Many years ago I volunteered for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). I was young, ambitious, and alone. Herzl Shafir, the retired deputy chief of staff of the IDF, took me into his home like family. We developed a very special bond. He saw something in me. He believed in me.
We started having lunch twice a week, just the two of us. Then we would sit on the couch in his living room and talk. Every Friday night I was at his table for Shabbat dinner. For over fifteen years until his death.
Herzl was the most experienced and wisest man I have ever met. He was head of IDF Southern Command. He served as Commissioner of the Israel National Police. He headed the Israeli delegation in Geneva in 1974 for the ceasefire and disengagement agreements with Egypt and Syria. He led the IDF and Ministry of Defense delegation to the Pentagon. He was part of the Israeli delegation to the peace negotiations with President Sadat of Egypt, alongside Prime Minister Begin, Minister Dayan, and Minister Weizman of Israel.
This great man. This Titan. This legendary warrior and brilliant strategist who I had grown to love. He believed in me. That meant everything to me.
Strategy
Long after he retired from his military career he was commissioned by the Israeli government to write the official position of Israel on Iran, Syria, Egypt, mutually assured destruction and many other such analyses that were crucial to Israeli national security.
He handed me a delicate document that few men had access to. I read it and asked him what he wanted me to take from it. He said firstly that it was a gesture of trust and belief in me, and he wanted me to see that even the most complicated problems in the world can be broken down very simply into just a few pages.
He never told me what to think. He taught me how to think. How to assess. How to ask the right questions. “What are the possibilities. What are the consequences. What are the options and the potential outcomes of various reactions to those consequences.” Titles don’t mean anything without definition. Minimize ego. “How shall we strike. When shall we strike. It’s not so simple.”
One year he sent me a birthday note:
“Body and mental stability. The general picture. Possibilities. Thinking. Decision. Execution. Results. Control. Conclusions. Diligence. Life can be simple.
—Love Herzl”
Never Have Fixed Principles
Most people carry a fixed set of principles and method of thinking about war, love, peace, business, friendship, everything. This is foolish. Every circumstance is unique, and therefore must be approached with unique thinking and principles.
This fundamental concept Herzl Shafir drilled in my head for 15+ years made me a superior operator, in many capacities. I am unpredictable, and very good at predicting.
I do not approach any two stock market trades the same way. I do not approach any two investments the same way.
Liquidity, timing, sentiment, structure, and risk are different every time.
My Compass
IDF commanders and stock markets both will humble a man. Samurai fall seven times and get up 8. I have always felt a strong connection to Samurai. I have fallen 100 times and gotten up 101. Herzl believed in me for a reason. He’s been dead 5 years now but his voice in my head and the voice in my head have become the same voice. I carry him in my mind and heart every day, in all matters, and I won’t let him down. Ever.
When he was dying, I told him “you are my compass, and without you I am lost and alone, but because of you I will always find my way.”