Maybe, Maybe Not

Prefer to listen? I recorded a full audio version for members inside Invisible World.

Heart

My sweaty palm hovered over the sell button. Do it. Sell! No. Not yet. Not $24.50, not 24.75, I needed $24.98 a share.

Come on, come on. Get there. Get there.

Boom! 24.98 » I clicked. I sold. Done!

I pumped my fists in the air. Hell yeah. I waived my hands like an all-night raver.

I stood up from the computer. Yes 💪 

Good news. Good day. Good happened. Right choice. Right call. Right?

I trotted upstairs a gladiator. A victor.

Light. Easy. Finally.

For the past 2 years I stomached the acidic swings and dregs of that parasitic stock, down -50% at one point, finally cut it loose! Ugh. Done with that.

No actually, I didn’t turn a profit, no loss no gain, but at $24.98/share I was even. Steak dinner tonight!

Wow that was already 2 years ago. When my portfolio crawled in the gutter licking the soggy leaves out of the rainwater. When interest rates relentlessly climbed quarterly.

Uh yeah, let’s not take that vacation. I remember 🫤

I put in thousands of dollars and needed it back. Business was slow and I couldn’t risk holding out for the dark blue Boardwalk card any longer.

So I thought.

Fine.

You want to know what stock it was don’t you Friend? Fine fine rub it in. It’s called Palantir. Recent highs are trading around $200, riding the Ai wave.

I held it for 3 years prior averaging -40% down most of that time. I thought I was a genius for selling. What poise to hold and get out clean. So ‘good’.

Ahhh » But if I was not a ‘genius victor’ I’d now have that chubby 700% gain with 6 figures sitting next to me. Warming myself by its illusory faux security.

Shoulda been a steak dinner for everyone reading InspoLetter. On the house baby! But no. No Jonz.

And no, I’m also not an idiot for selling, I just didn’t realize, I am a human 👨‍🦲 

And humans—don’t know. Is it possible?

I sold, whew. I thought it was good. Is that true?

But what about the potential 700% gain » So it’s bad I sold then? That’s where my head went. Dummy.

But what if I took it all off the table at $200/share only to parlay into one of my other holdings, say Contex Logic, and which later went bankrupt, and then I lost it all. Ah, so that’s bad for sure.

Maybe, Maybe Not.

What if that led me to sell my house, downsize my ego, simplify my life, and start something called the InspoLetter, and later to open Invisible World, well, wouldn’t that be good?

Good that you and I are here doing our Invisible work together every week? Stepping together into who we’re meant to be?

Friend, could that be an even higher ROI? Is it possible?

Hmm. Maybe I don’t know, and maybe that’s okay.

I was going to send the rest of this on Thursday, but I’m too far in now. Someone cut this guy off 🍷 🤣

Let’s keep going. You with me?

So . . . one of my best friends . . . he goes by the Taoist Farmer. Like most things important to me, he’s Invisible. Yet his influence and wisdom is too real. And his track record is unbeatable.

It’s an awkward friendship because he loves reminding me how little I know, how shaky this whole thing is, and . . . how all that’s okay.

Sometimes he just tells me: Jonz » Maybe, Maybe Not. And that’s enough. Bro always keeps me in line. And that’s our living practice here this week Maybe, Maybe Not.

BTW, is he a mutual friend? You know him too? He’s well known in some parts of Invisible World.

The Taoist Farmer parable survives in numerous iterations; here’s a snip pulled from Episode 3 of my podcast (More Conflict Please!).

 Once upon a time...old farmer worked his crops for many years. One day a wild horse came to his property, and he tamed it and his neighbors said, ‘Wow you are so lucky, what great fortune to have the horse help in your fields, this is good, this will be YUGE.’

“Well,” the farmer said, “who knows, Maybe, Maybe Not”...then One day the dang horse ran away.

“Oh shoot buddy that’s terrible”, his friends said. “Such bad luck, such misfortune, we’re sorry,” they said with genuine sympathy. 

“Ah well, Maybe, Maybe Not”, the Farmer replied. 

The next morning, the horse not only returned but brought 6 other wild horses.

“Wow, how wonderful, you lucky dog, you’re so blessed, plenty of horses to help farm, you lot is easy and fortunate now.”

“Maybe, Maybe Not”, replied the steady Farmer. 

The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg.

The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy for what they called his “great misfortune. What tragedy, I'm so sorry, hang in there . . . how will you clean your fields now?” 

“Ah who knows, could be a tragedy . . . or not,” answered the Farmer. 

Soon after military officials scoured the village to draft young men into the army for a hopeless war.

Seeing that the son's leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out. 

Of course he said once more, “Yeah Maybe, then again—Maybe Not.”

 Like the wise farmer, there’s no need to get tangled and spun up in the circumstances around us.

Relationships, jobs, stock markets, college, new hires, divorce, marriage . . . the further down the tracks I get the more I’ve accepted » 100? I really don’t know what’s ‘good’ or ‘bad’.

And InspoLetter? What if it does go nasty viral off the hook. Does it have to? That’s good right?

Friend, or is it okay if it’s just you and me?

Hmm.

Wow alright this is getting long. (Ah, can you see it? See how I’m even thinking now, maybe 'it’s ‘bad’: It’s getting long, you won’t read. You will unsubscribe. And that’s ‘bad’😉 

Maybe we just don’t know.

Maybe there’s a higher frequency available in place of knowing, labeling, and judging. I am a human. So I don’t know.

Instead what if we find benefit and beauty in any leaf that blows along. Maybe my portfolio picking dirty leaves out of the gutter was → okay.

Maybe it helped me get here with you. Maybe every setback, is actually a setup.

IDK for sure, but is it possible?

It’s good NVDA is my biggest stock holding? It’s bad if I get divorced? Bald is beautiful but balding is ugly? I must have that hire to propel my business? I need her to say yes, or we should buy that house . . .

Friend, is getting what you want good?

Hmm » Maybe, Maybe Not. 

Mind 🌞 

Are you seeking to be the brightest?

Venus is the brightest planet in the solar system. Way more catchy than a pale blue dot 🌎️ 

But with toxic sulfuric clouds it’s a pressure cooker at 900°F which inhibits all life as we know it.

Maybe it’s okay if you too are a pale blue dot—is it possible?

Soul ⚡️ 

🎶 All this shit, I can't explain
Is it by design or random fate? Yeah

So maybe I don't know
Maybe I don't know

Maybe I don't know
But maybe that's okay

Maybe that's okay, maybe that's okay
Maybe I don't know, maybe I don't know
But maybe that's okay 🎵 

— Song, Maybe IDK, by Jon Bellion

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