive with experience across entertainment, aviation, AI, aerospace, consulting, and more.STORY: Blair shares three catastrophic investment failures and the life-altering lessons that rewired his approach to wealth.LEARNING: Chase knowledge, not hype, and don’t let greed hijack logic. Invest with friends only if you’re willing to lose both. “The worst investment that you can make is to put your time into something that you don’t enjoy or that you know is not going to work out.”Blair LaCorte Guest profileBlair LaCorte is a dynamic executive with experience across entertainment, aviation, AI, aerospace, consulting, and more. He has held CEO roles at companies such as PRG, XOJET, and Autodesk, and led startups to successful IPOs. Currently, he’s training as an astronaut for Virgin Galactic and is Vice Chairman at the Buck Institute.Worst investment everFresh out of college at 22, Blair met a smooth-talking investor who flaunted his “lifetime monthly checks” from an oil well. Blinded by dollar signs and zero industry knowledge, he poured his savings into a single well.Blair ignored basic due diligence, diversification, and warnings about low-quality reserves. It was all about greed. He had seen someone make money where they got paid every month for the rest of their life, as long as the well lasted.The greed kept him in and kept him investing in the well. At the end of the day, the oil was of below-average quality and was not as much as they thought it would be. Blair’s ignorance caused him a 100% loss. The well underperformed, and his greed trapped him in a sinking ship. Blair even commissioned a plaque to memorialize his shame—a daily reminder that “easy money” is a predator in disguise.Burning $200k and a friendshipAfter Blair’s first IPO success in 1999, his roommate pitched him on Coffee.com—a visionary play on single-origin beans (decades before it became trendy). Blair invested early, then panicked as losses mounted. When the roommate begged for more capital, he refused because he did not think it would succeed, but guilt kept him from cutting ties.After a while, the startup imploded. Worse? Blair’s friend never spoke to him again. He learned the hard truth from this unwise investment: mixing money with friendship is financial suicide.The $59.50 ego taxAt the peak of the dot-com boom, Blair had just scored a top-tier IPO. His broker urgently called and advised him to sell immediately at $59.50 as he believed the boom would not last. But pride convinced him that the broker was just chasing commissions.Blair held stubbornly as the stock bled out to $2. He lost $570,000 in vaporized gains. Blair’s ego had bet against reality, and reality won.Lessons learnedChase knowledge, not hype, and don’t let greed hijack logic. If you don’t understand how the money is made, you’re the exit strategy for someone else.Friends + money = atomic risk. Invest with friends only if you’re willing to lose both on the same day.Pride is the silent portfolio killer. The market doesn’t care about your ego, and exit signals don’t negotiate.Your time is your ultimate currency. Grinding your years into a dying venture to ‘prove a point’ is the costliest investment of all.Andrew’s takeawaysMacro trumps micro. Brilliant ideas fail if they’re too early or too late. Always ask: “Is the world ready for this?”Preserve capital like your life depends on it. A young you can risk time; an older you must protect...

In this episode of Enrich Your Future, Andrew and Larry Swedroe discuss Larry’s new book, Enrich Your Future: The Keys to Successful Investing. In this series, they discuss Chapter 37: Sell in May and Go Away: Financial Astrology and Chapter 38: Chasing Spectacular Fund Performance.LEARNING: Calendars don’t drive returns. Winners ignore hot funds. “For you to believe in a strategy, there should be some economically logical reason for it to persist, so you can be confident it isn’t just some random outcome.”Larry Swedroe In this episode of Enrich Your Future, Andrew and Larry Swedroe discuss Larry’s new book, Enrich Your Future: The Keys to Successful Investing. The book is a collection of stories that Larry has developed over 30 years as the head of financial and economic research at Buckingham Wealth Partners to help investors. You can learn more about Larry’s Worst Investment Ever story on Ep645: Beware of Idiosyncratic Risks.Larry deeply understands the world of academic research and investing, especially risk. Today, Andrew and Larry discuss Chapter 37: Sell in May and Go Away: Financial Astrology and Chapter 38: Chasing Spectacular Fund Performance.Chapter 37: Sell in May and Go Away: Financial AstrologyIn chapter 37, Larry explains why the idea of selling stocks in May and switching to cash, then buying back in November, is not a sound strategy.What financial advisers insist on repeating, in Larry’s view, is: “Sell in May, go to cash, and reinvest in November.” It makes sense and is even logical. And, as the adage has it, numbers don’t lie. Figures, backed by reliable data, show that stocks gain more from November through April (a 5.7% average premium) than from May through October (a 2.6% average premium). So why not time the market?Busting the mythLarry dismantles this advice, revealing that the ‘Sell in May’ strategy, despite its apparent logic, is a myth. He points out that stocks still outperform cash even during the May to October period, with stocks beating T-bills by 2.6% annually.Selling stocks prematurely leads to missed gains, and the strategy of switching investments underperforms a simple buy-and-hold approach. In fact, a ‘Sell in May’ strategy yielded an average annual return of 8.3% from 1926 to 2023, while simply holding the S&P 500 returned 10.2%—a significant 1.9% yearly gap.Larry adds that Taxes and fees make the strategy worse. Trading converts long-term gains (lower tax) into short-term gains (higher tax). Transaction costs always pile up.Additionally, this strategy is rarely effective. Before 2022, the last “win” was 2011. A single outlier (2022’s bear market) does not make a strategy worthwhile.The fatal flawAccording to Larry, one of the fundamental rules of finance is that expected return and risk are positively correlated. So if stocks actually do worse than cash between May and October, they’d need to be less risky for these six months, which is absurd because volatility doesn’t take summer vacations.Why do people believe in this flawed strategy?Larry notes four reasons why people still believe in this flawed investment strategy:Recency bias: Media hypes the strategy after rare wins (like 2022).Pattern-seeking: Humans confuse coincidence with...

In this episode of Enrich Your Future, Andrew and Larry Swedroe discuss Larry’s new book, Enrich Your Future: The Keys to Successful Investing. In this series, they discuss Chapter 36: Fashions and Investment Folly.LEARNING: Do not be swayed by herd mentality. “Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent. So do not bet against bubbles, because they can get bigger and bigger, totally irrational eventually, like a rubber band that gets stretched too far, it snaps back, and all those fake gains that weren’t fundamentally based get erased and investors get wiped out.”Larry Swedroe In this episode of Enrich Your Future, Andrew and Larry Swedroe discuss Larry’s new book, Enrich Your Future: The Keys to Successful Investing. The book is a collection of stories that Larry has developed over 30 years as the head of financial and economic research at Buckingham Wealth Partners to help investors. You can learn more about Larry’s Worst Investment Ever story on Ep645: Beware of Idiosyncratic Risks.Larry deeply understands the world of academic research and investing, especially risk. Today, Andrew and Larry discuss Chapter 36: Fashions and Investment Folly.Chapter 36: Fashions and Investment FollyIn this chapter, Larry explains why investors allow themselves to be influenced by the herd mentality or the madness of crowds.Perfectly rational people can be influenced by a herd mentalityWhen it comes to investing, otherwise perfectly rational people can be influenced by a herd mentality. The potential for significant financial rewards plays on the human emotions of greed and envy. In investing, as in fashion, fluctuations in attitudes often spread widely without any apparent logic.Larry notes that one of the most remarkable statistics about the world of investing is that there are many more mutual funds than stocks, and there are also more hedge fund managers than stocks. There are also thousands of separate account managers. The question is: Why are there so many managers and so many funds?Effects of recency biasAccording to Larry, there are several explanations for the high number of managers and funds. The first is the all-too-human tendency to fall subject to “recency.” This is the tendency to give too much weight to recent experience while ignoring the lessons of long-term historical evidence. Larry says that investors subject to recency bias make the mistake of extrapolating the most recent past into the future, almost as if it is preordained that the recent trend will continue.The result is that whenever a hot sector emerges, investors rush to jump on the bandwagon, and money flows into that sector. Inevitably, the fad (fashion) passes and ends badly. The bubble inevitably bursts.Investment ads create demand where there is noneAnother reason, Larry notes, is that the advertising machines of Wall Street’s investment firms are great at developing products to meet demand. The record indicates they are even great at creating demand where none should exist.The internet became the greatest craze of all, and internet funds were designed to exploit the demand. Investors lost more fortunes

In this episode of Enrich Your Future, Andrew and Larry Swedroe discuss Larry’s new book, Enrich Your Future: The Keys to Successful Investing. In this series, they discuss Chapter 35: Mad Money.LEARNING: Investors are naive, and Cramer is an entertainer, not a financial advisor who adds value. “Do not confuse information with value-added information. If you know something because it was in the newspaper, everyone else knows it as well. So it has no value.”Larry Swedroe In this episode of Enrich Your Future, Andrew and Larry Swedroe discuss Larry’s new book, Enrich Your Future: The Keys to Successful Investing. The book is a collection of stories that Larry has developed over 30 years as the head of financial and economic research at Buckingham Wealth Partners to help investors. You can learn more about Larry’s Worst Investment Ever story on Ep645: Beware of Idiosyncratic Risks.Larry deeply understands the world of academic research and investing, especially risk. Today, Andrew and Larry discuss Chapter 35: Mad Money.Chapter 35: Mad MoneyIn this chapter, Larry explains why investment advice from so-called market experts is often worthless.The infamous Jim CramerJim Cramer, a former hedge fund manager, has become one of the most recognizable faces in the investment world. He dispenses rapid-fire investment advice on the show “Mad Money.” Since it premiered in March 2005, it has been one of CNBC’s most-watched shows. But has his advice been as successful for the investors who follow it? Larry shares a couple of research studies that answer this question.It pays more to invest in an S&P than in Cramer’s fundCramer manages a portfolio that invests in many of the stock recommendations he makes on TV. Established in August 2001 with approximately $3 million, the Action Alerts PLUS (AAP) portfolio has been the centerpiece of Cramer’s media company, TheStreet, which sells his financial advice, giving subscribers in the millions access to each trade the portfolio makes ahead of time. Jonathan Hartley and Matthew Olson, authors of the 2018 study “Jim Cramer’s Mad Money Charitable Trust Performance and Factor Attribution,” examined the AAP portfolio’s historical performance. Their study covered the period from August 1, 2001, the AAP portfolio’s inception, through December 31, 2017. The study found that the fund returned a total of 97%. During that same period, an investment in the S&P would have returned 204%.No real stock-picking skill, just entertainmentIn another study, “How Mad Is Mad Money?”, Paul Bolster, Emery Trahan, and Anand Venkateswaran examined Cramer’s buy and sell recommendations for the period from July 28, 2005, through December 31, 2008. They also constructed a portfolio of his recommendations and compared it to a market index. The researchers came to three key conclusions:Investors were paying attention, as the stocks he recommended had abnormal returns of almost 2% on the day following his recommendations.The returns...

BIO: Mike Koenigs is a serial entrepreneur with five successful exits, a 19-time bestselling author, and a top strategist for founders post-exit.STORY: Mike invested big in a SaaS startup set up for success, but infighting brought it to its knees.LEARNING: Character is bigger than charisma.&nbsp;“If you’re a shareholder, your best exit is for a big company to come and buy what they believe is money at a discount.”Mike Koenigs&nbsp;Guest profileMike Koenigs is a serial entrepreneur with five successful exits, a 19-time bestselling author, and a top strategist for founders post-exit. He helps build powerful personal brands in just one week and pioneers Generative AI for executives, speaking at elite events like Abundance 360, MIT, and Tony Robbins’ gatherings.Worst investment everMike learned about a SaaS startup from a client with whom he had spent time and had gotten to know, like, and trust him. So, when the client introduced Mike to this deal, he got interested.The startup looked great, so he invested a substantial amount of money and then doubled down because it got even better.Off to a promising startThe basic premise was that it was a pool. The founders would find SaaS companies with customers, momentum, technology, and a bit of a moat. They had much experience and success, such as a 10x dividend to investors in three years.Infighting paralyzes everythingUnfortunately, the two founders started fighting. One of them locked the other one out of everything. They had the majority and equal shareholding, making infighting even worse. The remaining partner started emptying the coffers.Someone doing the books became a whistleblower and revealed the shenanigans going on. The partner was siphoning off money, building a house, going on big trips, using private jets everywhere, etc. It got uglier and uglier, causing the shareholders to file lawsuits, and the FTC got involved. Years have gone by, and things are still shut down.Lessons learnedTime kills deals.Character is bigger than charisma. Crooked founders will gut you faster than any market downturn.Put all that money into index funds and let it compound.Andrew’s takeawaysThe only way to invest as an angel investor is to invest in 10 startups. Don’t do it if you are not prepared with the money and time to do that.Actionable adviceUnless you’re a full-time VC with deal flow, customer channels, or an exit mapped out, keep your money in things you can control. If you’re a shareholder, your best exit is for a big company to come and buy what they believe is money at a discount.Mike’s recommendationsMike recommends learning to build a brand that will elevate everything you touch for the rest of your life. He suggests reading his book, Your Next Act: The Six Growth Accelerators for Creating a Business You’ll Love for the Rest of Your Life, to help you build your brand. He also recommends immersing yourself in AI and learning how to use it effectively.No.1 goal for the next 12 monthsMike’s number one goal for the next 12 months is to become an international citizen. He wants to continue living his beautiful life in multiple locations and working with more entrepreneurs worldwide.Parting words&nbsp;“Go out and build your brand. You will get access to better deals faster at a discounted price.”<blockquote

In this episode of Enrich Your Future, Andrew and Larry Swedroe discuss Larry’s new book, Enrich Your Future: The Keys to Successful Investing. In this series, they discuss Chapter 34: Bear Markets: A Necessary Evil.LEARNING:&nbsp;Investors&nbsp;must view bear markets as necessary evils.&nbsp;“If stocks didn’t experience the kind of bear markets that we have, investors would be very unhappy.”Larry Swedroe&nbsp;In this episode of Enrich Your Future, Andrew and Larry Swedroe discuss Larry’s new book, Enrich Your Future: The Keys to Successful Investing. The book is a collection of stories that Larry has developed over 30 years as the head of financial and economic research at Buckingham Wealth Partners to help investors. You can learn more about Larry’s Worst Investment Ever story on Ep645: Beware of Idiosyncratic Risks.Larry deeply understands the world of academic research and investing, especially risk. Today, Andrew and Larry discuss Chapter 34: Bear Markets: A Necessary Evil.Chapter 34: Bear Markets: A Necessary EvilIn this chapter, Larry explains why investors must view bear markets as necessary evils. He says that if stocks didn’t experience the kind of bear markets that we have, investors would be very unhappy.Larry further explains that the most basic finance principle is the relationship between risk and expected, but not guaranteed, return. So, the higher the risk, the higher the expected return, which means that if the risk is high, investors will apply a bigger risk premium, which will lead to the denominator in the formula of the Net Present Value. The numerator is the expected earnings. The denominator is the risk-free rate plus the risk premium.The higher the risk, the higher the premiumsLarry highlights historical bear markets, noting the U.S. has experienced losses exceeding 34% during the COVID crisis and 51% from 2007 to 2009. He argues that these losses are essential for investors to demand higher risk premiums. The very fact that investors have experienced such significant losses leads them to price stocks with a large risk premium.From 1926 through 2022, the S&amp;P provided an annual risk premium over one-month Treasury bills of 8.2% and an annualized premium of 6.9%. If the losses that investors experienced had been smaller, the risk premium would also have been smaller. And the smaller the losses experienced, the smaller the premium would have been.In other words, the less risk investors perceive, the higher the price they are willing to pay for stocks. And the higher the market’s price-to-earnings ratio, the lower the future returns.Staying the course during underperformanceThe bottom line, Larry says, is that bear markets are necessary for the creation of the large equity risk premium we have experienced. Thus, if investors want stocks to provide high expected returns, bear markets (while painful to endure) should be considered a necessary evil.However, Larry notes that it is during the periods of underperformance that investor discipline is tested. Unfortunately, the evidence suggests that most investors significantly underperform the stock market and the mutual funds they invest in. The underperformance is because investors act like generals fighting the last war.Subject to <a...

BIO: Jeff Sarti, CEO of Morton Wealth, leads a firm managing over $3 billion in assets. With a mission to empower better investors, Jeff helps clients achieve their financial goals while supporting employees in their career growth.STORY: Jeff bought a few dot-com companies, thinking it was smart and safe because he bought the big brands. All of the companies dropped 90%+.LEARNING: Don’t let greed, FOMO, and a lack of imagination drive you to a bad investment.&nbsp;“Don’t take shortcuts. If you do, at least know that you’re gambling and speculating. That’s different from investing.”Jeff Sarti&nbsp;Guest profileJeff Sarti, CEO of Morton Wealth, leads a firm managing over $3 billion in assets. With a mission to empower better investors, Jeff helps clients achieve their financial goals while supporting employees in their career growth. A CFA charterholder, Jeff shares his insights through his Perspective newsletter. His expertise emphasizes challenging the status quo and fostering long-term, resilient investment strategies.Worst investment everIn the late 90s, during the dot-com boom, Jeff had just started making a bit of money. He bought a few dot-com companies, thinking it was smart and safe because he bought the big brands. All of the companies dropped 90%+ after a while.Lessons learnedDon’t let greed, FOMO, and a lack of imagination drive you to a bad investment.Always do your research.Andrew’s takeawaysWhen prices get untethered from earnings growth, our expectation of the future is what matters.Actionable adviceThe only way you can learn is by doing and making mistakes. But before you start doing, do the research, understand the underlying risk factors of your investments, and don’t take shortcuts.If you do, at least know you’re speculating and not investing. Keep that speculative piece of your portfolio small. It’s always a good idea to balance speculative investments with more traditional, long-term investment strategies for a more secure financial future.Jeff’s recommendationsJeff recommends checking out resources on his website, such as his investment guides and market analysis, and signing up for his quarterly newsletter if you want financial education.He also recommends reading Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman and books by Morgan Housel to understand how emotions drive investment decisions.No.1 goal for the next 12 monthsJeff’s number one goal for the next 12 months is to continue traveling the country with his investment team, uncovering some new niche opportunities.Parting words&nbsp;“I really enjoyed the conversation. It was a lot of fun.”Jeff Sarti&nbsp;[spp-transcript]&nbsp;Connect with Jeff Sarti<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-sarti-mortonwealth/" rel="noopener noreferrer"...

In this episode of Enrich Your Future, Andrew and Larry Swedroe discuss Larry’s new book, Enrich Your Future: The Keys to Successful Investing. In this series, they discuss Chapter 33: An Investor’s Worst Enemy.LEARNING: You are your own worst enemy when it comes to investing.&nbsp;“The right strategy is to avoid the loser’s game. Don’t try to pick individual stocks or time the market, just invest in a disciplined way, and you will win by getting the market’s return.”Larry Swedroe&nbsp;In this episode of Enrich Your Future, Andrew and Larry Swedroe discuss Larry’s new book, Enrich Your Future: The Keys to Successful Investing. The book is a collection of stories that Larry has developed over 30 years as the head of financial and economic research at Buckingham Wealth Partners to help investors. You can learn more about Larry’s Worst Investment Ever story on Ep645: Beware of Idiosyncratic Risks.Larry deeply understands the world of academic research and investing, especially risk. Today, Andrew and Larry discuss Chapter 33: An Investor’s Worst Enemy.Chapter 33: An Investor’s Worst EnemyIn this chapter, Larry demonstrates why investors are their own worst enemies. He observes that many people think the key to investing is identifying the stocks that will outperform the market and avoiding the ones that will underperform.Yet the vast body of evidence says that’s playing the losers’ game. He adds that most professionals with advanced degrees in finance and mathematics, with access to the best databases and huge advantages over individuals, often think they’re smart enough to beat the market.They do so by attempting to uncover individual securities they believe the rest of the market has somehow mispriced (the price is too high or too low). They also try to time their investment decisions to buy when the market is “undervalued” and sell when it is “overvalued.”However, evidence shows that 98% of them fail to outperform in any statistically significant way on a risk-adjusted basis, even before taxes. As historian and author Peter Bernstein puts it: “The essence of investment theory is that being smart is not a sufficient condition for being rich.”Why do people keep playing the loser’s game?In the face of such overwhelming evidence, the puzzling question is why people keep trying to play a game they are likely to lose. From Larry’s perspective, there are four explanations:Because our education system has failed investors and Wall Street, and most financial media want to conceal the evidence, people are unaware of it.While the evidence suggests that playing the game of active management is the triumph of hope over wisdom and experience, hope does spring eternal—after all, a small minority succeed.Active management is exciting, while passive management is boring.Investors are overconfident—a normal human condition, not limited to investing. While each investor might admit that it’s hard to beat the market, each believes he will be one of the few who succeed.So, what is the right strategy?In light of the evidence presented, Larry’s advice is clear: avoid the losers’ game. Instead of trying to pick individual stocks or time the market, he advocates...

A retailer in Bangkok was staring down a cash crunch after COVID. He was ready to sign for a loan, convinced it was his only option.Instead, we dug into his numbers and found $30,000 in unsold inventory gathering dust and $8,000 in overpayments to suppliers. That cash was enough to stabilize his business; no debt was needed. The money was there; he just couldn’t see it.Download The Profit Gap for free at TheProfitBootCamp.com to see 5 hidden reasons family businesses work hard but still fall short of profit.Find hidden profit before you borrowWhen cash flow gets tight, panic sets in. Your mind races, layoffs, loans, maybe even shutting down. But fear isn’t a strategy. The truth is, your business is probably sitting on hidden profit, even in tough times. You just need to find it.Start with a zero-based budget. That means you begin each budget line at zero, not last year’s number, and build it up based on what’s actually needed. Each team member justifies every expense from scratch. No assumptions. No carryovers. Just what drives results. Look at your expenses, inventory, and contracts. What’s wasting money?Maybe it’s unused subscriptions, overstocked supplies, or a vendor charging too much. One client found $500 a month in duplicate software licenses. Canceling them took one email and saved $6,000 a year.Cut smart, not deepDon’t just cut costs mindlessly; focus on waste, not muscle. Keep what drives value, like your best staff or marketing, that works. I’ve seen owners slash their top salespeople in a panic, only to tank revenue. Instead, realign spending to what moves profit.For example, shift the budget from low-margin products to high-margin ones. One business I worked with dropped a product line that was barely breaking even. That freed up $20,000 for ads, bringing in $100,000 in new sales.Small wins create momentum. Even saving $1,000 can shift your mindset from panic to possibility. Try this: call your top five vendors this week. Ask for a 10% discount or better payment terms. Most will say no, but some will say yes to keep your business.A client of mine negotiated $5,000 off his annual shipping costs in one 15-minute call. That’s cash you can use to grow, not just survive.Discipline is your secret weaponDiscipline beats loans every time. Borrowing might feel like a lifeline, but it’s a weight around your neck if you don’t fix the root problems. A logistics firm I worked with was desperate for a loan. Instead, we audited their spending and found $8,600 in waste, unused equipment leases, and overpaid utilities. That cash funded a marketing push that brought in new clients without debt. They weren’t out of options; they just needed clarity.Here’s one last story. That same logistics firm thought they were done. But that $8,600 audit changed everything. They used the savings to relaunch ads, landing three new contracts monthly. The owner told me, “I thought we were stuck. Turns out, we just needed to look closer.” What’s hiding in your business?You’ve now faced the five hard truths holding your business back. You know no one’s coming to save you, that delay kills profit, that family dynamics can trap you, that leadership drives results, and that you have options even in a cash crunch. Now, it’s time to act. Pick one step this week, cut an expense, fix a meeting, check your P&amp;L, and do it. Your business depends on you.Actions from prior episodesCut one cost: Block 30 minutes, review P&amp;L, and cut one expense. Just one. Lead by example.Find one drain: Review finances weekly, searching for one hidden loss. Act now.Align the family: Hold a monthly, one-hour family meeting. Ask: “What...

BIO: Oeystein Kalleklev is the outgoing CEO of Flex LNG and Avance Gas. He has prior experience as CFO of Knutsen NYK Offshore Tankers and Umoe Group and Chairman General Partner of MLP KNOT Offshore Partners.STORY: Oeystein has been part of some terrible investments made by his employers. One invested $150 million to become the biggest shareholder of a mine in Guinea, which was lost due to a bad regime. During the great financial crisis, another invested $300 million into a bioethanol plant in Brazil.LEARNING: In a dynamic industry like shipping, you must think more about adapting and being tactical rather than strategic.&nbsp;“You have to be really disciplined when you are in a cyclical industry. Observe where the market is going, and learn how to adapt.”Oeystein Kalleklev&nbsp;Guest profileOeystein Kalleklev is the outgoing CEO of Flex LNG (NYSE/OSE: FLNG) and Avance Gas (OSE: AGAS). He has prior experience as CFO of Knutsen NYK Offshore Tankers and Umoe Group, as well as Chairman General Partner of MLP KNOT Offshore Partners (NYSE: KNOP).Worst investment everOeystein has been part of some terrible investments. In one case, a family Oeystein worked for had invested about $150 million to become the biggest shareholder of a mine in Guinea. The country was under an unstable regime, and the leader was assassinated. There were also so many operational hiccups operationally. That $150 million turned out to be like $3 million when they sold their last share.He has also been involved in bioethanol production in Brazil, where a company he worked for invested about $300 million into a bioethanol plant in Brazil during the great financial crisis. The bosses had to restructure the whole company, and Oeystein had to go to the US to talk to bondholders, trying to get them to choose whether to become shareholders or take a big hit on the bond loans.In another case, Oeystein was involved in a nickel mine in the Philippines where the company he was working for was building a floating production ship for oil. The budget was $280 million, but the company spent $500 million on that building project, and it also took one and a half extra years to complete.Lessons learnedWhen you have such a dynamic industry as shipping, you must think more about adapting and being tactical rather than strategic.Focus on running your ships efficiently—it’s a critical success factor.Shipping is a lot about market timing. Read the market, know where it is going, when you should exit, and when you should invest.You have to be knowledgeable about technology because technology changes quite often in shipping.Be smart about running a shipping company. Do it lean and follow the technology.Andrew’s takeawaysIt’s hard to set a long-term strategy in an industry such as shipping because you’ve got to adapt to what’s happening in the market.You have to run ships efficiently, or else you will miss the core aspect of your business.Actionable adviceIf you want to venture into the shipping industry, you must properly understand shipping because it’s not as straightforward as people think. It’s not just about moving goods from A to B.No.1 goal for the next 12 monthsOeystein’s number one goal for the next 12 months is to read more books to be on top of contemporary issues and be a successful shipping...