J#22: From the Mailbag & An Update of Tim’s African Lions Fund
FROM THE MAILBAG:
Reproduced below are some of the emails I received together with my responses.
READER’S COMMENT:
Peter,
I very much appreciated your journal about your Father, a man to emulate. I’m glad you love him and that he loves you. That you are writing about him is an indication that he taught you well, and imparted to you a sense of the deeper things of life. I feel the same about my father, whom I miss very much. I am 70, and I am still keep discovering hidden things he did to help me and others.
This kind of writing is essential. Keep it up.
Randall
PETER’S RESPONSE:
Hi Randall,
Thank you for the kind words and the encouragement.
Remembering your Father after all these years is a true testament of his enduring legacy to you and others. Your Father has provided you with true wealth! It also goes to show that there are things (e.g. your Father’s wisdom) only he truly owned once he gave them to you and others.
Peter
READER’S COMMENT:
Peter,
I liked what you wrote. Forwarded it to my son. I’m from Germany so I have a different cultural background, but I like your value system and that you write to your kids this way.
Have a nice weekend.
Klaus
PETER’S RESPONSE:
Hi Klaus,
Thank you for the kind words and encouragement and that you passed my journal to your son. Passing it forward to my children is also one of the purposes of my journals (J#3 – Passing it Forward).
Peter
I switched gears in Journal #20 entitled “No investment tips today; but maybe something even more valuable…” I wrote on a personal note and asked you, my readers, whether you would like to read content that was non-investment related from time to time. As you can see, the feedback I have received from some of you is very encouraging. So I aim to write one to two journals per month on content similar to that of Journal #20. Hopefully, this will create a healthy balance between investment-based content and my views on life’s important lessons.
AN UPDATE OF TIM & HIS AFRICAN LIONS FUND
My business partner, Tim Staermose, has made the 22-hour journey from Bali to Tanzania.
Together with his family, he is relocating to Dar es Salaam. Up-rooting from Asia, where Tim has lived and worked for nearly 25 years, is a huge decision (and many of us would likely find it a step too far from our comfort zones). Tim has a supportive family and more importantly, they have the same mindset that there are no borders, other than your mind, in living and building a life in a “new” country.
Tim and his family’s move reminds me of Robert Frost’s poem, “The Road Not Taken”. It is reproduced for my children below.
The move to Tanzania enables Tim to put his “boots on the ground” for research and expand his ecosystem of contacts for his African Lions Fund. It also provides his young family the opportunity to gain experiences, draw lessons and make new friends that will arm the children for an increasingly, to use Thomas Friedman’s term, “flat” (sic) world.
Should you like to find out more about the African Lions Fund:
- A Zoom call with potential investors of the African Lions Fund was held on the 1st of September. The recording of the presentation with the Q&A session can be accessed via the links below.
It is in two parts. The presentation, and the Q&A – the presentation is unvarnished and the questions unscripted.
Part 1: Presentation — https://vimeo.com/455835683/9934decf3c
Part 2: Q&A — https://vimeo.com/456531305/44212e7377
- Tim’s latest column was published here.
As you are aware, I am an investor in the African Lions Fund and further information on the Fund can be obtained by registering here.
Tim, wishing you and your family “Safari Njema” and may the Maasai warriors safely guard you during the many safaris to come!!
Peter
PS – “Safari Njema” is Swahili for “to have a good journey”. Swahili is the official language of Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya, and is used as the lingua franca throughout East Africa by more than 100 million people.
Pictures of a Maasai warrior. You literally place your life in their hands during a safari. They stand guard in the pitch black of the night on the lookout for wild animals as you have dinner in the wilderness.
They are armed only with a a rungu (a wooden throwing club or baton) and a seme (a light double-edged, leaf-shaped short sword). Maasai warriors are renowned to have a “sixth” sense – they live in balance with nature and know when a wild animal is around the corner and how to handle them.
A Message for My Children
Having a mindset that there are no borders, other than your mind, in living and building a life in a “new” country, is important in today’s increasingly global world.
Tim’s decision to move his family and himself to Tanzania reminds me of Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken”. It is reproduced below.
We, as a family, had planned to move to Australia to provide a new set of experiences and friends to give you some exposure to an increasingly global and competitive world. Unfortunately, that did not come to be. This does not mean that it cannot happen in the future. Australia, Africa, China, Russia… the list of possible places is endless.
From my experience, I have found it often true that my taking the road less travelled by others has made all the difference in my life. For a start, it differentiates me from the competitive crowd and from Plato’s wild horses. I hope that you cultivate that mindset with the opportunities that present themselves to you.
Finally, I hope that as you journey through life, you develop a strong and meaningful relationship with both your parents and enjoy the richness that Randall, see mailbag above, had with his father.
The Road Not Taken
BY ROBERT FROST
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.