With ten men, thin air, and a stadium that hadn't seen a home defeat in 87 competitive games… England produced their best World Cup performance since they won the whole thing in 1966.
England were up against it against Mexico at the legendary Azteca Stadium.
Soaring over 7,000 feet above sea level, this is a ground where the crowd noise alone has beaten visiting teams before a ball is kicked…
Mexico had lost just two of 89 competitive matches there.
Then the game was delayed an hour by storms before kick-off, lightning cracking over a stadium already packed five hours early.
But going into half-time 2-1 up after a solid defensive performance… the second half gameplan was thrown out after England went down to ten men shortly after the break.
Most teams would have crumbled under the pressure…
But England didn't…
Bodies were put on the line and unwavering resilience was the theme of the day.
And they survived with a 3-2 victory, moving on to play Norway on Saturday
Because that's the thing about conviction… it only means something when it costs you something.
Think about when one of your positions turns against you…
You buy a stock because you've done the work — you believe in the business, the numbers stack up, the story makes sense.
Then the market throws a red card at you.
A bad quarter… a sector rotation… a macro headline that has nothing to do with the company itself.
And every instinct says fold, sell… take the loss and move on.
Most investors do exactly that.
But it’s the great investors who show grit and conviction when times get tough.
And those are the ones who reap all the rewards…
Oliver
P.S.
Over the next few days, Amazon will be rolling out translated with of our Kindle books. These will be available in French, Spanish, Italian, Portguese and German