BRITAIN SORELY NEEDS A DOSE OF AMERICAN AMBITION
In the UK we have always had a healthy interest in keeping egos in check. I hope we never lose that, but I wonder if it has gone too far.
The US celebrates success unreservedly.
I was lucky enough to live and work in New York from late 2015 until early 2022 and witnessed that mindset first-hand – I covered America’s business community closely as the anchor of CNBC’s marquee show “Closing Bell” from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
I am not sure whether it was that contrasting experience in the US, or whether things have diminished in the UK in recent decades, but I have come to the view that we criticise success too much.
We’ve managed to create an environment where success is almost something to be embarrassed about. Ambition has even been made into a dirty word and is often used to imply negative traits like greed, ruthlessness and arrogance.
I plead guilty to being ambitious – but in the American understanding of the word.
In the US people feel a duty to be all they can be and make the most of the opportunities their country has afforded them.
I feel the same way – and in fact feel a particular duty to be ambitious in order to try to make the most of the extraordinary opportunities I have been given in life.
I believe the vast majority of Britons feel a similar way but have to hide it. They are ambitious and want to be permitted to express that without being labelled as greedy.
I have learnt a lot from the success of the greatest investors, business leaders and politicians in hosting “The Master Investor Podcast” since July.
Guests have included the likes of Ray Dalio, Cathie Wood, Jim Mellon and Howard Marks – but perhaps my favourite piece of advice came from Baroness Morrissey, who happened to be my first chief executive when I began my career in finance at Newton Investment Management in 2009.
Helena referenced Rudyard Kipling’s “If”, a poem I have had hanging on my wall since my father gave me a framed copy as a young boy.
“Keep your head while all about losing theirs, don’t get carried away and panic in the times of great fear. Don’t get carried away by hubris when you’re getting it right – and then look for those moments.
“My career was made by seizing that moment. It wasn’t just keeping calm and carrying on.”
Meanwhile the head of Goldman Sachs, David Solomon, somewhat surprisingly acknowledged: “I’ve made a lot of mistakes. I think the most important thing about leadership is an ability to change your mind and an ability to make decisions, have conviction, but also be willing to constantly listen and be willing to say, nope, not working, we need to change.
“When you realise that something’s not been a good decision, the most powerful thing you can do from a leadership perspective is to acknowledge it and change.”
Before the financial crisis the UK had a comparable GDP per capita growth to the US. Since the start of 2010, the US has grown at twice the pace – 30pc for the US compared to 15pc for the UK.
Baroness Morrissey put this down to our declining hunger for risk-taking, saying: “There’s so much regulation. People are so afraid to speak up – there never was a great prize for challenging the status quo but I feel that the balance has shifted and we need that back.
“We need innovation. We need people to feel you can take a risk, you can make a mistake.”
This is something that the Chancellor Rachel Reeves has identified and I think tried to address in the recent budget by increasing limits for investing through the Enterprise Investment Scheme and in Venture Capital Trusts.
Last week the chief executive of Bank of America, Brian Moynihan, gave me his view on the Budget. He said: “All countries have to understand that the simple question a business asks or an individual asks [is]: higher taxes for what?”
Moynihan added: “If the ‘for what’ is not something that makes sense that’s when you get in trouble. You’ve got to make sure that the taxes you’re raising are actually going to produce growth.”
Britain can surely learn more from America’s growth engines. One of our greatest prime ministers was also one of the great Atlanticists.
I learnt something new and striking about Winston Churchill when reading Andrew Ross Sorkin’s fantastic new book 1929 on the great stock market crash of that year and Great Depression that followed.
Churchill had been travelling through America on a speaking tour to try and repair his finances when he got bitten by the stock market bug, and in the end, lost a lot of money.
He was even on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange the day the market crashed – and yet, in letters that Andrew uncovered, Churchill reflected positively on the type of capitalism that he had discovered while there.
The crash was “only a passing episode in the march of a valiant and serviceable people who by fierce experiment are hewing new paths for man” – something that could be applied to Silicon Valley over the last two decades.
Englishmen “would do well to acquaint themselves with the inherent probity and strength of the American speculative machine. It is not built to prevent crises but to survive them”, Churchill reflected.
Of course bringing some American sensibility to our economy is not the same thing as saying you should invest in the US market right now.
In fact, Churchill’s example is an important reminder not to trade in the short term and only to invest for the long term with capital you can afford not to touch for very long periods of time.
I happen to be cautious myself right now – but my view is not what matters. I’ll keep seeking those that do.
“The Master Investor Podcast with Wilfred Frost” is available wherever you get your podcasts.
2025-12-12T14:10:36Z
