Money Isn't Everything: Lessons on Life, Loss, and Investing

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We don't want the user even to know that it's connected by satellite. Listen, the opportunity that we have is very, very, very large. Hey everyone, thanks for joining. I'm actually out on the West Coast for a personal reason. A close friend of mine recently just passed from cancer, so I'm here for a funeral today, which is a bit sad, um, but a stark reminder that life is important. Take care of your health. Money isn't everything. I know it's a stressful time for, for many people. just given the drawdown that we've had in the market. But I did, you know, this reminder, and then I've just heard some stories from various people over the last 24 hours. I figured I should do this space just so that people understand that, you know, you're not alone. Everyone is hurting pretty bad, but it's important to keep everything in perspective. And I think Um, you know, one of the things that I've, that I've always said over time is, is, you know, if you've made life-changing money or generational wealth, um, it's always good to take stock and to set aside whether, you know, your metric is your, your previous net worth, set that aside and, and set aside taxes and, and don't touch that. Or if you made multiples, set aside some multiple of, of your net worth, and then the rest is kind of free money. Right. Right? And, and so for AST in particular, um, you know, some people think that, uh, Cook or, or myself are these geniuses, and to some extent they're the— what differentiates us from perhaps other people. Um, but quite candidly, we, we really aren't that different versus a lot of space mob. Is that we found this, this idea, and whether through luck or serendipity, um, but, you know, it's something that we researched, had conviction in, and were delusional enough to hold. But, but aside from that, having experience in financial markets, you know, that helps to a degree. But at the end of the day, everybody, no matter how smart you are or how experienced you are, you will be humbled by the market. And that's, that is an absolute truth. Um, and that's why managing capital, it's important to, to keep that humility, right? Because I think when you are doing well, it's hard to— it's very hard to lose sight of the risks involved. And, and I'm just as guilty as anyone else where if things are going really well, you might press, press your bets or you might, you know, invest in kind of the next hottest themes. And then lo and behold, sure enough, like you'll have a pullback in the markets, and then that teaches you to stay humble. And then, you know, you learn some lessons, and hopefully you improve for the next, the next cycle. Um, but I think, you know, when, when people are doing well, um, and there's this sense of, you know, hubris, or anything I do, um, you know, I'm kind of, uh, invincible, then, then people kind of press and kind of do things that are out of what they normally would, right? And so that's where you get into trouble. And I think, you know, I've talked about in the past, um, you know, never deploy margin. If you're going to use options, you, you use them— you could use them for hedging or for, for leverage bets. And the thing about options is that you have to— and this is something that my old portfolio manager, my— the first boss I ever had, uh, he had told me, you know, options are, are great if you have an exact idea of timing, price, um, and movement, right? And if you don't have those things, then, then it's a losing game. And the issue with options is that even though you might think you have edge on an individual name, the macro environment can wipe you out, right? And, um, sorry, I'm just opening the window here at this hotel. The macro can wipe you out. So you might be right, And just like, you know, with AST, there's all these positive things going on, but the macro environment has taken down the entire space sector, right? And then on top of that, you know, the company, I'm sure, is seeing the macro sector and they've got all these great opportunities that they must be feeling frustrated. But then they're like, okay, well, can I bet the company that things are going to get better and the stock price is going to go up? My guess is if I was in their shoes, I probably was contemplating the convert a week ago or 2 weeks ago and thinking, okay, well, things are going to bounce, but we've had a one-way derating in the sector. And so at some point, as an executive and as a board, you're not managing the company for the short term, you're managing for the long term. If you're getting money at a very low coupon and the strike price is high, you pull the trigger because you can't bet the company on high hoping that the stock price is going to go back up. And so similarly in your portfolio, um, and, you know, I'll talk about some personal experiences, but, um, you know, back in the day, one of the, one of the lessons that I learned, um, was that, you know, when my father— so for those that don't know, my father passed away from cancer, um, I guess it was a bit over a decade now. And he was a successful entrepreneur, um, lived the American dream. And did, you know, was a true success by every measure, right? Just had an extraordinary life. When I think about my life compared to his, I always, you know, one of the things I truly thought about this is like, how am I going to be a good example for my kids or teach them about life when my life is so boring and plain? Like, I went to school, I worked in banking, I worked at hedge fund. Like, my father was an immigrant and he and, and my mother did extraordinary things. They, they built so many businesses, they took big risks, and they, during that period of time, they, they also lost— they, they almost lost it all, uh, but then they, they were successful. And one of the things that really struck me is that, um, in 2007 and 2008, and I, I was working in hedge fund industry at the time, um, I remember losing like 20 pounds, like I was so stressed in 2008. And Um, even though our fund ended up being positive on the year, which, which led to tremendous amount of growth because we didn't put up our gates. Um, and so we raised a lot of money, um, off the back of our performance in 2008. But over that year, like I was down, I think I was down like 5%, but it was super stressful because it was beyond just the financial markets. It was, it was, um, people were wondering like if there was going to be a financial system left, right? Like we, we literally, Like, I'm personal friends with Neel Kashkari, and I remember he was the head of TARP at the time, and I was working in the trenches at a hedge fund. And I remember sending messages to him and saying, hey man, I really appreciate what you're doing, because at the time he was getting completely dressed down by Democrats and Republicans for his participation in TARP. But back then, the financial markets, I mean, we were literally this close to paying for everything with rocks. Um, cuz everything was gonna get completely obliterated. Uh, and it felt that way in Wall Street. Like there were days when the markets would swing down 10%, 5%, and, you know, banks were failing left and right. Um, like I remember like Washington Mutual, like Merrill Lynch, uh, Lehman. I mean, everything, it was just so stressful. And, um, and at the time, um, it was just a few years later, uh, maybe it was 2009, 2010. And I was thinking about my dad at the time. But he had gotten overleveraged. He had gotten into all these businesses, uh, things that he had candidly, you know, no business getting into. Um, but because he had been such a success towards, you know, over, over his life, but then towards the end, just really, um, I mean, because money was easy, he, he had leveraged into all kinds of different businesses. Um, and so come 2010, 2011, Or actually over 2010, '11, I remember very specifically— no, sorry, it was '09 through '11. I remember having to— my dad was just in financial trouble because he had bought motels. He'd gotten into— he even bought a golf course. He'd gotten into all these things. And then he was asking me to come back and help him. And know, I tried to do what I could, and I committed at that time a significant amount of my financial savings and wealth to plug holes for him. And then of course, through that period of time, he had not got his— he had not gone back for checkups. And so, so when, you know, there were some signs that he was having some issues, when he got evaluated, it was determined that he had late-stage colorectal cancer. And so, um, over 2010 and '11, you know, I spent a lot of time with him, um, helping him health-wise. And I was still working at our hedge fund. And thank goodness, um, my boss at the time was pretty understanding. So I worked remotely before that was even a thing. Uh, but it was, it was super stressful because I was managing a book and, uh, analysts as well. And then I also was taking care of my dad who was dying. And, um, and then on top of that, I was plugging all these, these financial gaps, right? Because, you know, we were upside down, or my parents were upside down in all these different businesses. Um, and so come 2000, you know, when, when he eventually passed, um, I think I spent 2 years, um, working through estate and unwinding everything and financially basically putting— I had to restart, uh, because I— because of my sense of responsibility, I took care of most of the banks. I, uh, I mean, I did negotiate down some of the debt that he owed, um, and then of course later I learned, uh, anything that was, that was personal, personally guaranteed, um, you don't really— like credit card debt and stuff like that, you actually— and, you know, this is just a side note, but you don't actually have to take care of those things. But I did. And so that was a really stressful time and I had to reset financially. And this was the second time I had to do that. There was another time when I was younger where it, during near post-bubble, like I blew up an investment account and, you know, I was working in banking at the time. But I guess my point is that, you know, these things happen. And the markets happen, um, you get humbled. And in the case of my dad, the reason why I bring that, that point up is that, you know, life is important. And he didn't— he was focused on, um, and it was part of his DNA. He'd always liked to build things, and he was wildly successful, but then he let that get to his head, and he just got into things he shouldn't have, right? And he, and he— and because of that, it cost him his health because he didn't go back and get, um, you know, his financial checkups, and then he was diagnosed with late-stage cancer. Um, and so similarly, the friend that I'm— the funeral I'm going to today, this person, um, you know, they have a family and 3 kids. Fortunately, 2 of them are older, but, um, they didn't go back and get their checkups. And so, uh, but, but they were busy with life, right? But, but it's important, and I'm emphasizing this, like, during these periods where you might feel down on yourself. It's okay. It's just money, right? Like, life is more important than money. The guys who are 50 or 60 who have a ton of money, they would give anything to be 20 again with no money. And that's just something that you learn over time as you get older and you find out that things are becoming more finite. And as friends start passing away from various things, you start to value life more than money. And so it's important to remember that. But going back to my dad, the, the, the main reason why I brought that up is that, um, in the last few months of his life, he had a ton of regret because he saw, he saw the stress that I was going through and taking care of him. Sorry. And so he had a lot of regret that he was putting me through that and our family while also having to take care of him. But one of the things that I told him in those last few weeks, because it was really hard for him to come to grips with that, Because he had a lot of regret that he had during the, I think, 2007 and 2008. He— the paper wealth that he had accumulated was tremendous. I mean, and it was just on paper. And, and at the time, I mean, for him, that was big, right? And, and it was something that he thought he was going to be able to set the family up for. For generations. But in the end, That all went away. But what I told him and what was poignant about it, and a reminder for me to share this with you, is that he had remembered the ups and he had so much regret and it just ate at him at the end. And he wanted to— he kept looking at that as a measure of, I had made so much, how could I let it go or how could I lose it all? And I just remember telling him, like, that was, that was all— that was not yours. That was, um, you know, that, that peak that you experienced, that money, it wasn't real. It wasn't reality. And so you just have to let that go. And, and I think the reason why I, I wanted to bring that up is that I think, you know, this is where investing and money gets really dangerous because people You know, look, I, my account was in, in May, at the end of May before the Blue Origin, you know, explosion, my account was the highest it's ever been and my, my net worth was the highest that it's ever been. And, and, you know, my, my public investments are a pretty decent amount of my net worth. Right. And, but I think, and I've seen this on X, people posting that, um, oh my God, I was up this much and now I'm down and, and I've gotta make it back. And that is the absolute worst mentality you can have. When you have— when you experience something like that, um, we're clearly, you know, the markets, there was momentum, there's a whole host of things. And who knows, like, and, and this is the important aspect, it's like the market may get there again, right? Um, but you don't— no one knows in terms of timing of when momentum will reverse, or maybe conditions change, or I don't know, like the Iran conflict may, may worsen. I mean, And so when people go on tilt, there's this idea of like that, that peak that I had, that, that's— I deserve that. That's mine. Like, I earned it. I earned it and I need to get it back. And this is the mentality like that kills people in Vegas or in casinos where you experience some peak or you've lost a lot of money. Maybe you've had a down, you've had bad luck and you lose money and you're like, I need to make it back. And so I'm going to dip into whatever else I need to in order to do that. And this is where people make huge mistakes. And this is part of, this is part of the investing journey. I mean, one of my portfolio managers told me like, you, you can't ever manage money unless you've lost a painful amount of it. And until you've, you've felt that you've lost a tremendous amount of money and you know what that feels like, you will never truly be able to understand and, and manage money. And I didn't, you know, at the time I like, oh yeah, I get it. But It wasn't until, of course, later, like when I experienced something like that, that you understand, like you remember. And so when the greed kicks in, you, you hopefully have this limiter where you understand the, the other side of it, right? Which is, oh, I lost a painful amount of money before and I remember everything that I went through that. And so there's some, you know, reality check to bring you back down to earth. And so So I think the, um, yeah, going back to what I was saying before, I, I've— there's people who, you know, have asked me about margin and, and options. And, um, and look, I, I've been pretty clear on this before, you know, when you have an account and you're investing, um, you should never dip into margin. Um, and if you use options, it should be around the edges. It shouldn't be your primary you know, investing tool. Um, and so for me, you know, options might— if I'm, if I'm ever dipping into it, it might be a few percent of what I do. But in terms of margin, I never use margin. Um, but for those people that do, um, you know, I've, I've said before, like, you could use it tactically. Like, if you have 5%, uh, you maybe you use 5% or 10% when you really think you have an edge, but you have to put Very defined guardrails around that, right? Like you have to understand, okay, well, if this trade doesn't work, where am I going to cut it? Like I'm not going to dip into margin more. Again, you have to go back to this, you know, being being protective of your capital and not not feeling like you have to make it back. Like if an idea goes bad and and you're like, well, I'm going to just put more money into it because eventually it's going to turn. It may not, right? And you have to be okay with that, and you have to be okay in taking a loss because you've got to define your risk parameters. Like if you dip into 5% of margin and the idea that you have, you've got it before you go into that trade, you're, you're going to determine, okay, if it goes down 10%, I'm going to cut it. Or if it goes up 20%, I've made money, then I will take it off. Right. I'm not going to continue. I'm not going to wear this margin forever. Like there's going to be some defined rules around it. And so, so yeah, I think in a market like this where everybody, you know, a decent chunk of people have won and done really well, and then now we've seen like big drawdowns from peaks. That's natural. That just happens. And especially for these high-growth sectors where there's a high level of optimism, but uncertainty as well. And there's things that can go wrong. Of course, there's things that go right, but volatility can be your friend in terms of assets being mispriced and being able to buy low and sell high, but also it can be your worst enemy. Right? Um, because that— if you're not— and, and not everybody is wired for this, but if you, if you can't handle volatility and understand that, you know, there's not some boogeyman out there focused on you, like, trying to take your money, it's just the markets. Like, the markets are indifferent. Like, they're— of course, human— it's an amalgamation of human psychology, but, um, At the end of the day, you know, the markets are going to do what they're going to do. And, and you might have a good company and it might do everything that it needs to do, but it may take years for the market to recognize that. Um, and you have to be, you know, in the game and not— you know, when, when it comes to margin, um, margin is the biggest Achilles heel of, of any investor when facing volatility, right? Because if, if you're If you're on margin and you look at traditional industries, even those, like, let's say IBM the other day had its biggest drawdown of 24%. If someone was margined because they're like, oh, IBM's like a yield-paying stock and it's pretty safe, you got wiped out. And the thing about margin is that whenever you deploy it in size, It may work for some short period of time, but eventually if you have that on, you will get taken out. Like, that's, that's guaranteed. It's just like the— when people talk about, you know, people, when, you know, motorcycle riders, uh, there's motorcycle riders that have fallen and then there's riders who will fall, eventually fall, right? And, and that's why, you know, my, my mom was like, never— my mom and dad were like, never, uh, get a motorcycle because you're gonna, you're gonna fall. and you'll get hurt. And that's true. Every motorcycle falls, and anyone who rides motorcycles will eventually get into some type of accident. It's just a matter of how bad it is. And so it's the same analogy applies to margin where if you deploy it in size, things may go for you, go well for you for some period of time, or maybe they may go well for a long period of time, but eventually you will get caught. And that's That's the, you know, that's the unfortunate aspect of it, which I think a lot of people don't pay heed or attention to. And yeah, and I think for a lot of you guys and gals out there, if you're young and you've experienced like a pretty painful drawdown or loss, you know, obviously There's like all this press about these folks in Korea who had margin accounts, and I think originally it was like 300,000, and then it got to like 1.3 million people zeroed out their accounts. And there's a part of human psychology where we look at that, and there's a lot of people who try to make fun of it and laugh about it, but there's actual real people behind those accounts. And if they're middle-aged, Folks or later in life, that's a really sad thing to happen, right? And I'm sure that while while people on FinTwit make make fun of it, there's probably people who are going to commit suicide. And so there's a dark side to all this, and I think it shouldn't be taken lightly. And and a lot of what the volatility we're seeing now, obviously the you know there there are certain social aspects as to why Koreans do that. Um, you know, in Korea, the— while the country has done really well and certain sectors have done well, the— because of certain dynamics, it's harder to— it's not like the US where it's as free and open, where even without a college degree you can make it. In Korea, um, you know, it's hypercompetitive, and, and for people to make it, you either have to, uh, have tremendous academic accomplishments and go to the top universities, or you build your own business, which small businesses are notoriously difficult. I mean, anybody who has had a small business understands that. And so one way for young people and older people to get out of it is to gamble basically and invest in the market. And over there, people take much bigger risks because they see it's part of the— I guess it's part of the DNA to a degree, but they see a faster way out. And so I think it's important to look at that as an example where here in the US we do have some of that culture too, to an extent. And on X, I think people especially, there's incentives to flex, right? Where people, they're selling a subscription or they're trying to get followers and they flex about, well, I gave you this pick, and I gave you this, and I gave you this, and here's the next one. Um, you've got to be— yeah, you've got to be careful and think independently, um, and not get trapped or caught up in, in, in momentum or getting rich quick and all these things, right? Um, and, you know, part of it is like investing where you have friends and people with like minds. Like, part of the— part of it is community, right? And it's like Being able to joke and laugh about things or make things interesting, or when things are bad, it's like, okay, we can have gallows humor. And one way to cope, some people are really good at that, is putting out dark humor. But yeah, I think it's important when you have periods like this where you have a big drawdown to check in on people and to make sure that they're grounded and they're not doing something that's going to you know, ruin them, right? And, and I'll be the first to admit, like, there, I probably should have checked in on more people before. And, and that's partially why I'm doing this space now. I probably should have had this space earlier. And maybe as part of my spaces previously, you know, I, I have talked about it from time to time, but maybe it's a reminder that I should just put in, in these spaces. But, but yeah, be responsible, like, know your situation. If you're younger, you can take bigger risks, but don't take outsized risks. And if you're older, you probably should be a bit more conservative, setting aside enough capital that you feel comfortable and can then be more stress-free in what you're investing. But yeah, it's a tough time. And I think Some people handle it better than others. I've talked about this in particular for AST where, you know, and I hope people don't think that I'm being flip or nonchalant because I'm not. And when I lose money, it is painful. But I'm also, because of my experience and what I've been through, I'm able to compartmentalize it, right? And I think I handle it a bit better than perhaps most people because I do have this like optimistic disposition. But at the same time, for me, I will also be realistic. It's like, well, how would I feel if my portfolio goes down another 20% or 30%? Am I okay? Yeah, I'm okay. Is it life-threatening? No. If it went to zero, it would be. That would not be good. But you have to ask yourself these questions, right? it's not just about looking at the upside and, and, um, laying out risk. And you also have to consider what are the repercussions and where will I be if, if the stock, you know, gets— the stock that I'm invested in gets cut in half, right? Or gets cut in a third. But, um, I guess going back to kind of the optimistic side, um, if you, if you loved stocks, that your favorite stock was at $150 and now it's at $50, or 40, um, if you loved it at 150 and the fundamentals have actually improved and nothing has changed, you'll— if you liked it there, you'll love it at 50, right? And so that's the mental, you know, the, the, the mental exercise and, and struggle that everybody has to go through, right? Because, because, you know, along with that, of course, is the macro can change if rates are going up, um, if there's more uncertainty in terms of war and inflation is rearing its head, then high beta, high growth names are going to take a haircut in terms of discount, you know, the discount rate that you would apply to them if you did a DCF, for example, or multiples are going to come down. When rates go up, cash is not as readily available or free. And so the cost to invest goes up, right? And there's a whole, you know, credit investments become more attractive versus equities. And so Even, even if your company is executing and you feel like you've, you've found the one, but the macro environment changes under your feet, then at the end of the day, like, that's going to overwhelm whatever you're doing in your investment. So anyway, I've been kind of rambling here. I'm going to check any comments here. But, but yeah, I think, as I mentioned before, you know, when I was young, I, when I was in banking, I went through a rough period and blew up my investment account even though I didn't trade much. But this is like right after I left banking and then went to the hedge fund world. I took a year off and, and in the middle of that, um, I experienced a pretty rough drawdown. But yet here I am and I've done well, um, at least in my— how I measure, um, life and, you know, my financial— I guess where my position is. Like, I've done well, but I've gone through multiple cycles of ups and downs. And I think everybody should understand that. Like, if you— when you look at people who are successful, or you think people who are successful, oftentimes there's, you know, there's a lot of things that they had to go through. And oftentimes you might— your evaluation of them may be totally wrong. And so I think it's important to Really understand that while you might be in a tough place now, you know, there's, there's, there's a new day tomorrow. You have, you know, for a lot of you, you have capability, right? Like you have education, you might have business acumen or financial acumen. There's, there's a whole host of things that are going for you. And so if you have suffered loss, financial loss, it's okay. You can always come back from it, right? And I'm a testament to that because I've, over my life, I've had ups and downs just like everyone. I mean, everyone's gone through cycles. And, you know, the most recent, of course, was the bursting of the bubble in 2020 and 2021 and learning the painful lessons of that, right? Um, and there's a lot— there's— FinTwit basically grew up during that period, and there were a ton of people that came and went. Um, but, you know, I think, I think just like I remember at the— in 2022 and 2023 thinking, my God, like, if just give me one more opportunity for things to come back. Um, and also, you know, looking at the companies I, I was invested in at the time and just thinking my God, like, I don't know if, if these things will ever recover. And, and they eventually did. Um, and so yeah, like, this is just part of life, this, you know, the tests that you'll have. Um, and, and I think for those, those folks who have done— who did really well and perhaps may have lost a lot of money, um, you know, just think about like how easy it was to make that money. and then how easy it was to lose it. And so I think for the next, um, you know, for now and for the next cycle, just keep that in mind because I think, um, having that experience is invaluable. It's not, it's not something that AI can teach you, or it's not something that, you know, when I, when I was— I remember going through the internet bubble and, um, that was absolutely painful. Uh, it was painful for people who worked in tech, who worked in finance. It was painful for the entire economy. And, but, but in, when you were in the middle of it and this euphoria, it was like, it was like something else where everybody, you know, there was so much optimism and, and things were in it. You know, every idea made sense and, and it was whatever you invested in turned to gold. Right. And But it wasn't, you know, I think for, for people who went through that, um, there, there's, or the financial crisis in 2008, um, you know, these are lessons that you learn and you hopefully take those lessons and, and do better the next time. But, but it's not something that, um, if you feel humbled today, it's like everybody has felt humbled, uh, whether it was, it's today or 3 years ago or 5 years ago, 10 years ago. 15 years ago, whether it's financially humbled, you know, humbled in life, losing loved ones, losing friends, going through adversity. That's what makes life interesting, right? Like, that's— if everything came easy, then no one would celebrate the wins or the good times, right? It's just part of being alive. But now I'm rambling, but I'm going to see if there's any comments here. If people have questions. Let's see. Well, I think people are saying— okay, there's no questions actually, just people appreciating the words. But yeah, I think for yourself, if you've suffered a pretty bad drawdown, don't let it get you down. Um, definitely don't feel like, oh, I need to go make back my May, you know, June, May all-time high. That's, that's like the worst thing you can do. Uh, but just take stock of where you are. I, you know, there's some accounts on, on Twitter, like the guys who are in Memory, right, who, who are up like, I don't know, 400 or 500% for the year, and now they've given it back where they're only up 100%. Um, and they're upset with themselves and they're beating themselves up. Um, don't. You're up 100% for the year and And yes, it's painful, but at the same time, like, be grateful, right? You did okay. And oh, for those people, by the way, an important thing is make sure you understand your tax situation for this year. Because for folks who, let's say like you're up 400% or 500%, and let's say you're an active trader of memory stocks and you've recognized pretty significant gains. Yeah. and all of a sudden you're now wearing a trade. Let's say you've like recognized, I don't know, $300,000 of gains, or let's say $400,000 of gains, and then you're holding onto, I don't know, some memory stock and you're now down, let's say $300,000, right? And you're hoping that it'll come back. And so you actually are just sitting on that. Make sure by the end of the year you figure out your tax situation and And ideally you would sell enough and just put away, uh, or you'll sell enough to recognize losses to offset some of your taxes, but you'll put away some money to, um, pay your taxes. Um, because the thing, the last thing you don't want to do is, um, and I've seen this happen, I've had it personally happen too, because everybody makes mistakes, where you, you recognize a ton of gains in a year, uh, but you hold on to something and it's down and you decide, you know what, I'm just gonna, um, I'm going to hold on to it into the next year because it's going to come back. And eventually it doesn't. And all of a sudden you have this massive tax bill for the previous year and you don't have capital to pay for it. And so you've got to figure out, you know, what to do. And so that's, that's the last thing you want to do is be upside down. And so as you get towards the end of the year, first of all, if you're in something and it's still up, maybe take, take some portion of that loss to offset your tax, but then also set aside capital to cover your tax and then, you know, see how the rest of the year goes. But the last thing you want to do is ride something all the way back down. And then, you know, at that point, hopefully you just take the loss and then you don't owe anything. But if that's not the case, you definitely don't want to be in a situation where you owe something and you don't have the money to pay for it. But anyway, let me just look here, see if there's any questions. But yeah, it's tough. It's tough. I think everybody, you learn lessons, right? And these are financial lessons. They're not lessons of health where if you make a mistake with your health, that can be that can be a situation where you can't recover, right? Whereas financial mistakes and decisions, you can recover from those. Even if you get completely wiped out, right, you can always come back. And I've seen plenty of stories like that. And so you just got to keep your chin up and, you know, keep, keep grinding. But anyway, yeah, I just wanted to have a space. I know people are feeling bad and I just wanted to have a real discussion because while I have this persona of being a permabull and being optimistic, I've been through tough times and I try to look out for people and give people encouragement. And I think, you know, like I said before, whether it's Hook or any number of people, everybody has, you know, they've gone through pain and suffering, whether it's financial markets or personal. And so you're not alone. If you're thinking of crazy stuff, like, you know, you can reach out to me and I'm more than happy to talk. Because like I said, like, money's just money, but life is precious and don't do anything dumb. But yeah, I'll end it there. So I hope this was helpful for people. Um, I do think, uh, I guess in, in closing, you know, we— this recent drawdown, um, you know, we are at all-time extremes in terms of movement for momentum, in terms of, you know, downside. Um, there's— I, I posted a few things here and there. And so, you know, are we going to bounce? I'm not a guru. I'm not— I can't— or I don't know the future, but we're, we're probably much closer to a bounce and potential reversal than we are than obviously than where we were a month ago. And so, yeah, I'll just leave it at that. Just make sure that you stay level-headed, stay calm, don't go on margin, don't do anything crazy. You don't have to make it all back because you can always— if you have a calm head and have a game plan, you can piece together returns and not necessarily get back to where you were before, or maybe you will, but the goal should be just to stay smart and be invested in high-quality ideas. And yeah, just be able to weather the volatility. So anyway, I'll end it there and we'll talk again soon. Take care, everyone. Thanks for listening to the AST SpaceMobile Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support the podcast, please share it with others, post about it on social media, or leave a rating and review. To catch all the latest news about AST SpaceMobile, make sure to subscribe. Thanks again, and I'll see you next time. Listen. Mmm, waffles.