01/19/2024
A ’62 Ferrari 250 GTO, sleek and legendary, roars onto the auction block. Whispers of $60 million swirl in the air. The hammer falls. $47 million (well, $51.7 million with the buyer’s premium). Disappointment ripples. In 2018, a similar Ferrari sold for $70 million.
But wait. Before we judge the "failure" of this transition, let's shift gears. Because in the world of finance, just like the world of classic cars, success isn't always a shiny headline.
This Ferrari, even with its "subpar" sale, represents a 94x return on his initial investment over 38 years.
The real lesson? Expectations can be fickle beasts. They cloud our judgment, making us mistake short-term blips for permanent setbacks. Measuring your success by someone else’s yardstick or result is bound to result in unhappiness. True success is defined by your own goals, not by arbitrary bars set by others.
@ Mark Newfield offers some tips on expectations and goals in his latest blog:
https://journeysw.com/2024/01/18/financial-lessons-from-falling-short/.
