Where Are the Flows

This edition of the newsletter is going to be all about flow.

I’m not referencing lava, a specific time of the month, or a heightened state of consciousness.

We’re talking about flows of attention and capital.

Like a surfer catching a wave, the best business builders and investors are masters at reading the flow of human preference and desire before a wave fully crests.

In the early 90s, the Wu-Tang Clan released a chart-topping record where they declared, "Cash Rules Everything Around Me".

In the 2020s, Cash is Trash. Instead, the world is awash with record-setting liquidity injections from the Fed and people are searching far and wide for a suitable asset on which to spend their funds.

Some funds are being used to buy the royalties to iconic songs, while others are plowing into cryptocurrencies and Non-Fungible Tokens.

Some of the flows of capital have far less thought. Every pay day, millions of employees plow dollars into their retirement accounts. More than 40% are invested in index funds which mechanically buy a composite of the entire market. Doesn’t matter if the CEO is making outlandish claims or the company is the most indebted private enterprise on Earth, if the company is in SPY, the funds must buy.

Regardless of your position in life, if you want to ‘get ahead’ in the conventional sense, you need to understand where the flow is headed.

Arrive first, wait for the majority to follow, profit.

Which neighborhood will homebuyers be flowing into over the next decade?

Which media platform will accrue more consumer attention in the years ahead?

Which political positions will grow in importance soon?

Surfing has become an essential meta-skill to get ahead.

Which wave are you catching?