The Impossible
Tim Cook is the CEO of Apple.
He’s the guy that sold you the phone you are probably holding right now.
He inherited the impossible 13 years ago… leading Apple after Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs is arguably one of the best entrepreneurs of the past two centuries.
Up there with Rockefeller, Ford, and Musk.
How do you replace a guy like Jobs?
Well, it turns out you don’t.
Enter Tim Cook.
He’s overseen over $2 trillion of market cap growth over his tenure and just gave the Wall Street Journal a wide-ranging interview.
He doesn’t give interviews like this often, so buckle up. Let’s dive into building wealth and the man who leads a company you are probably heavily invested in.
Less Magical, More Valuable
Let me start with a quote from the article:
“It was only natural to wonder if Apple could survive without Jobs. But under Cook, the company matured into something more predictable, maybe a bit less magical, but a whole lot more valuable.”
As I said, Cook has overseen $2t in market cap growth at Apple.
An absurd amount of money..
But he didn’t create the iPhone? How’d he do that?
He figured out how to get it to the world’s best customers.
He doesn’t have the magic of Jobs, but the guy knows how to grow a company.
Steve Jobs was the visionary behind the iPod, iMac, and iPhone.
These products changed humanity.
Job’s products were so good they sold themselves, but how would they get into the hands of hundreds of millions of people?
The solution was to turn down the magic and turn up the scalability.
As a mediocre Apple fan, my experience with their products over the last few years has been… meh. I mentioned this two weeks back after getting the new iPhone 16.
But I’ve been a shareholder since 2017, and I can attest that it’s been a magical financial ride.
And that’s because of the work of Tim Cook.
Build Your Net Worth Like Apple
Let’s talk about building your net worth like Apple did.
Apple’s foundation of growth was/is revolutionary products, but I want to hone in on logistics and your money.
Because this was the key for Apple, post Jobs, and the key for you.
If there was one thing my team at Fjell and I do for the clients, it is this.
We build systems to invest money.
Almost every new client we work with get’s an upgrade in this area.
Why?
Because systems predate scale.
And assuming you don’t want to work until you’re 85 and have some independence from the government, you need scale in your financial life.
There are two points within this idea.
Systems
When something significant happens in your financial life:
- You switch jobs.
- You inherit some money.
- You have an extra $50k of cash from a bonus.
- You spend way too much money year after year.
The questions are always the same.
What are you going to do about it?
If you are constantly spending too much, which is harming your financial plan, what will you do about it?
If you have been sitting on cash, not knowing what to do, will you continue to do that forever?
What will you do if you are dissatisfied with your financial advisor, who never talks with you?
These seem like disconnected events, and in many cases, they are, but they all speak to a systems problem.
Your money is stuck, you are stuck, and that is a financial treadmill.
You need a great financial system to run your money.
Tim Cook knows he’s not a product genius like Jobs.
But Cook knew the value of sytems and what could happen when they got it right
Here’s how that turned out:
Strategy
So once you have a reasonably good system to invest your money.
What are you going to invest in?
Tim Cook invested heavily in their supply chain, iPod business, and services business to create scale, growth, and profitability.
Are you going to invest in the equity markets, scale your business to sell, buy real estate, or do a combination of each?
When will you make these decisions, and how will you know they will work?
Here’s the dilemma many investors face: They want to do it the hard way (own real estate in a large metro, own a successful company, etc.), or they have no way (just a bunch of guesses).
Both lead to inaction.
I love real estate, but if you live in a city with a million people, it will be hard to own commercial property (high prices + competition).
If you don’t have an investment strategy, I don’t even need to tell you what inflation will do to you, as you experienced it two years ago.
How I Do This Stuff
My primary financial engine is Fjell. It’s the majority of my net worth, and it’s like a child to me.
I oversee the business’s strategy and execution.
Jacob, a Fjell partner, invests cash from the company’s profits into two brokerage accounts.
I have automated contributions to my 529s and 401k.
I have one checking account that my wife and I use for all of our spending.
That’s it.
My system of moving money and investing it is simple and automated.
It’s completely scalable.
My strategy is stocks and Fjell.
Here’s why.
Operating companies like Fjell are inherently complicated and risky: liquid assets, for me, counterbalance the risk of Fjell.
Also, as a wealth manager, I must invest alongside our clients for obvious ethical reasons.
Real estate, side hustles, investing in other businesses, etc., are just distractions to me at this point in my career.
The Finale
Looking at Apple again, Jobs was the visionary who laid the foundation for some of the best tech products.
Cook scaled them up with systems and execution.
So here’s my question for you.
The market has been up 62% over the past two years.
This has been an incredible bull market that I hope you have profited from.
What’s your system? How are you systematically making significant financial decisions? Is it simple? Do you know how you’ll scale it up in 2025?
What’s your strategy? Would I, or your best friend, be convinced if you booked a call with us to explain how you will grow your assets in the coming decades?
These questions are critical for your success.
Tim Cook opened up about his life, how he uses Apple’s products, and what he’s excited about for one reason.
He has to.
He must convince you and me to stay invested in Apple’s story.
Apple has the products, systems, and strategy, but they need us to keep buying more iPhones, iPods, and their stock.
This week, convince yourself of your system and strategy.
If you’re not convinced, build something different and better.
If you need help, you know where to find us.
