Public Speaking. London. Laguna Beach

On May 24 I’ll be speaking at the London Value Investor Conference. My super-smart friend David Shapiro is the conference’s MC, in addition to running a very successful fund of funds in London, he will be conducting a fireside type of chat interview with me.

Public Speaking. London. Laguna Beach

A few years ago, after I read Tim Ferriss’ Tools of Titans, I made a deliberate decision to maximize doing things I love and minimize doing things I am indifferent to or simply hate. I outsourced low-value daily tasks that had gradually slipped into my schedule to my very capable and awesome assistant, Barbara, who actually loves doing them. The time I “found” I reallocated to things I love: research, reading, and writing… and also to my family.

However, there are tasks that I cannot outsource and one of them is public speaking. I love public speaking, but I absolutely hate giving speeches. Confused? Stay with me… A week or two before a speech, I find myself stressed; my brain cannot stop thinking about the speech. I want to deliver the speech with the same clarity as I write, which is impossible because every sentence that you see on this page has been rewritten two or three times.

On the other hand I absolutely love answering questions, or simply having a fireside-chat-like conversation on-stage. I have found that audiences sense my predilection and therefore enjoy my Q&A sessions a lot more than my speeches. All the events I did in Omaha this year were in a Q&A type of format. I don’t prepare for these events, and I find that I always learn something, because the questions make me think about new topics.

So now when I am asked to speak, be it at a conference or on a university campus, I agree only on the condition that the event be in a Q&A format. As I started doing so, I found that people don’t usually have a problem with this request. However, it may not be appropriate for every event. I do only a few speeches a year (not counting the quarterly Q&A talks I give to students at Denver University, which is where we get most of our interns). If I do fewer talks but enjoy them, my life only gets better.

London

On May 24 I’ll be speaking at the London Value Investor Conference. My super-smart friend David Shapiro is the conference’s MC, in addition to running a very successful fund of funds in London, he will be conducting a fireside type of chat interview with me. The conference concludes with Big Ben –well, kind of; actually it’s a dinner at the House of Commons. I’ve never been there and I’m really excited about it. I have a lot of friends in London and am looking forward to spending time with them, but on either May 23 or 25 I’ll try to do a get together with UK readers. If you’re interested, drop a line to Barbara: pa [at] imausa [dot] com.

Laguna Beach

I’ve also been invited to speak to finance students at Pepperdine University in Laguna Beach, CA. Michael Kinsman, professor at Pepperdine, has asked students to read my articles and bring questions to class. This is a great opportunity to turn a speaking engagement into a family vacation. My kids love California it’s hard not to – and we plan to go to Legoland and Disneyland. We’ll be in Laguna Beach June 6th through 13th. I’ll try to squeeze in a meeting with readers there as well – if interested, drop Barbara a line: pa [at] imausa [dot] com.

Related Articles

Expanding Perspectives Through Travel – From Spain to the UK

My brother Alex, my son Jonah, and I went to a conference in Switzerland. We saw this as an opportunity to turn the bookends of the trip into a small European vacation.

Antisemitism and Wokeness Threaten the Future of Israel and America 

My goal with this essay on antisemitism and wokeness is to bring an important issue to the surface for those who were oblivious to it and to possibly change the minds of those whose minds are still changeable.
Vitaliy's Article Almanac

Article Almanac 2023

A few years ago, the IMA team started a new tradition. At the end of the year, we gather all of the essays I had written throughout the year, organize them by topic, sprinkle in some art, nip and tuck them into a single PDF, and voila, we have an almanac.
Broadening the aperture of how you look at life

Broadening the aperture of how you look at life

The interview took place in April 2023 at Temple Sinai here in Denver. The focus of the discussion was on my book Soul in the Game: The Art of a Meaningful Life. The living characters of the book are from my family, so having them in the audience was a bit surreal. 

Leave a Comment