This fourth of July, I started the day at a family dinner pool party, spent the early afternoon watching BBC’s Sherlock with my grandmother who instantly fell in love with it, and tonight, I will be in my home study playing Civilization V Gods & Kings probably until 4 or 5 a.m. However, I have discovered…
Following the 25-year case study of Tiffany & Company, I have been thinking a lot about diamonds. From the economic pricing model to the cartel that controls diamond prices, not a day has gone by since that post when I have not studied gemstones, or the jewelry business, in some capacity, often for several hours at…
It’s long been said that it is more important to avoid bad investments than it is to find good investments. “A single bad deal can wipe out a lifetime of work,” or so the sentiment goes. There is a great truth in that. It was the first thing I thought of this morning when I read the Wall Street Journal coverage of the Bank of America / Countrywide Mortgage merger four years ago.
Texas knows cattle. Yesterday, I had the best cheeseburger I have ever had in my life. Literally. This evening, we did dinner at Bob’s Steak and Chop House in the Omni Hotel in downtown Dallas, Texas. Two of us went with a New York Strip and two with the filet mignon and I have to…
I’m in for a night of crunching financials on spreadsheets to try and figure out if a potential opportunity we came to Texas to examine is feasible or wise at various price ranges. It’s going to be a long night, so everyone ordered up milk and cookies to sustain us until the wee hours of…
My family and I stopped by the Neiman Marcus flagship store in downtown Dallas for several hours this afternoon between business commitments to look at tableware, crystal, and fragrances. The store is wonderful. I won’t get into the housewares I found (my favorite being a pewter accented serving pitcher adorned with sculpted fruits for when…
We are finally in Dallas. As far as cities go, I love Dallas. I’m thrilled with Dallas. It, like me, is fiscally conservative and socially liberal. There is plenty of high-end shopping. There are world-class restaurants. Several major airports are within driving distance. Unlike my former home in the New York metro area, I can still…
Waco, Texas has some of the best cupcakes in the world. Who would have thought it? As I mentioned earlier, in the past couple of days, I’ve been in Oklahoma City, Fort Worth, Waco, and I am about to head to Dallas. Before leaving Waco, we stopped by a cupcake bakery that came highly recommended.…
Normally, I am a 4-to-5 star hotel guy but in smaller cities, those options don’t exist so I default to a handful of well-known brands, such as Hilton. I can say definitively that the Hilton Hotel in Waco, Texas, is a perfect example of how a single great employee or two can make a business stand out to…
I am in a small city in Texas on business. I need to stop by several of the cities here to accomplish various things. As of this moment, I’m in Waco. We were in Fort Worth this afternoon and Oklahoma City this morning. Tomorrow, I’m heading to Dallas for a few days for an unrelated…