I used to get laughed at... But now I've got the last laugh. Let me me explain.
When I went to family gatherings, dinner parties, and my children’s school functions I felt the need to tip-toe around the one question you are bound to be asked when meeting someone for the first time: “So Mike, what do you do?” Lol :D
I generally hate this question. I'm a lot of things: a father, a musician, a writer, an entreprenuer..... a raconteur.
I don’t think the essence of who someone is can be boiled down to the way they make a living.
That being said, I totally understand that there are only so many ways to break the ice when meeting strangers. Considering that the average person spends 90,000 hours of their life at work, it does seem like a fair question…
What you do is indeed a large part of who you are.
Up until recently, I used to say that I was a financial journalist and just left it at that. Lol :D.... I’d of course get a couple of questions about the stock market and what I’m investing in, but it was generally a boring enough answer that allowed me to get on with more “important” topics like sports and politics… Am not a sport faan though.
But sometimes — when I thought I was talking to someone who would appreciate it — I’d let it slip that I was an avid marijuana investor.
This used to elicit a confused head tilt and some uneasy laughter. I typically changed the subject quickly.
But that has all changed drastically...
When people ask me what I do today, I puff out my chest and proudly announce: “I’m a marijuana investor!”
Where I used to sound like a total weirdo stoner, now I’m treated like a rock star investment guru…
Everyone gathers around and grills me about the best pot stocks to invest in. And I can’t blame them. Marijuana investing has officially taken over as the single most buzzed about investment since the dot-com boom…
Marijuana has graduated from the fringes of early investor folks like me to the population at large.
My grandmother has approached me about it.
My mother has asked which “pot stocks” she should own.
My friends — some of whom have never invested a dime in their life — demanded I give them a list of stocks to buy immediately.
At a family gathering the other day, I met some of my wife’s extended family for the very first time. After some small talk about our kids and the weather, we got to the obvious question I mentioned above: “Jimmy, what do you do?”
“Well, I’m a marijuana investor,” I announced.
Instead of the cock-eyed horror that I was used to from my past family encounters, I was met with intense interest. In particular, one man’s eyes lit up immediately as the crowd formed around me.
“Let’s talk immediately,” he said as he whisked me away to the screened-in porch.
It turns out that he was a very successful hedge fund manager. He went on to tell me that he was just asked to join the board of directors of a major payment processor for legal cannabis in the U.S. He seemed as shocked as anyone that the industry had exploded to such a degree. He also seemed more excited about this project than any of the other very large, important projects he was involved in.
These are all anecdotal examples, of course. I try not to base any serious investment decision on such things. But when I recently traveled to the heart of New York City for the annual MicroCap conference, all of those anecdotes were completely affirmed.
As soon as I entered the Essex House, right on Central Park, I immediately heard rumblings from the hundreds of professional investors crowding into the hotel.
In the elevator: “Where are all the pot companies?”
In the bathroom: “When is the marijuana panel?”
At the bar: “Which cannabis presentations are you going to? Let’s split up so we can see them all. I don’t want to miss a thing.”
I personally went to several different marijuana presentations and met with executives from different areas of the sector...
Found it interesting and thought I should steemit!
