Editor's Note: The note below was written by our veteran Retail analyst Brian McGough. It was originally an internal email, never meant for public viewing. We thought his thoughts deserved a wider audience.
I'm down in Florida at this Restoration Hardware (RH) meeting. A few things are going through my mind which hit me hard.
- 10 years ago I attended the ICR Conference. People there thought I was a moron in leaving Morgan Stanley for Hedgeye ... a ‘doomed startup!’ with reckless and unrealistic partners (with me as one of the most reckless!).
- 3 Years later ... we get banned from ICR. Why? Because our opinions were too strong. Oh, and being short half of ICR's Clients probably didn't help matters.
- At Restoration Hardware analyst meetings over the past 3 years, people gave me snarky looks because I openly (yet respectfully) go toe-to-toe with them on my opinions and analysis vs other company management’s spewage.
What a difference a decade makes.
Now, at this RH meeting, I had three people ask me for a job. One was from an ‘independent research firm (that Keith and I interviewed 9 years ago) — an ‘independent firm’ that has trading and banking. Go figure.
None of them hold a candle to anyone on my team — and our broader research analyst team. They are #oldwall tainted. Untainting an #oldwall analyst is like trying to turn a pickle back into a cucumber, Good luck with that.
We get caught up in the day to day wins and losses — and we should — but to me, the bigger picture is more important. Time flies. It's hard to believe I’ve spent 41.6% of my career at Hedgeye. We’re only getting better, more relevant, and place where people are flat-out envious and wanting to collect a paycheck.
Life is good...
Now remind me that next time I get my teeth kicked in on a position. But this platform we are building here is unparalleled.