Page 152 - Morgan Housel - The Psychology of Money_ Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness-Harriman House Limited (2020)

Everything has a price, and the key to a lot of things with money is just
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figuring out what that price is and being willing to pay it.

The problem is that the price of a lot of things is not obvious until you’ve
experienced them firsthand, when the bill is overdue.

General Electric was the largest company in the world in 2004, worth a
third of a trillion dollars. It had either been first or second each year for the

previous decade, capitalism’s shining example of corporate aristocracy.

Then everything fell to pieces.

The 2008 financial crisis sent GE’s financing division—which supplied
more than half the company’s profits—into chaos. It was eventually sold for
scrap. Subsequent bets in oil and energy were disasters, resulting in billions
in writeoffs. GE stock fell from $40 in 2007 to $7 by 2018.

Blame placed on CEO Jeff Immelt—who ran the company since 2001—
was immediate and harsh. He was criticized for his leadership, his
acquisitions, cutting the dividend, laying off workers and—of course—the

plunging stock price. Rightly so: those rewarded with dynastic wealth when
times are good hold the burden of responsibility when the tide goes out. He
stepped down in 2017.

But Immelt said something insightful on his way out.

Responding to critics who said his actions were wrong and what he should
have done was obvious, Immelt told his successor, “Every job looks easy
when you’re not the one doing it.”

Every job looks easy when you’re not the one doing it because the

challenges faced by someone in the arena are often invisible to those in the
crowd.