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You want people in a Rolls Royce
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“Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls Royce, to get advice from those who take the subway” - Warren Buffett If this sentence does not make you think for a while, read it twice. Or three, four, five times until your head blows up. This sentence contains the essential difference between an advisor and a mentor. The first talks to you from almost the academia. The second from life experience. At my MBA I thought that I’d see rich professors… but I didn’t. It was supposed that I would learn from people that made the journey I wanted to make. But they didn’t. That’s the main flaw of the education system these days. They teach you to be good employees, but not to thrive and grow personally. And worst… the system hides the fact that you must be learning… your whole life. I’m sure that you won’t see Elon Musk going to Harvard to join a course to get a pay raise or to find out how to sell more rockets, right? That’s the point. For mentoring options, I have a package for you, below.
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Vicente Valencia
Weekly insights on how to perform when it matters | High-stakes decisions. Real situations. No BS. | 👇JOIN +2k readers 👇
Look. A question for you. What is more dangerous… Sending a letter you know may be wrong? Or sending one that everyone is convinced is right? In my experience… Definitely the second. A bad letter creates questions. A polished letter creates confidence. It has been reviewed by management. Checked by the lawyers. Discussed with the technical team. Perhaps even approved by the Board. Everyone agrees. Send it. And that is precisely when I become nervous. Intelligent people do not normally make...
Rule 8 of PPPs: Never go around the SPV. That shortcut has lawyers at the other end. I know why agencies do it. The SPV needs to consult the contractor. Then the shareholders. Then the Board. Then the lenders. Then the lawyers. What should take five minutes takes three weeks. So, someone decides to be practical: “Let’s speak directly with the contractor.” Wrong. Look. The contractor builds the project. The SPV owns the promise. The SPV holds the Project Agreement. The SPV carries the...
Someone went on holiday. Nothing particularly unusual about that. Except that this person had to approve an invoice. And without that approval, the dark accountant at the agency did not even know he had to make an important payment. Without the payment, the SPV would not have enough cash to meet its obligations. Yes… pay your debt is really important in these cases. So, a billion dollar project was suddenly exposed to an insolvency risk because one person went on holiday. Fortunately, we had...