Steve
Jobs made many famous speeches and has been quoted many times but his speech to
Stanford University graduates in 2005 could have been written for QVM Traders.
Possibly
the single biggest difficulty for traders is uncertainty about our future. We
are constantly asking management "What are your plans?", "What
is going to happen in the next few years and how can I best prepare or how will
I be protected?"
Unfortunately it is difficult to get definitive answers
to those questions. Plans are still being evolved, and a market renewal has
many unknowns, particularly in the middle of a retail revolution. Traders have
unknowns, management have unknowns and city designers have unknowns. We are all
entering into a brave new world of uncertainty similar to Steve Jobs as he
embarked on re-defining personal computers with the Apple Mac.
Here
is his advice to university graduates at Stanford on preparing for the future -
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking
backwards, so you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your
future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma,
whatever.
Because
believing the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to
follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well worn path, and that will
make all the difference.”
Sometimes
we need to trust that genuine effort,
professional application, and perhaps an element of luck will help us
achieve great things. There is no shortage of talent amongst traders,
management, or city planners as we work together for a successful outcome. In
10 years time we will be able to look back and say "So that is how the
dots joined". In the meantime we can only trust.