How to Be Smug and Deserve It
Have you ever noticed how it’s just not fun anymore to be smug? Suddenly, right when you were having fun, you’re a jerk. But what if it’s two smug people each eyeing the other before eyeing the object of their joke? Now it’s amusing again. Lesson: a non-smug thinks a smug a slug, but a smug thinks another smug a smug. And if any of that made any sense, we can now both be smug.
You see, I recently wrote a guest blog on the Million Dollar Savings Club that involved stopping and thinking and well, it’s got me stopped and thinking. The charm that comes from stopping and thinking is that you forfeit the chance to be baptized by fire. Doesn’t sound so bad, eh? If you have a decision in front of you to make, like say, whether or not to pass the slow, obviously retarded driver in front of you, you can either say, “F-$%@-k it!” hit the gas and fly baby fly, or you can take a moment and think about whether or not it will really benefit you tangibly (besides the benefit of any resulting adrenaline high). Go ahead, risk that life and limb. Better watch out or before you know it, you’ll be the retarded driver.
Naturally, the same two choices are ever present in the stock market. That whole, read this news snippet there, check that tick here, grab that cell phone there, place that trade here, glance at that graph there—fly baby fly! Or, you can stop and think. Know what’s really going on. Make decisions based on fact and not hype. Even if the fact that there is hype is true, know that it is a fact, and don’t succumb to the hype. Use the hype. Then you may be smug.
A great example of this is right in our midst. The credit “bubble bursting”, sub-prime slime, housing slump, and woe so many woes. We are obviously broke as hell and the world is going to end. Runnnnn! Or better, fly baby fly.
The greatest counterargument to this is that sometimes things pop up in your face. Ok, let me be more clear: “If face to face with a loaded glock, DO NOT STOP AND THINK.” Better? For all other times, you have my permission. Gauge traffic a mile or two in advance, deal with congestion, pick your stocks early, hang out a little. Then, when things work out because you had anticipated them, be a little smug.
When you look over at me I’ll squint my eyes at you.