Two Years of Daily Walking

I Think the Habit is Here to Stay

From December 15, 2019 until now, it has been just over two years. I’ve been walking with intentionality these past two years. Miles, 4,552. Steps, 9.6 million. Health, as far as I know, is better. Attitude, much better. This post recaps the experience of the last two years and offers a few thoughts that I hope you find either interesting, helpful or both.

Excellence vs. Perfection

“The pursuit of perfection is the pursuit of failure.”

The thought came to my mind on my walk this morning.  It was undoubtedly prompted by meetings over the years with younger analysts who, because they wanted to find “perfect” answers to valuation problems, were (temporarily) unable to find any answer at all.

Excellence is attainable for many, if not most, at least in some areas of life.  Perfection is unattainable.  The pursuit of excellence is the roadway to success.  The pursuit of perfection is a downward slide to failure.

The Principle of (Realistic) Expectations

In Forecasts for Business Appraisals

Business valuation is all about expectations for the future. However, those expectations, as reflected in forecasts prepared for business appraisals, must be realistic. This short post mentions the hockey-stick projections often seen in business appraisals and ask for realistic projections, whether they be explicit forecasts of future years’ performance, or implied forecasts in single-period income capitalization methods.

Business Valuation: An Integrated Theory, Third Edition Is Here

Business Valuation: An Integrated Theory, 3rd Edition has been published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. in the Wiley Finance Series. My co-author, Travis W. Harms, CFA, CPA/ABV and I are excited and relieved to have received this work in hand late last week. In this post, I will begin to tell the story about the book and why you should own it and read it.

Led by Four Trillion Dollar Companies, the Market Caps of Public Stocks Are Highly Concentrated

The public stock markets are highly concentrated in the top 500 companies both in terms of market capitalization and earnings. This post looks at those concentrations and at the declining number of public companies. We also discuss the S&P 500 Index and the Russell 2000 Index to see how the largest public companies have fared relative to small cap stocks since the markets recognized the COVID-19 Pandemic.