Weekly Bookmarks –
120th Edition – May 23, 2021
I work construction. I’ll never pay it off ($3.8 million to IRS) on my paycheck.
David Ghannt who served more than 5 years for his role in the 1997 Loomis, Fargo & Co. robbery
1. Revisiting Financial Intelligence
Digging through a Kindle library is like doing deep cleaning in a small closet in a garage. You never know what you’ll find, and you’ll keep asking, “Did I really buy that?” You know the answer every time.
Somewhere wedged near the end of my Kindle titles, I noticed Financial Intelligence for Entrepreneurs.
I just had to click on the title and scan my highlights. This one was a gem –
Accounting and finance are not reality; they are a reflection of reality, and the accuracy of that reflection depends on the ability of bookkeepers, accountants, and finance professionals to make reasonable assumptions and to calculate reasonable estimates.
2. Revisiting a Painful Story
I’ve been prepping for an interview with the author of The Wizard of Lies which was made into an HBO TV movie in 2017. Painful, depressing, and a few other emotions and thoughts where words cannot clearly articulate how this Ponzi scheme could have been pulled off and remained undetected for years.
Here’s what we do know of the late Bernie Madoff who passed away in prison a few weeks ago. Getting into the Ponzi scheme was easy, getting out was impossible.
“By 1998, I realized I was never going to get out of this,” said Bernie Madoff in one prison interview.
Here’s the line that I find way too haunting from Diana Henriques in the Prologue –
If he was an evil wizard, his power was vastly enhanced by the fact that we all moved into the castle with him.
3. Revisiting Senseless Lunacy
I know, that’s needless redundancy, but you try listening to Heist, The Oddball Crew Behind the $17 Million Loomis Fargo Theft without feeling the same way.
If you are going on a drive that will last 5-plus hours, then give this somewhat entertaining story a listen which is about a 1997 North Carolina bank robbery which I thought should have been an open-and-shut case in a matter of days. Didn’t happen that way. Sorry, no spoilers.
4. Revisiting Great Data Analysts
If you are a Tableau user, then the name Andy Kriebel will probably ring a bell. I love his Monday Makeovers on his YouTube channel.
He has a great slide deck on becoming a great data analyst on SlideShare. According to Andy, just what is a great data analyst?
- they are not a report generator (slide 28)
- they are not a yes person (slide 29)
- they understand design principles (slide 32)
- they know basic coding (slide 33)
- they have a good business acumen (slide 34)
- they understand basic stats (slide 35)
- they understand the story behind the story (slide 37)
- they are interested and curious (slides 38 and 39)
5. Revisiting a Great Book
This past week, I was flipping through Hope Is Not a Method by Sullivan and Harper. Haven’t read it? Get it. This is a CFO Bookshelf Top 100 must-read book. A few words of caution – it’s a page-turner, so set aside some time as you start reading it.
One of my favorite parts of the book explains the leadership actions of Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore during a battle in Vietnam.
Moore’s battalion was outnumbered 4-5 to one. Yet, they did not lose in spite of losing many men during that bloody battle.
During those stressful few days, Moore explained that he kept asking three questions. What is happening? What is not happening? How can I influence action?
The authors call his second question genius:
By reflecting on what was not happening … he was better able to anticipate what might or might not have happened next and to plan his moves to best advantage. When asking, “How can I influence the action?” he could thus envision a far greater range of responses than if he had simply been thinking in terms of action and counteraction.
Recent Bookmarks – 119 | 118 | 117
Deep in the Archives – Bookmarks 75 – family, politics, Hexaco, The Banker’s Wife, and Replay
Thank You For Reading. Thank you for making this a successful newsletter.
If you like the content above and the posts at CFO Bookshelf, may I ask a favor? Feel free to share this with other readers along with commenting on your favorite blog posts on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook.
Always be learning and growing.
Title photo by Ajay Suresh
Leave a Reply