Joshua Kennon

I know I have a fairly big audience built up over the past ten years.  I’m not going to say just how large, but suffice it to say, it’s big.  Over the past few years, I’ve found myself in the odd position of reading a book (since that’s basically what I do all day), and coming across sections talking about, quoting, or referencing me, my companies, or my investing articles, books, or guides.  The coolest of all time was probably an IMF paper that was sent to the White House.

I realize my name is now well known in certain circles.  I’ve all but abandoned Facebook and MySpace because of the constant incoming messages from hedge fund managers, accountants, etc., that want to friend me or chat.  (It’s not that I don’t want to – I love talking business with people, it’s just the sheer volume is overwhelming.  There have been times my business inbox has had as many as 18,000+ unread messages.  I physically cannot do it.   It’s why I run from the phone and email.  It’s just work to me.)

Anyway, I thought I’d go through and actually see how many I could find in under 30 seconds that are currently in stores.  There are a whole lot more when you go back to the ones that are no longer available.  This is just absolutely crazy to me.  Here are just some of the books that talk about me, quote me, or source me …

According to a new AP article, convicted child molesters have been banned from going to church because of the on-premise day care facilities operated by many religious organizations.  The argument is that the prohibition to be within a specific number of feet of minors is a fundamental violation of the religious freedom rights in the United States Constitution.

You all know I’m big on personal freedom.  That’s why I’m a fiscal conservative but social liberal.  I believe in the right of elderly patients to end their own life in the case of horrific chronic pain (there by the grace of God go I).  I believe that someone has the right to smoke or drink themselves to death.  Why?  Because I believe in the fundamental right of human beings to self-determination.  As a man, my choices should determine the outcome of my life.  The natural extension is that I should have the right to make bad choices, gamble away my money, get addicted to drugs, and blow my wealth on prostitutes.  (To anyone who knows me, all of those scenarios are absurd.  I can watch my investments fluctuate $50,000 or $100,000 a day but a $25 loss at a casino bothers me for weeks.)

This trait first started to surface back in college, when I was Student Body Treasurer.  I caught a lot of flack from a few friends of mine because I supported the right of a Christian group to have an exclusion of gay people in its statement of principals.  They missed the point: I also support the right of gay groups to exclude Christians who say their lifestyle is immoral (Personally, as a rich, white Christian male, I happen to fully support gay marriage and adoption but that’s not really relevant to the discussion).  As Americans, the right of association, assembly, speech, and religion are vital. The government should not have the ability to impose any value system upon another group and each group should have the right to determine what is right for itself.  The one exception to this has to do with employment discrimination because everyone should have the ability to earn a living if they are capable and willing to work.  Once someone starts a company and has over a dozen or two dozen employees, they should not be able to refuse to hire people simply because of their race, gender, political beliefs, etc.

So, what do I think of this?  I think the case is bullsh*t.  Society itself has a fundamental right to protect the life of its children.  These are convicted child predators that were sentenced by a jury of their peers.  They have every right to believe as they wish, have bible studies, and attend services or host them in their own home.  They do not have the right to be around children.

In this case, the ACLU is supposed to be supporting human rights.  Here, you have a question of the rights of two constituencies.  The physical protection of children from known rapists and murders should come first.  Period.  The way I see, the ACLU is actually fighting against the constitutional right of association.  Even if the laws are stricken, these churches have every right to ban the offenders from their private property and well they should.

Once I’m a bit older and the companies are publicly traded, I think I’m going to donate a giant block of my shares to create some sort of non-profit foundation that fights for human rights around the world (that and wildlife conservation).  The right of every one of those parents and the community as a whole is being violated.

CNBC is running a special on high end prostitution and I’m watching it as I work on one of the sites.  According to the research quoted by the network, more than 33% of wealthy men have paid for sex in the past five years and, according to the women, they talk about how the big selling point for the top part of the market is that these men can confess to the escort things they would never tell their wives or best friends, most of which has nothing to do with sex.

My immediate thought is – what the hell kind of relationship do you have in your life where you have those kind of walls built around your heart? I mean, if you can’t tell your friends or your spouse what’s really going on inside of your head because you’re scared of judgment, you have some serious issues.  Maybe it’s because I’m an egomaniac, though … that just seems so weak.

Ellary said it’s because the type of men that work on the trading floor are insufferable.  After all, who’d want to be close to them?  She has a point.

A family member came by today and the course of the conversation got me thinking about the reasons that I have managed to achieve everything I set out to do with far less effort than should be required, and succeed, whereas most people never do.  One of the secrets, I think, comes down to the way I frame questions.

Most people, when they have decided upon a course of action, look for confirmation of their hypothesis from other people.  They ask questions of their friends, family, co-workers, and mentors, but subconsciously, they frame those questions to only reach the conclusion that they, themselves, desire to hear.  This inevitably leads one to believe they have sought input and wisdom whereas, in reality, they have merely attempted to delude themselves into thinking their actions are prudent based upon feedback that was faulty in its premise.

In my own case, whenever I start thinking about launching a new business, making an investment, or proceeding with a course of action, my primary objective is to disprove my own conclusions.  In other words, I look for reasons not to do something.  Only then, after intense scrutiny, do I proceed with a small fraction of the ideas that were originally considered.  I attempt to avoid, at all costs, first conclusion bias.

I was reading a blog called Stuff Christian Culture Likes (as someone who grew up in that culture, believe me, it’s spot-on and funny), and one of the comments left by someone named Bebe pointed out a very interesting fact that most of my Christian friends ignore:

[By the way] is anyone aware that the Bible gives examples of eight different types of marriage covenants without condemnation? That is, one man plus one woman; one man plus more than one woman; one man plus one or more women and concubine(s); one man plus one woman plus her female property/slave; one man slave/one woman slave; one man rapist plus his female victim (bought and paid for); one male soldier and his female POW; and one man plus his dead brother’s wife. Yet today we have only one form which we approve and endorse. Of course, plenty of Christians will say how these are Old Testament hook-ups, so they don’t apply to the New Testament Christians. Yet Jesus came to fulfill the Law, so Christians can’t really just ignore everything before the Gospels because doing so denies the truth God gave to the Jews, who remain his chosen people. And, after all, inerrancy means that the whole salad bar is to be eaten, not just the olives and the cucumbers.

So, going back to the horseshoe political theory, if someone’s going to demand that gays can’t get married, then damn it, as a Christian man, I’m going to insist on my biblical right to a wife plus a massive harem of concubines. Yep. It’s my prerogative. I have spoken with my scepter of pure awesomeness.

Seriously, though, I’m getting tired of this conversation at dinner parties and political fundraisers.  I keep getting asked whether I support ENDA.  Of course I support ENDA – why the hell would I care if my web coders are transgendered if they get the job done and build my empire?  Seriously?  What kind of weak-mined nut jobs think this is problem?  If I knew a team of SEO specialists that could get me to the #1 spot in Google for the new products we’re launching at the luxury gift store, I don’t care if they want to come in to the office and re-enact Priscilla Queen of the Desert as they craft their HTML, ASP, and PHP.  Honestly, if they did it, I’d buy them a performance stage as a perk.

Don’t people have more important things to think about during the day?

These financial statements are for reference purposes when reading my investing lesson on how to analyze an income statement at the Investing for Beginners About.com site.  I’m working with the network on trying to figure out how to integrate them directly into the page but the length of data seems to be a problem.  Sorry for the inconvenience!