Wrong investment

By Alex P. Vidal

“Friend, there’s no greater investment in life than in being a people builder. Relationships are more important than our accomplishments.”—Joel Osteen

IN the financial world, a wrong investment will cost us a fortune.

The money we want to double or grow and hope to help improve the quality of our life evaporates because of unwise outlay.

In human resources, hiring wrong or unqualified employees will compromise the good standing, efficiency and growth of the company.

In relationships, a wrong choice of friend will give us plenty of trouble and inconvenience; a wrong choice of partner in life will deprive us of true happiness and give us emotional and mental anguish.

A wrong choice of business partner will drain our resources and give us tremendous stress and king-sized headache.

An “investor” normally is a person or entity who outlays capital in order to produce an income or to make profits.

Investing is the act of putting forth capital with the expectation of income or profit. Personal investing is buying financial securities or property for the purpose of making a profit.

Donors and big financial backers of politicians consider the campaign funds they give also as “investment.”

They don’t give something out of nothing.

They invest to candidates who will “give back the favor” if the candidates win and, thus, have instant access to public funds and infrastructure or public works projects.

I’ll scratch your back, you scratch mine. A quid pro quo.

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When the late former Senator John Osmeña was campaigning for reelection many years back, he called billionaire Lucio Tan several times on the phone.

The Philippine Airlines (PAL) bigwig ignored his calls.

“Naga ring lang tapos naga off gulpi (the phone suddenly turns off after ringing),” the Cebuano politician groaned in Hiligaynon. “Isa lang ang boot silingon sini. He doesn’t want anymore the invest with me.”

Osmeña, whose popularity had waned and was no longer in contention to win, must have realized he was not anymore “bankable”.

He didn’t anymore press his luck and stopped calling Tan, an astute businessman.

Why do I know the story? I was with Osmeña inside the van in Iloilo when he called Tan during the campaign for his reelection in 2004.

Donors and former supporters of come-backing former US President Donald Trump have started distancing themselves after he announced his candidacy November 15 night in the 2024 presidential election.

The donors, including some Manhattan moguls who used to bankroll his campaign in the 2016 and 2020 elections, probably didn’t want anymore to “invest” with him.

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Political “investors” must be seriously reading the political landscape. They are aware that in the just concluded midterm elections, almost all—except for a few in the smaller states—of Trump’s handpicked candidates lost miserably.

These candidates for governor, senator, representative, and secretary of state were mostly forceful election deniers and unhinged characters who embraced Trump’s embarrassing lies about President Joseph Biden’s legitimate win in 2020.

Because they lacked the substance and credibility, they have contributed heavily in the destruction of the Republican Party, according to the consensus of experts and analysts.

Even daughter Ivanka would no longer “invest” for her dad’s third stab at the presidency.

“While I will always love and support my father, going forward I will do so outside the political arena,” daughter Ivanka said in a statement that came the same evening that the former president announced his plans to run for president again.

“This time around, I am choosing to prioritize my young children and the private life we are creating as a family. I do not plan to be involved in politics.”

“We will continue to support my father—as his kids,” she said in the statement first reported by Fox News, adding that she was proud to have been a part of the Trump administration.

But didn’t they know that dad Trump loves to be underdog? He might be a “wrong investment” for some political donors, but some pundits think he can still oust all other GOP aspirants in the primaries and end up running away with the official GOP nomination and challenge in a rematch President Biden in 2024.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)