$50 million a year, but only for the top job
Episode 242 is an Ask Us Anything recorded in front of a live audience, with guest Chris Judd — dual Brownlow medallist (2004 and 2010) and founder of the Cerutty Macro Fund, a long-only macro and thematic equities fund for wholesale clients.
Big thanks again to our friends at The Commons for hosting us!
Listen on YouTube above, or on Spotify via the link below.
Three audience questions:
Jake: With the Singaporean Prime Minister’s package now past a million dollars a year, what can Australia do to get capable people back into politics?
Aaron, in from Sydney: If someone handed you a magic wand, how would you fix productivity — and while you’re at it, developed-market debt?
Question three: In life, business or an underperforming position, when do you pivot and when do you hold course? What are the signals?
Adir on why money won’t fix it: “The thing about politics is it’s really mean. Either they’re there to abuse you or to get something out of you. And the media — their whole business is to try to make you look terrible for a headline. No one ever says, well, that guy’s much better than we thought he would be in politics.”
Judd on red tape, via a restaurateur: “I asked a really well-known restaurateur what he actually pays a dishwasher who’s got to wash dishes after midnight on a Saturday night. He paused — it depends how many days in a row they’ve worked, when their last break was, how long it was. There’s about eight different variables. You’ve literally got to have a full-time HR person.”
Adir on when to quit: “When the cost of continuing this thing — financially, emotionally, personally — exceeds the cost of leaving and doing something else. To me that is the time to quit. And every day you should be doing some calculation in your head about whether that’s true at that moment.”
Judd on not trying to be perfect: “No one’s ever played the perfect game of football. No one constantly sells at the high, constantly buys at the low. If you live constantly ruminating over the 10x you missed because you sold too early, you’ll miss the next one.”
