Del Frisco's Steak House, Ocean Prime & Mutual Fund Managers

What Del Frisco's, Ocean Prime And Mutual Fund Managers Won't Let Each Other Do

by: Brendan Magee

Two years ago, my wife helped me cross off my bucket list eating at Del Frisco's Steak House. I had read all the reviews and knew that it was a great place to eat and it didn't disappoint one bit. Walking out I told Jennifer,if I were a convicted man with only one meal coming to me before I was executed, please get it from Del Frisco's.

Driving away from the restaurant, another restaurant's sign caught my attention, Oceans Prime. Given it was located right around the corner from Del Frisco's, I figured it was Del Frisco's prime competition and anything that could stand up to Del Frisco's had to be experienced at least once. This past Saturday for my birthday,  I got to see for myself if Ocean Prime was as good as Del Frisco's.I can honestly tell you both are phenomenal dining experiences. Both serve outstanding food and deliver an awesome experience that some how has you forgetting that you are forking over a mortgage payment to cover the tab.

Leaving the restaurant this time I had a couple different thoughts. One was, there are a lot of people willing to pay top dollar for a great meal. Both restaurants, when we were there, were packed with customers. The second was, neither restaurant is going to let the other restaurant win the competition. They are both going to push each other to be better and more profitable. If Del Frisco's sat back and said, "O.k. Ocean Prime, we are going to step back and let you be number one." That would mean Ocean Prime would get all the perks that go with being number one. Those looking for a great steak and willing to pay $50 for a steak are all going to go to Ocean Prime. Ocean Prime would become more profitable and open additional locations. They might be able to lower their prices a little bit and lure more of Del Frisco's customers away. Del Frisco's could lose their business if they failed to keep pace.

So Del Frisco's can't let Ocean Prime have a permanent competitive edge. They will create new dishes, higher better chefs, redecorate their dining room, etc. They can't afford to be number two for very long.

The same competition takes place among mutual fund managers. There is a race for being number one every year, and if say Fidelity sits back and says to Vanguard, American, T. Rowe Price, etc. we are going to be content to eternally stay in second or fourth place all the money is going to flow away from Fidelity to who ever is the perennial winning mutual fund company. When that happens, the fund managers at Fidelity will have their incomes cut or jobs eliminated. They won't get the bonuses they were counting on or the book deals the other top performing fund mangers are going to get.

So if one fund manager has a competitive edge in one year, the other fund managers are not going to let that edge stand unchallenged for very long. If Vanguard struck it rich with tech stocks, the other fund managers are soon to be loading up on tech stocks and there goes Vanguard's competitive edge. The fund managers have effectively cancelled out the others' competitive edge.

This is one of the main reasons why the top performing fund managers do not repeat the following year as the top performing fund manager. If the other guy is winning all the time, that means I am losing all the time, and who wants that?

This is true with restaurants as well as mutual fund managers.

Brendan Magee is the founder of Inevitable Wealth Coaching. With questions or comments e-mail brendan@coachgee.com or call 610-446-4322

Investing: What It Takes To Win!!

Investing, Defeating Jihad

What It Takes To Win!!

By: Brendan Magee




In his book, "Defeating Jihad", Dr. Sebastiona Gorka makes no bones about it. We are at war with Radical Islamic Terrorism. In America we value freedom, and Dr. Gorka states that freedom is not the natural state of affairs. "There will always be those who believe they have the right to take your freedom to serve their greater ideological cause." History, he says, backs this up with the rise of Nazi Germany as well as communist Soviet Union which he and his family had to endure in Post World War II Hungary.

Gorka states that our new enemy, Radical Islam, is using Islam and Allah as the justification for mass murder. No peaceful coexistence is possible in their view. The infidel must be killed or submit. The Nazis invoked the Fuhrer. The jihadists invoke the name of Allah to enslave/destroy the nonbeliever.

9/11 occurred more than 15 years ago and we are still at war with Radical Islam. Dr. Gorka points out that the United States defeated Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan in five years, but today we face an enemy we have been fighting for over a decade with no end in sight.

Gorka quotes the book The Art of War, which states "know your enemy if you wish to win." Unfortunately there is another quote from the book that isn't as well read. Sun Tsu's recipe for ultimate victory is to first know yourself. What do I represent? What am I prepared to risk blood and treasure for? If you have not answered these questions, you should not be going to war at all, Gorka states. As Americans living in a post-9/11 world, we have yet to adequately answer these questions and as a result the war on terror seems to drag on without any end in sight.


So what does this have to do with investing? For God's sake all you might want to do is save enough to live your golden years in comfort right? You're not going to be spilling any blood or treasure. You're just planning on working as hard as you can to provide for your family and your financial security. No one is going to be firing an AK-47 at you and you certainly aren't going to be fighting ISIS any time soon, right?

Consider for a moment that like the war on terror, unless you know yourself and answer certain questions sooner than later, investing is going to drag on with no end in sight. You won't truly know if you are winning or losing. You won't know anything other than you have to keep on keeping on because, "For sure this isn't what victory looks or feels like."

You might not be spending blood and treasure, but you will certainly be spending time, effort, money, and passion in an attempt to build financial security for yourself and your family. None of those things comes in unlimited supply. You will also have enemies to deal with. Like Americans with freedom, you have something people would like to take from you, your money. Some you won't even be able to recognize as your enemy because they are so good at deception.

Unless you know yourself, you won't be able to protect yourself from your weaknesses. You won't know the weaknesses you can handle vs the ones you can't handle. You won't know where you need help and where you don't.

So what is the question you need to ask and answer? The question is, "What is your true purpose for money, that which is more important than money itself? I do not recommend that you answer this question on your own, but if you are going to go down that path, if the answer you come up with is anything that can be accomplished with money, you haven't answered the question properly.

In 1950 as America began to face the growing threat of communism and the Soviet Union, Paul Nitze of the State Department laid out for President Truman a reexamination of the country's strategic plans to win the Cold War. First and foremost, Nitze concisely laid out the true purpose of The United States of America, "To assure the integrity and vitality of our free society, which is founded on the dignity and worth of the individual." Money alone could never buy that and if that weren't important enough the United States would not have truly understood why the country was going to the lengths it was going in order to defeat the Soviet Union.

So your task is to answer the question, "What is your true purpose for money, that which is more important than money itself?' In answering that question you will answer, "What is it that you represent?" What are the values you cherish the most? What are the ones that you would never give up on? What are your weaknesses and how are you going to manage them?  Why are you spending so much time, energy, and money? Are you willing to pay the price? If you have not answered these questions, do not invest one more penny until you have.

Speaking from experience, once you do, you will never be the same again!

Brendan Magee is the founder of Inevitable Wealth Coaching. With questions or comments e-mail brendan@coachgee.com or call 610-446-4322.

Investor Boot Camp Preview

Wentz Coached, Trump Not Coached

Wentz Coached, Trump Not Coached

                                           by: Brendan Magee

Eagles Quarterback, Carson Wentz, and Republican Party Presidential candidate, have a few things in common and a few that aren't. Both have recently stepped on to huge stages. It doesn't get much bigger than starting in the National Football League, unless its being your party's candidate to become President of the United States.

Trump and Wentz have a lot of God-given talent. You might not like what he says, but, you don't turn $1 million (or $14 million as Hillary puts the figure at) loaned to you by your father and turn it into billions without talent. You also don't go from North Dakota State to the Philadelphia Eagles without the tools to do so.

Another thing they have in common is they are both extremely new to their current positions. Wentz has started just five games in the NFL. Trump has about a year under his belt as a politician. Their contemporaries have many more years of experience as either quarterback or politician. Hence, they will and have made mistakes.

Wentz, by many accounts, in the Redskins game held the ball too long and took sacks when he shouldn't. Trump during the debates and on the campaign has put his foot in his mouth too many times. If they had do overs, I would assume both would do several things differntly.

What they don't have in common is the look of someone who is being coached and is putting the coaching to practice. Wentz, by all accounts, is showing up at the Eagle's practice facility in the early morning hours to absorb the playbook and look at game film in preparation for next week's games. The coaching staff, made up of former NFL quarterbacks, as well as analysts have commented on how much progress Wentz is making. It's evident when you see Wentz play that he has a good grasp of what he is doing when he is on the field.

Trump in the three debates did o.k., but there were times he had openings to stick it too Hillary, or not needlessly spar with the debate moderator, but couldn't get out of his own way. He has good, experienced people around him like Kelly Ann Conway and Rudi Giuliani to offer advice and counseling. Unfortunately, he has come up short in clearly articulating a solid case to defeat Hillary Clinton, a very beatable opponent. From the first debate to the third you can't see a drastic difference in his performances. Analysts, more than anything, seem to be talking more about the opportunities in the debates he was unable to take advantage of rather than how well he did.

When it comes to investing, the difference between a successful investor and a disappointed investor is often a coach. Coaches, from their vantage point can point out blind spots the investor can't see and help the investor see the impact they are having on their results.

Coaching, unfortuantely, doesn't have any benefit unless two things happen. First, the investor has to have eaten a little humble pie. (Does Trump in any way appear as humble as Wentz?) By this I mean the investor has to accept that on their own they will not achieve the results they are after on their own, more likely they will fail.

Secondly, the investor has to have an enormous capacity to trust. Often times, the things to do to achieve success are way out of an investor's comfort zone. It feels awkward and we are fearful when trying something different. How many investors have ever heard of Modern Portfolio Theory and know how to apply it to their investments in a disciplined fashion? Probably less than one percent.

So the investor has to trust the coach the in order to take actions they cannot see the validity in, but that is where and when the breakthroughs occur. The same old/same old doesn't produce breakthroughs.

Brendan Magee is the founder and president of Inevitable Wealth Coaching. With comments or questions e-mail brendan@coachgee.com or call 610-446-4322.