Official Richart Ruddie Blog - Internet Entrepreneur

What Richart Ruddie's 2021 Philanthropy Went Towards

Effective Altruism in practice makes a monumental shift in society. 2021 was the biggest year yet and the report on where donations that I helped contribute towards went and how they changed the lives of those across the globe are remarkable to say the least. With careful consideration a company GiveWell who was featured in the book "The most good you can do" stuck out from the crowd for donors and thus has been one of my main targets for yearly donations in practicing effective altruism.

4th quarter of 2021 donations went to the following initiatives:

 

Against Malaria Foundation

Deworm the World Initiative

Helen Keller International's vitamin A supplementation program

Malaria Consortium's seasonal malaria chemoprevention program

New Incentives

Sightsavers' deworming program

Funds allocated through donations and grants like mine helped to fill the highest priority funding needs when it was time to decide how to allocate the funds. My hope is that these types of gifts that are an integral part of the impact that the grants start to catalyze others to step up and contribute to causes that make the world a better place versus causes that make their instagram look like they are living in a better place.

So what changes did Richart Ruddie's Donation Contribute Towards?

• How about saving  the lives of  8,400 people? Yes, thats eight thousand four hundred people through the distribution of long-lasting antimalarial nets, seasonal chemoprevention to protect against malaria, provision of vitamin A supplements to children, and incentives provided to caregivers for vaccinating their infants
• So how do you top that number? You contribute towards a program that focuses on change and not running a not for profit who also provides close to 17 million children with life-improving treatment for parasitic worm infections

Making donations to places so far away that most people couldn't even fathom heading towards that direction. Most will never go and visit sub sahara Africa and thats okay because you don't need to see those you donate to in order to substantially impact their lives. Here is a map of countries impacted directly a continent away from us here in America.

 

So whats the breakdown of the organizations receiving the funds and what do they specialize in? Glad you asked along with the total allocation

Malaria Consortium

Total allocation: $22.2 million
Where these funds will be used: Burkina Faso, Chad, Nigeria, and Togo
Expected lives saved: 5,200
Intervention: Seasonal malaria chemoprevention to prevent malaria, which disproportionately kills children under five in sub-Saharan Africa.[4]

New Incentives

Total allocation: $9.4 million
Where these funds will be used: Nigeria
Expected lives saved: 2,100
Intervention: Conditional cash transfers to encourage caregivers to immunize their children against potentially deadly but preventable diseases, in a part of the world where vaccination rates are low.[5]

Sightsavers

Total allocation: $7.8 million
Where these funds will be used: Nigeria, Cameroon
Expected treatments delivered: About 9.6 million across both countries
Intervention: Mass deworming treatments for children, which we believe may have a significant effect on their future income and subtler benefits to their overall health.[6]

Deworm the World Initiative

Total allocation: $4.8 million
Where these funds will be used: Kenya, Nigeria, and Pakistan
Expected treatments delivered: About 7 million across all three countries
Intervention: Mass deworming treatments.

Against Malaria Foundation
Total allocation: $3.4 million
Where these funds will be used: Nigeria
Expected lives saved: 570
Intervention: Long-lasting insecticide-treated nets (LLINs) to protect against malaria-carrying mosquitoes.[7]

Helen Keller International
Total allocation: $1.4 million
Where these funds may be used: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea, Kenya, Mali, Niger, and Nigeria
Expected lives saved: 600
Intervention: Vitamin A supplementation (VAS) to prevent stunting, anemia, blindness, and death in young children.[8]

I hope that in 2022 and beyond that you consider pledging more of your income towards causes that significantly impact the bulk of a population. Follow the footsteps of other major donors like Sam Bankman who set an example for philanthropy and the lack of living lavishly so others can live better.

References:

1. See a list of past distributions from the Maximum Impact Fund here. The largest distribution prior to this one was of funds received in Q4 2020, totaling $25.9 million.
2. October through December 2021. 
3. See this spreadsheet, rows labeled "MIF Q4 2021," for a list of all grants made with Q4 2021 Maximum Impact Fund donations and their expected outcomes. Note that these outcome estimates are specific to these grants, and the cost-effectiveness of other grants to these top charities may be higher or lower. More information about the cost-effectiveness of Maximum Impact Fund grants we've made in the past can be found here.
4. "The percentage of total malaria deaths in children aged under 5 years reduced from 87% in 2000 to 77% in 2020.... About 96% of malaria deaths globally were in 29 countries. Six countries – Nigeria (27%), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (12%), Uganda (5%), Mozambique (4%), Angola (3%) and Burkina Faso (3%) – accounted for just over half of all malaria deaths globally in 2020." WHO, World Malaria Report 2021, p. xvi
5. In 2019, 43% of Nigerian infants did not get the full set of DTP, PCV, and HiB vaccines, and 33% did not get the BCG vaccine (see Our World in Data, Global vaccination coverage, Nigeria, 2019). New Incentives' program directly incentivizes all of these vaccines; see our report on New Incentives' program for more.
6. See "What are the benefits of mass deworming?" in our report on combination deworming programs such as those implemented by Sightsavers and Deworm the World.
7. See the "In a nutshell" section of our report on mass distribution of LLINs: "There is strong evidence that when large numbers of people use LLINs to protect themselves while sleeping, the burden of malaria can be reduced, resulting in a reduction in child mortality among other benefits."
8. From our review of Helen Keller International's program: "Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) can cause stunting, anemia, xerophthalmia (dry eyes, which can lead to blindness), increased severity of infections, and death.... Helen Keller supports countries' VAS programs for preschool-aged children by providing technical assistance, engaging in advocacy, and contributing funding to governments for implementing the programs."
9. You can read more about GiveWell’s plans to roll over a portion of 2021 funds into 2022 here.

-Richart Ruddie

Mangers Bet on the wrong people

For people who claim they can see the future and make predictions you need to laugh them off. For that is hard to predict over the long term. Short term guesses in less than a year are a lot easier but here's an excerpt from NY Times best seller Adam Grant who lauds how the Kansas City Star in Missouri rejected a cartoonist named Walt Disney for a job. 30 NFL teams passed up Tom Brady the best NFL player of all time and record labels said no to Kayne, Ed Sheeran, The Beatles, and Madonna just to name a few...

"For decades, managers have bet on the wrong people — and rejected the right ones. The Kansas City Star once rejected an application from a cartoonist named Walt Disney. Record labels said no thanks to the Beatles, Madonna, U2, Kanye and Ed Sheeran. A hotel, a police department and a Kentucky Fried Chicken all denied Jack Ma a job. And 30 N.F.L. teams decided not to draft Tom Brady."

 

For hiring advice and hiring the best people read this scientific study:

A META-ANALYSIS OF WORK SAMPLE TEST VALIDITY: UPDATING AND INTEGRATING SOME CLASSIC LITERATURE

"Work sample tests have been used in applied psychology for decades as important predictors of job performance, and they have been suggested to be among the most valid predictors of job performance."

Read the whole research paper here & the New York Times Adam Grant piece here: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/01/smarter-living/how-to-fix-job-interviews-tips.html

Sam Zell Am I Being Too Subtle Notes

I'm a professional problem solver and after reading Am I being Too Subtle he is one too. A great entrepreneur doesn't just recognize problems but provides solutions.

Sometimes you read a book and you feel like you know the person writing it. Books that resonate with you can have a lasting impact and help develop your career mentally, emotionally, and socially. This is one of those books where I kept on pausing to take photos of pages to take notes so that I can come back and do this post for when I want to pull up these quotes & ideas that he mentioned. Another book that I recommend that shared great life skills and advice is Stephen Schwartzman from Blackstone's book that I read first and found it interesting that he said he knew to get out and liquidate all of his real estate in 2008 when Sam Zell the king of real estate was getting out but at the end of the day Zell clarifies what what down and why in his book.

When people ask me what I do it's often a difficult question to answer since my life entails so much and there are multiple answers that I typically give one of which was similar to something he talks about in the book and Sam Zell says it perfectly: I'm a professional opportunist!

So here are the notes that I want to remember in perpetuity in permanent ink:

Sam Zell's first business was not actually apartments at The University of Michigan but rather he was in the magazine importing business buying and reselling playboys. This is where he learned one of the most important rules of business.

• Where there is scarcity price is no object. The basic tenet of supply and demand is the core principle of business philosophy
• If you teach your children that having fun is frivolous and drill into them diligence and intelligent discussions and education you will breed a winner.
• Be comfortable standing apart rather than searching for a common denominator with others
• Embrace the tendency to go against conventional wisdom 

Sam realized that he didn't take orders from leaders well and was meant to be one not take orders from one. So setting the record was the path he created.

Meritocracy was a big learning experience at summer camp in Wisconsin. Another book I love Ray Dalio's principles is huge on meritocracy as well.

• The basics of business are straight forward. It's all about measuring risk. If you've got a big downside and a small upside RUN. If you've got a big upside and a small downside DO THE DEAL.
• Always make sure you're getting paid for the risk you are taking on and never risk what you can't afford to lose
• Keep it simple a scenario that takes 4 steps vs 1 step is one that provides 3 more failure points.
• Opportunity is very often embedded in the imbalance between supply and demand.
• It could be rising demand against flat or diminishing supply or flat demand against shrinking supply.
• When there's an imbalance look where the two lines will intersect and then determine whether it is cheaper to buy or to wait.
• Be an owner, act like an owner, and when it comes to your investments, do everything you can to make sure everybody is aligned.

When there is too much reliance on outsiders who don't have enough skin in the game that creates problems.

• Companies need engaged owners and staff members
  Owners are willing to give up short term benefits for long term gains.
• An owner uses their vision to steward a company and guide management
• Owners do whatever it takes for management, their teams, and company to succeed while working with others who have skin in the game and ensuring their interests align

A leader can not let his emotions impact his stability. Have methods that keep you steady.

My saying is to remember your ABC's - Always be calm, cool, and collected. In Ray Dalio's book he talks about the importance of mental health and having a clear mind. Working out, running, or yoga. In the case of Sam Zell he's an adrenaline junky who loves Skiing and riding motorcycles.

• Look for micro opportunities from macro events. In Sam's case it was the deregulation of the radio industry where he struck gold and found a 1,237% return off of Jacor. Look for big picture influencers and anomalies that will direct the course of industries and companies.
• First mover advantage requires conviction in regards to his distressed asset fund and timing is everything in regard to accepting an offer to sell Equity Office. Don't allow your personal feelings to interfere with your investments or your duty to your shareholders.
• Sentimentality about an asset leads to a lack of discipline.
• Chairman of everything and CEO of nothing. Sticking to what your good at: Vision, Direction, Strategy.

Behind The Deals Chapter

• Stick to where you can add the most value. Sam spends his day listening to other people, He then asks questions, probes, and comes up with potential solutions.
• Pick great people to run your companies and in Sam's case he doesnt involve himself in the day to day but stays close to those who do. This is a very similar strategy and mindset that Warren Buffet has with Berkshire Hathaway.
• The Radius Theory of business  - Your ability to succeed is ultimately limited by the number of people between you and the decision. The farther away from you the decision is made the less you control the risk.
• You get buried when you delete too much or don't delegate enough

Culture is King, it's the heartbeat of your company. Meritocracy and open "kimono" policy.

Best predictor of success isn't IQ or being a rocket scientist but rather

1. Drive
2. Energy
3. Attitude
4. Judgement
5. Conviction
6. Passion
7. Cut to the center of an issue
8. Assess a problem and see what the risks are and then dissect it but don't get caught up in the numbers

Progress, improvement, and forward momentum. Like Michael Jordan in basketball he made everybody else better.

See opportunity and convert it to something tangible.

 

• Be on the lookout for anomalies and disruptions in a market or company. Be able to recognize the psychology of market extremes which can lead to attractive points of entry.
• Any event out of the ordinary is like a beacon telling you there's a new opportunity emerging.
• Be a good listener it can make all the difference in getting something done when somebody says no.

Immerse yourself in the life of a project and the book concludes with this:

An owner is consumed with making the most out of what he already has. An entrepreneur is always looking for a new opportunity always reaching.

While I have family in Chicago that is close with the grandchildren of Sam Zell I have never met him personally but had such glee from this book that I've called them up to see if they can help me get the book signed by Sam himself and thats how you know a book really resonated with you and you loved it. 

Uber Super Pumped Trivia Travis Kalnanick's SAT Score

Listened to a 2011 story and interview with a very young looking Jason Calacanis of The All in Podcast doing episode 180 of This Week in Startups interviewing Travis Kalanick. So a fun fact that comes up is that Travis Kalanick scored a 1580 on his SAT's and got only 2 questions wrong on the verbal part of the college admissions test. So interesting to learn that the founder of Meta/Facebook Mark Zuckerberg who got a 1600 and Travis Kalanick who co-founded Uber were both college dropouts and aced their SAT's.

Maybe there is a quality behind high SAT scores and startup success?

For the interview from 2011 see below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=550X5OZVk7Y

How To Master Superior Management

The Ivy's weekly series sends over a recap of great advice for real life practice and psychological thought patterns. Below are the notes and advice from this weeks series on mastering superior management skills broken down into 5 easy to read points.

 

1. How can you elevate performance and decision-making across your organization?
   A successful strategy in today’s business landscape requires managerial behavior that is different from what is traditionally taught. It used to be that if you are the manager or leader, you make all the important choices because you’re the boss; you do strategy, and then other people execute. Yet, in reality, there is no difference between strategy and execution – both requires good choices to be made. 
   
   Nowadays, a CEO or manager in any sizable organization simply isn't going to be able to make all those important choices. There are important choices at every level. The most important thing you can do as a leader is to make clear A) the overall strategy B) what choices you will be personally responsible for, and C) “chartering” your colleagues for the choices that they will be responsible for to ensure the overall strategy is met. In short, successfully chartering a strategy requires you to make sure your people own the choices that will feed and support your strategy. 
   
   When I was working on improving Rotman’s EMBA program, a tool I relied on was to ask the people working under me to write, in their own words, what goals and actions they thought they needed to execute on to achieve our overall strategy. My number two, Beatrix, translated my strategy vision into her own thinking and style–that gave me a lot of important information. If there was no trail of breadcrumbs between what she wrote and what was in my mind, then I would need to fix that problem, but if it was close enough, then that to me was a success; she’s giving herself her own set of instructions based on what she heard from me and I agree. Procedurally, this is a very effective way to manage talent. Decision making is aligned at every level with the strategy, and people are empowered to interpret it and make decisions on their own.
    
2. Does your organization’s strategy pass the can’t/won’t test?
   When designing a strategy for your organization, you must A) decide what playing field you're going to play on as a business and B) how you’re going to be distinctive on that field–how you’re going to be the best. You have to have a very clear view of where you can win with your business model.
   
   Your strategy choice must pass what I call the “can’t/won’t test”–meaning your competitors simply can’t or won’t match what you’re doing. In other words, they could do it, but they won’t because they have a conflict of motives. For example, they won’t get into that distribution channel because it’d be channel conflict for them. Or they can’t match you because they lack critical ingredients to be successful. If you don’t have a definition of where you’re playing and how you are going to be distinctive and best in-class, then you might as well not have a strategy.
    
3. How can you ensure you reevaluate your strategy regularly and course correct?
   A great tool for strategy is an approach I call “What would have to be true?” If you have three strategic options to choose from–we could go left, we could go straight, or we could go right–you ask the question, “What would have to be true for left to be good?” You ask this of each different strategy option. What would have to be true about the industry, customers, our capabilities, our cost structure, our competitors–what would have to be true about all those things for strategy A to be a good idea? Do the analysis for each option, and you will find your optimal strategy path based on your organizational strengths.
   
   Then, take that “what would have to be true” analysis for your chosen strategy, and tack it up on the board in front of your desk. Every morning, come to work and look at the chart and ask yourself, “Are the things that we felt were true when we selected this strategy still looking true?” If the answer is more yes than no, then put it aside and get back to work. If any one of those are not true, then it’s the time to reevaluate your strategy. There’s no definite cadence to when strategy must be reevaluated. Your strategy should stay in place as long as the things that would have to be true for it to succeed continue to be true. That analysis is your canary in the coal mine. It’s the early warning system. It will tell you you’re off track while you still have a chance to modify, and before bad things start to happen. 
    
4. How can you better avoid analysis paralysis?
   Analysis paralysis is a function of not knowing why you’re analyzing what you’re analyzing. Don’t do any analysis until you know what choice you’d make based on how a given piece of analysis comes back. Analysis paralysis happens when you say to some poor junior colleague in the company, “It’s time for strategy, do a SWOT,” and they start analyzing everything under the sun–so you get buried under piles of decks. That’s when you get analysis paralysis, because you didn’t think about the logic of the choice–what would have to be true to make this a good call, and which of the things that would have to be true that may not be true? How can we analyze that one thing? You want analysis to be an inch wide and a mile deep, not a mile wide and an inch deep. Analysis paralysis is not the fault of the analyst. It’s the fault of not thinking about the logic of what you’re actually looking for that will get you stuck.
    
5. How can you future-proof your strategy by creating win-win-win scenarios?
   To be successful going forward, companies need to figure out how to make their business model a win for everyone. If corporations are not taking care of all stakeholders, their ability to operate will become more constrained. The era of having winners and losers is over. This is not to say you should neglect shareholders in the quest to get wins for communities, customers, and employees. Shareholders need to be winners too. If there are some groups that are simply not given a chance to advance, there’s going to be a brighter light shone on that. If every business makes a commitment to find the win-win-win scenario we’ll see a fall in labor challenges, a rise in wages, and a flattening of the maldistribution of income. Increasingly, corporations have to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

The Best Time to Buy a House is when the Mortgage Payment to Income Ratio is between 15-20%

Looking at the chart below from Knight Mortgage the best time to buy a house is when the Mortgage Payment to Income Ratio is between 15 and 20% if you followed that guideline you would have bought at great times in the market over the last 20 years. As mortgage rates rise now we are in a unique environment with sky rocketing demand in Florida and a lack of housing supply so that dictates that even with increased mortgage rates prices are not dropping drastically as of now we are seeing strong demand for housing and bidding wars on the properties we developed and are coming onto the market soon.

 

Quotes for the spring

CEO and Sales Trainer talks about how you can master the sceience of sales with the right traits, mindset, and behaviors that can create a dynamic sales floor. David Hoffeld's top take away and quote is: "One mindset that seems to matter more than others in sales is a growth mindset. So this is the idea that you treat your sales skills and abilities like a muscle that must be continually developed. This makes you more resistant and resilient when bad things do occur on lost sales calls. It also gives you an unfair advantage over others because no matter what happens, you're focused on growth." Jousha Yaffa an award winning Moscow correspondent top quote and take away is: "It's been common knowledge for several years that many journalistic and academic articles, often cite the high degree of popularity for Putin, himself, who see approval ratings of well above 60%, often above 70, even into 80% range. It's my argument that this is actually passive support and people are really in favor of the status quo and stability. They don't necessarily have any great affection or enthusiasm or loyalty to Putin, himself. That it's more about a lack of credible alternatives, as most Russians see it."

Beware of Hollywood Accounting says Richard Linklater

Dazed and Confused is a cult classic that I remember watching in middle school and high school as a kid. With the famous line "It would be cooler if you did" and so many other memorable moments in the coming of age film it's wild to hear that the film only grossed $7,000,000 and was 9 million to make and grossed more than that in the home video market to the tune of $30,000,000 but yet the director of the film was never ever paid. Hollywood accounting they call it and there are many scams and fraudsters out there to watch out for.

Studios take advantage of small time directors but even in the comments in the AV Club they talk about other cases of studios scamming directors from Kevin Smith to The Lord of the Rings director. So to bookmark this scam to warn others of Hollywood accounting fraud in case somebody ever asks you to invest in a film you should know about this risk

https://www.avclub.com/richard-linklater-not-paid-dazed-and-confused-1848756324

Rich Ruddie Featured at SXSW

Thank you to the wonderful and weird city of Austin, Texas and SXSW for putting on a great event. If you call it a conference to the attendees they may give you a sly eye like one who calls Burning Man a festival. Grit Daily a startup and business news website hosted thousands of in person guests throughout the week and live streamed to hundreds of thousands more who were able to stream the interviews and virtually attend the first SXSW event in three years.

During the event Rich Ruddie was able to discuss about brand and reputation protection services, do's and dont's and covering detailed questions about the influence of artificial intelligence and deep fakes.

To watch the video of Rich Ruddie speaking at The Grit Daily House in Austin discussing reputation resilience click here.

About SXSW

South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly and has been one of the biggest events in the great state of Texas. It was cancelled due to covid-19 in 2019, suddenly in 2020 due to it being a mid March event, and again in 2021. It was welcomed back in 2022 but attendance is still well below it's peak years earlier.