• “Comfort is the biggest risk to, and enemy of the otherwise economically productive entrepreneur. Risk, stress and critical decision making are our constant companions and are welcome in the context of making significant changes in our lives and circumstances.” Jeffrey Peterson, CEO of Mobile Corp, Founder of quepasa.com
  • “Those who have the courage to discover and bring forth their genius break through to unparalleled heights of productivity and life satisfaction. Discovering your Zone of Genius is your life’s Big Leap. Everything up until now has been about hops, not leaps. Hopping, though it seems safe, is actually hazardous to your health. If you confine yourself to hops, you run the risk of rusting from the inside out. I know. I caught myself, halfway through my life, in the very act of rusting. There I was, hopping along in my Zone of Excellence, when suddenly I became aware of a dull and sluggish feeling deep within me. I couldn’t figure out what it was at first. As I tuned in to it, I realized it had been there for months, maybe years. I had gotten to a place in my life where I could almost sleepwalk through doing all the things that kept me successful—writing books, giving speeches, coaching executives, teaching seminars. I did them and did them and did them, and the money kept pouring in. Soon there were employees, a big building, three houses, and an army of support personnel that needed to be fed. I remember well the day it all imploded on me. I got off the plane, exhausted from a grueling trip during which I’d given many talks and seminars—nineteen cities in twenty-one days. I stopped by the office on the way home, and there I encountered glum looks on the faces of my accountant and administrative director. They announced that taxes were due, and that because of a cash-flow shortfall I needed to borrow $120,000 from myself to pay our taxes. I felt like a hunter-gatherer returning with a wild boar for the campfire, expecting high-fives and a hot dinner, only to be told I also owed a couple of buffalo. I slunk home, dejected and irritated, and there I found that my garage-door opener had died. Leaving my car in the driveway, I trudged out to get the mail. The first thing I pulled out was a big envelope emblazoned with this headline: “Congratulations on Turning 50! Here Is Your Free AARP Card!” I paused to digest the significance of this moment, and that’s when I became aware of the sluggish, dull feeling deep within me. At first I worried it might be a medical problem, so I started by getting a thorough workup. I discovered that I was in the best of health, except for twenty extra pounds of prosperity-induced padding, the effects of too many well-paid after-dinner speeches. Finding I was in good health meant I had to take a deeper look. When I did, I found the source of my rust, and that discovery changed my life. The source was hidden in plain sight: it was the Upper Limit Problem I knew so well. In spite of knowing a lot about it intellectually, I had gotten comfortably numb in my Zone of Excellence. So comfortably numb, in fact, that the ULP had sneaked up and gotten me. Without realizing it, I’d worn such a comfortable rut in my Zone of Excellence that I had overlooked the beckoning calls of my Zone of Genius. Fortunately, I got the message in time. I want to make sure you do, too.” The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level (Gay Hendricks) Page 113
  • “It’s a constant quest, because we’re always raising the bar on ourselves. The better we get, the better we want to be. Part of us wants very much to live in our Zone of Genius. Yet at the same time, we’re tied down by forces around us. The people around us want us to stay in our Zone of Excellence. We’re a lot more reliable there.” The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level (Gay Hendricks) Page 115
  • “BETA:
    • A measure of the volatility, or systematic risk, of a security or a portfolio in comparison to the market as a whole.
    • A beta of 1 indicates that the security’s price will move with the market. A beta of less than 1 means that the security will be less volatile than the market. A beta of greater than 1 indicates that the security’s price will be more volatile than the market.
    • For example, if a stock’s beta is 1.2, it’s theoretically 20% more volatile than the market.” Managing Portfolios in Uncertain Times 

    “ALPHA:

    • A measure of performance on a risk-adjusted basis. Alpha takes the volatility (price risk) of a mutual fund (stock) and compares its risk-adjusted performance to a benchmark index.
    • The excess return of the fund relative to the return of the benchmark index is a fund’s alpha.

    ·A positive alpha of 1.0 means the fund has outperformed its benchmark index by 1%. Correspondingly, a similar negative alpha would indicate an underperformance of 1%. Likely does not exist after taking fees into account.” Beta, Will Kenton