If you’ve seen Phil Town speak, you have probably heard him talk about his motorcycle days. Phil Town started riding as a kid on a Honda 350, then graduated to Harleys. Once Phil Town rode from Panama to San Francisco. On that trip, Phil rode solo through countries that were in the middle of wars, through rain, through freezing mountain passes and finally, after several weeks on the road, Phil Town made it across the Guatemala-Mexico border and turned toward a warm desert and Vera Cruz.
Phil Town and George Foreman are about the same age, so you may remember something about what a bad boy Forman was back when he fought Muhammed Ali. The words “bad boy” don’t do his persona justice. He was scary. Scared other boxers so much they didn’t want to fight him. Phil Town is here in the Green Room, this big teddy bear of a guy who sincerely is interested in whoever he’s talking with. He says it started when he got humbled by Ali. It stripped Foreman of a kind of rigid pride.
Phil Town got really humbled when he hit a cow on his motocycle. Phil thinks the experience with the cow informs the way he does investing. Failure on a motorcycle is not an option. Failure as a boxer can cost you dearly too. Neither is failure as an investor an option. Rule #1 investor invests to not lose money like a motorcyclist rides to not run into cows.