“Investing should be more like watching paint dry or watching grass grow. If you want excitement, take $800 and go to Las Vegas.”
-Paul Samuelson
Born in Washington, D.C. on December 21, 1948, Leroy was an early Christmas gift for his mother Elizabeth. His father, Roy, would never really be part of his life. They only met twice before Roy died of alcoholism. Elizabeth and young Leroy moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee for some help and support from her parents.
Despite a speech impediment and being bussed to segregated schools, Leroy did well academically and played various instruments in his high school orchestra. He went to college in Georgia intent on a degree in marine biology. As part of a class designed to expand students’ minds, he was offered extra credit to audition for a play. He was hooked and promptly changed his major to drama.
But in 1969, Leroy was a convicted of a felony.
“…Angry about the assassination [of Martin Luther King Jr,],” he joined with other students in protest. The group held the college board of trustees hostage on the campus, demanding reform in the school's curriculum and governance. The school did ultimately make changes to the policy, but Leroy was found guilty of unlawful confinement. He would return to that same college after a two-year suspension and graduated in 1972 with a degree in drama.
During his senior year, through his prior protest group connections, Leroy was introduced to a more aggressive group of activists. Before he became seriously involved, his mother sent him to Los Angeles after the FBI warned her about the path he was on.
The early years of his career were plagued and limited as he struggled with alcohol, cocaine, and heroin addictions. In the early nineties, his family insisted upon rehab. From that point in time, his trajectory was meteoric. Today, a convicted felon with a speech impediment is the highest [box office] grossing actor of all time[1] ˗ above Tom Cruise, higher than Robert Downey Jr, more than Tom Hanks.
We know Leroy as the iconic Samuel L. Jackson.
Jackson seems like an unlikely person to top the box office. He struggled early, he has many more supporting roles than lead, but for the last thirty plus years, he has been consistent. He has appeared in at least one film per year since 1991 ˗ 9 in 2019 alone. Far from an overnight success, he just kept working.
“Painters get up and paint. Writers get up and write. I like to get up and act. It’s not a big deal. It makes me happy.”― Samuel L. Jackson
I am not qualified to state the following, Jackson is good, but I don’t think he is the best actor I have ever seen. He has had some great roles that were seemingly written specifically for him, but do his abilities as an actor make him the greatest? I think not. The love of what he does and the consistency he does it has made him the box office success he is.
When he got cleaned up and focused, he wasn’t overly analytical or selective, he just went to work and did it consistently. Most of the successful people I have met and worked with in my life have followed some version of this…
They earned and saved doing something they consistently enjoyed. They kept things simple. They stayed busy.
In our investing and planning we know keeping things simple, sticking with a consistent saving and investing process combined with patience and a long-term focus will serve us best. This is logical, it is simple, but not easy because we are all capable of getting caught up in the excitement and emotions of the moment. Maybe an electric car company and its eccentric CEO or the possibility of a global digital currency have the potential to catch our attention and derail our consistency.
In 2021, the electric car company and the most significant digital currency were up 52 percent and 48.5 percent respectively. That is certainly something that can grab your attention. However, those same investments lost those gains and finished this past year well below their 2020 closing prices.[2]
I believe if I had the opportunity to speak with Samuel Leroy Jackson 30 years ago, he could not have imagined where he would be today. It is simply over three decades of focused consistency that has led to his success.
Please call me if you would like to discuss your favorite Samuel L. Jackson role, paint drying, grass growing, or anything else on your mind.
My Best,
Ryan Schrift
[1] Hollywood's Biggest Earners: Who Is the Highest Grossing Actor of All Time? Sourced from - https://www.one37pm.com/popular-culture/highest-grossing-actor-of-all-time#
[2] Price performance of Tesla and Bitcoin. Sourced from - https://www.nasdaq.com/market-activity/stocks/tsla, https://www.nasdaq.com/market-activity/stocks/btc