Crypto Midway

@TokyoDeepValue Dd

I flew to Osaka with a 14-page activist letter, a translated copy of my proposed slate of independent directors, a slide deck on capital allocation reform, and what I believed, at the time, was a clear and reasonable demand: that the company, which was sitting on cash equal to 180% of its market cap, return a portion of it to shareholders through a special dividend. I had been working on this campaign for nine months. I had hired a Tokyo-based proxy advisor. I had built a 6% position through patient accumulation. I had, by every framework I understood, done the work. The chairman, who was 81 years old, received me in a tatami room above the company's headquarters, which sat over a soba restaurant that had been in the same family for four generations. He was wearing a navy suit. He bowed at an angle I could not, with my Western training, accurately reciprocate. He gestured for me to sit on a cushion. I sat. A woman of approximately his own age entered, silently, and placed a small ceramic cup in front of me. The cup contained tea. The tea was lukewarm. I did not yet know that the lukewarm tea was the entire negotiation. I began with the deck. I had prepared it carefully. I had translated the headers into Japanese. I walked him through the capital structure, the unproductive cash, the historical return on equity, the peer comparison, the proposed dividend. He listened. He did not interrupt. When I had finished, he said, in soft but clear English that I had not been told he spoke, "Thank you for traveling so far." Then he stood up, slowly, and gestured for me to follow him. We walked down a set of wooden stairs that creaked in a way I cannot adequately describe, through a hallway lined with black-and-white photographs of men I did not recognize, and into a small workshop attached to the back of the building. In the center of the workshop was a lathe. It was old. It was, the chairman explained, the original lathe his grandfather had purchased in 1923 to manufacture the first product the company had ever sold, which was a specific kind of brass valve fitting used in steam locomotives. The locomotive industry had been gone for 60 years. The lathe was still running. "My grandfather operated this machine," he said. "My father operated this machine. I operated this machine, as a child, before school. The factory you visited yesterday produces components that descend, in an unbroken line of design, from the work that began on this lathe. The cash you wish me to distribute is the result of one hundred and one years of refusing to do anything that would shorten the life of this company. I cannot distribute it. I am not, in the deepest sense, the owner of it. I am the custodian of it. The owner is not yet born." I did not have a response. I had prepared for many possible responses from him. I had not prepared for this one. We returned to the tatami room. The tea was refreshed. It was, again, lukewarm. The chairman asked me about my family. I told him about my wife, my two children, my parents in suburban Connecticut. He listened with what appeared to be genuine interest. He asked the ages of my children. He nodded gravely when I told him. He asked whether I had ever shown my children the work I do. I had not. He asked whether I would, when I returned. I said I would consider it. Four hours passed. I was served, at various points, three more cups of tea, a small dish of pickled vegetables I did not recognize, and a single piece of mochi that the chairman's assistant placed in front of me with both hands. Nobody mentioned the activist letter again. Nobody mentioned the dividend, the directors, the deck, the proposal, or the 6% position. We talked about the cherry blossom season, which was apparently late this year. We talked about American baseball, which the chairman had followed since 1962. We talked about a poet I had never heard of, whose work he recited a single line of in Japanese and then translated for me, slowly, into English, and which I have, in the three years since, been entirely unable to locate again. At the end of the meeting, he stood. He bowed. He thanked me, again, for traveling so far. He said he hoped I would visit again, perhaps with my family, perhaps in the spring, when the city was at its best. He did not, at any point, acknowledge the proposal. He did not decline it. He did not engage with it. He simply, through a series of small and almost invisible movements that I am still trying to understand three years later, allowed the proposal to dissolve into the air of the room, until by the time I left the building, it had ceased to exist as a thing that had been said. I flew home the next morning. I withdrew the campaign two weeks later, in a quiet letter to the proxy advisor that cited "ongoing discussions" and was technically not a withdrawal at all but was understood, by every party who received it, to be one. The position I sold over the following six months at a small loss. The chairman is still alive. The lathe is still running. The cash is still on the balance sheet. I cannot, even now, explain what happened in that room. I went in as an activist, with a deck, a translator, and a six percent position, and I came out as a guest who had been thanked, very politely, for visiting a man's home, and who, somewhere in the four hours between the first cup of tea and the last, had been quietly, gently, irreversibly, and without a single raised voice or harsh word, defeated. I think about him often. I do not think he thinks about me at all. This is, in some sense I am still working out, the entire lesson.

@NoRiskNoParty Been following for a while and love your path so far. Would love to hear more.

Factories overseas don't care about your logo, they care about filling orders. I've had manufacturers send me proud photos of my pallet... and right beside it, my competitor's goods, ready to ship. Same factory, same product, different brand. Here's the kicker: It took my competitor years to find this supplier. It took me 10 minutes to trace their import records and copy every detail, who, what, where, how often. Reverse engineering your competitor's supply chain feels almost criminal... but it's 100% legal. If you're not using this playbook, you're already behind. Want to know how I do it? Drop a comment :)

@RandomTheGuy_ @libsoftiktok Ae

Meet Teresa Molina-Gonzalez (D), the Cook County Judge who DENIED the detention request for Lawrence Reed AFTER his 49th arrest. Reed was released and went on to set a woman ON FIRE on the train. Hold her accountable!

@financedystop @grok who's account is this talking about bollards

@luusssso @grok where is this located?

Give me this and a rainy day please

@TheWarKitchen Where?

A freshly baked pain suisse with authentic orange-infused chocolate might just change your life this weekend morning

@MrMoneybags1738 Deal

@ChrisUpark Am interested in your Bollards for mainly residential properties. Living the Midwest United States, we get a lot of snow. Am interested in how they stand up to snow, ice and plows?

Non-sealed Automatic Lifting Bollard vs Fully Sealed Automatic Retractable Bollard | Battery Operated Bollard | Automatic E Bollard 🌹 uparkbollards.com/non-sealed-aut… #bollard #automaticbollards #street #parking #residential

@orenmeetsworld When your repping designs like this,there is no one like the Bandit. Where can I buy the merchandise at?

Not enough of y’all have Burt on the moodboard and it shows

@knucklezdragger That made me laugh!!

Just rode the elevator with some dude at my apartment “How was your Christmas? You enjoy some time off?” I replied “lol you think I have a job you normie fuck?” Put dude in a rear naked choke and whispered in his ear “Lesson in there”

@anibaldinelli Esty

People are selling AI Art on Etsy and making $100k+ a month I wrote a full guide on how to create the art, list it on Etsy properly and build it to a $100k/m store Like this tweet, RT + Comment 'Etsy' and I'll DM it to you for FREE (must be following me or I can't DM you)

@randomrecruiter Starting a recruiting firm. 250 is that normal?

I made 250 cold calls today after having a glass of Panera's Charged Lemonade this morning.

@dadsweb67 @OhazassuPodcast So that's what it is called?

Learnt a new Jp word today - 積読. Tsundoku is the phenomenon of acquiring reading materials but letting them pile up in one's home without reading them.

@powderbum75 @uncleweed Couple of beers and you want to play all night!

@uncleweed I have never played shuffleboard. Looks fun.

Niigata. Once again doing Niigata things. A recently renovated 11SLDK. (USD 82,000, if you were curious) athome.co.jp/kodate/6980712…

@JR_Sandlin Bookmarked for my 15yo. Thanks!

RECRUITS: Strive to have your coaches affirm... Accountability Responsibility Reliability Dependability Dedication Commitment Faithfulness Loyalty Trustworthiness in reference to WHO you are. While talent propels you forward, character is the enduring force. #Recruiting101

@_NateNorman I never comment but this was very powerful to me. My son is 15 and I would give anything to have this time again. Still hope!

Walking in the woods with my son the other day and I could see that he was so hopeful to get a deer As the day ticked closer to night I watched his little emotions begin to succumb to the idea that he might not get one that day If I could’ve reached in the woods and pulled out of a deer for him I would have, but I just sat and watched him wrestle as his hope was met with disappointment He started whispering as the sun set over the trees “dad it’s getting dark” I know that feeling, his words resonated into a thousand memories I’ve experienced over my life Man how many times have I been there in life… the sun is setting on my dreams, the time is short on my plans, I need something to happen quick in life The reality is there are some things that just take time. You may have a plan for how you think your life ought to go, but when your timeline doesn’t match your progress what do you do? We must reach within us and quiet the voice that says “you missed your opportunity” If you’re not dead then God’s not done with you! There is much road ahead of you yet, don’t the grappling hooks of self sabotaging thoughts pull you back to the bottom Stay in the stand Stay the course Continue walking the path Right before we could barely see a deer walked out at 100 yards, the joy on his face was tangible as he fired and dropped the deer straight! “Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.” Galatians 6:9

@anibaldinelli Etsy

Instagram marketing has made my sales sky rocket for one of my Etsy stores I just made a full guide on how to do instagram marketing to make 50k+ on Etsy Like, RT + comment "Etsy" and I will send it for FREE (Must be following or I can't send it)

How to make $300k in 2023: 1. Pay Upwork designers $3-10/hour to create niche designs 2. Use a POD service like Printful to put the designs on t-shirts + other products 3. Create an Etsy store and sell your products there You don't have to handle shipping or inventory either