infamous rascal

In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer. ~ Camus

@Mpolymer Both amazing books. 🫡 @SPressfield

Going to be doing some more leadership related professional work in the coming months. Teaching. Writing. Back to stuff I really love. And can pass on. To next gen of ntl security practitioners. My musings on leadership r totally and completely apolitical. Perhaps a relief, given state of our divided nation. So, to begin with, two books that to me were foundational in how I think about leadership…I’ll keep adding thoughts as they come to me..

Agree 100%

@MikeBinderjokes Beautiful. Thank you for sharing.

1/ It's 1985. I just did stand-up on David Letterman the night before. Five minutes. I'm 27 years old and I think I've made it. My agent calls me the next day and fires me.

@TgMacro @Moore_ExecEd @UofSC My goodness... thank god for her mum's gene's! congrats, brother.

Just back from University of South Carolina graduation. My 2nd daughter graduated Magna Cum Laude from the Darla Moore School of Business and wanted to go to Waffle House. She rules. @Moore_ExecEd @UofSC

@mostrolenk Great. Will do.

I’m in Riverdale ( Bronx) for the foreseeable future. Let me know when you’re back.

@mostrolenk Damn. Missed you in NYC. Left this morning. 👊🫡

This morning, while rucking through the streets of New York City, I was listening to Brent Gleeson’s new book, "All In". open.substack.com/pub/michaeldos…

@nnzp1730 *does

@nnzp1730 I mean, a spoon doesn’t have its own charms: youtu.be/F3lggyq5llM?si…

Spoon? You never mean knife.

@nnzp1730 I’m a big believer in the Mencken quote. Knives have their time and place. Nestle Quick ain’t it! 😂 "Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats."

@nnzp1730 No dude. Spoon. Because that’s what you mixed it with.

@nnzp1730 @TgMacro @SantiagoAuFund why is no one talking about the Nobel Peace Prize that the Committee will award to ... (wait for it) ... Pakistan.

@DaveWangMIA excel

Claude for Excel has changed the game... I wrote the 24-page complete guide on it. (It's free.) 3 modes to access: ↳ Plugin: edits cells live in your sidebar ↳ Claude .ai: analyzes uploaded spreadsheets ↳ Cowork: builds entire models autonomously Example of what you can build with 4 prompts: 1. Extract 3 years of historicals from a 10-K 2. Run driver analysis across all segments 3. Build a 3-statement model 4. Apply IB formatting Start to finish: under 30 minutes. My free "Claude for Excel" guide covers: 1. Copy-paste prompts for LBOs, mergers, and comps 2. Live data via FactSet, S&P Global, LSEG 3. Setup for Plugin, Claude, and Cowork 4. Best practices and data security 5. When to use which mode 6. Real finance workflows I could've sold this. I didn't. Want the free guide? Just: 1. Like this post 2. Make sure we are connected 3. Comment "EXCEL" 4. ....and I'll DM you ASAP

@nnzp1730 Disagree. We have an epic warrior class.

You are here 👇

Notes from Today: "When the moment comes you do not rise to the occasion You fall to the level of your training."

@nnzp1730 Beautiful posts. Beautiful journey. Welcome brother. ✝️

And it is done….what an evening….i am so glad I picked the congregation I did…..

Glorious Holy Saturday to all of you. I am going to tell a story, but first, for me, it is fitting that we are in a year where the Gospel of Matthew is the account of the passion that is read on Holy Thursday. Matthew 7:7 states, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you." It took me 57 years to knock, but tonight I will take that leap of faith being baptized and confirmed into the Roman Catholic Church. I have lived 57 years seeking, unbaptized……reading for decades material from many faiths and visiting many churches and temples of all sort around the global.

@Delta your gate agents at A6 in a Birmingham literally have no idea who they have allowed on the plane. Nor are they being helpful to people who have been here since 0645. Absolute chaos here all day. Gate agents just ignoring people.

@B_Shousejr Welcome to the 242.

Good Morning 🤠🇧🇸

I was fortunate to hear @nfergus speak last Friday evening — just hours before the US-Israeli strikes on Iran that killed Iran's murderous leader. His remarks were incredibly well received. Sir Niall's central thesis is that the 2020s are not the 1800s or the 1920s — they're more like the 1970s. Trump is best understood not as a would-be dictator but as a quintessentially American figure in the tradition of Presidents Jackson, McKinley, and Teddy Roosevelt - with a little P.T. Barnum on the side. His risk appetite is extraordinary, and while his tariffs have been far less disruptive than economists predicted, the deeper structural challenge — what Sir Niall dubs "Ferguson's Law" — is real: any great power that spends more on debt interest than on defense is in decline. The US crossed that threshold in 2024. On geopolitics, Sir Niall laid out the Three-Body Problem facing America: Europe, the Middle East, and East Asia all pull simultaneously on finite US resources. We've landed in Brzezinski's worst-case scenario — a genuine China-Russia-Iran axis. Saturday's attacks may have helped to alter that. The Iran strike, he predicted, would be regime alteration rather than regime change — surgical, swift, and nothing like Iraq 2003. It is the play from the recent strike in Venezuela: decapitate the offending regime and use the threat of continued decapitation to persuade the successor to embrace US geopolitical ambitions at the expense of Russia's and China's. This may be good for US negotiating power but may not be the news the people of Iran are keen to hear. But the Iran question, he argued, is a sideshow compared to the real danger: China intervention in Taiwan, what he calls the "Taiwan Semiconductor Crisis" that would dwarf the 1973 oil shock. The solution? Trump needs a Nixon-goes-to-Beijing moment and a new détente with China before miscalculation becomes catastrophe. His overall predictions center on AI CAPEX peaking, Democrats and their policies becoming competitive, the dollar weakening and gold continuing to remain strong, and continued Chinese strength. His article in the @TheFP on Saturday echoes much of his presentation, ex- the South Park lyrics! A remarkable evening with one of the great strategic minds of our time.

@mercerron Thank you , Ron. See you next year.

This is so well articulated. I could not agree more. The quality of this event cannot be overstated. Congratulations to Tony for your success in so many avenues. You have some great friends, mentors and business partners who support you. Continue to treasure them all. 👊🏻😊

@nnzp1730 @Alyosha745 100% same

I subscribed to @Alyosha745 substack this past week after hearing him tell a great story. It’s been a great couple days of reading…..I am gonna like this.