The Grant Williams Podcast Ep. 123 - Jawad Mian FULL EPISODE

**Grant Williams** (0:10)
Before we get going, here's the bit where I remind you that nothing we discuss should be considered as investment advice. This conversation is for informational and hopefully entertainment purposes only. So, while we hope you find it both informative and entertaining, please do your own research or speak to a financial advisor before putting a dime of your money into these crazy markets. And now, on with the show.
Welcome, everybody, to another edition of The Grant Williams Podcast. Joining me at a moment, I am delighted to say, is my dear friend, Jawad Mian, who is the founder of Stray Reflections. Jawad, a dear friend for a number of years, he's an extraordinary individual, a true original, and one of the most unique and thoughtful people in the financial research space. But he's so much more than that, as this conversation is about to demonstrate. Jawad's website, strayreflections.com, and his Twitter handle, at J S Mian, M I A N, are absolute required reading. And I suspect once you've heard this conversation, there will be a lot of you logging out to that website and adding Jawad to your Twitter followers. He is an extraordinary man. And that's to say nothing of his book, Stray Reflections, which you will find a link on his website to purchase that. And I really cannot recommend highly enough that you do. If you don't find it there, you'll find it on Amazon. So without any further ado, here is my conversation with my dear friend Jawad Mian.
Jawad, my dear friend, it is so good to see you. It has been a while, 10 years since we did our first interview at your house in Dubai during my Real Vision days. And it's been amazingly six years since we did our last one during COVID. I did that series of live calls during the early days of COVID when we were all trying to figure it out. So I'm so excited to have a chance to talk to you again. How the bloody hell are you?

**Jawad Mian** (2:07)
I'm good in Toronto now, which I call home. And it's been wonderful. The Arizona suits me. I love the weather. I find it creatively very refreshing. Lots of family, lots of friends. Proximity to New York matters a lot, I feel, at this stage of my life and business.
So it's been wonderful.

**Grant Williams** (2:23)
We haven't really talked about the decision to make that move because you were in Dubai for the longest time. And you, once again, you're ahead of the guy. You were leaving just as everybody else was deciding to go and move there. Did you leave because you found out that all your neighbors were influencers? Or was there something deeper to it than that?

**Jawad Mian** (2:38)
There are a range of reasons. I think, one, for me, Dubai was always like a family place. And there was a transition that was occurring where my parents were thinking of moving to Pakistan.
And our purpose of living in Dubai was to be close to them. So my children can have a relationship with their grandparents. And my wife and I could enjoy time with them. And it was close to Pakistan where my wife's parents were. So in that transition, we felt, OK, if they're moving to Pakistan, then maybe what are we doing here? Can we move as well and go to Canada? Something my wife and I were thinking about for some time anyway. I did go to school here, I saw my work here, so it was very familiar. Lots of family here and we felt the kids are young enough that we could make this move.
It wasn't as planned out as when I came here, how much I realized it benefited me though. Very quickly, it felt like, oh wow, it feels like a place I belong. And again, the time zone is something I never thought about. I thought Dubai is the best place for like a macro. That's good when you're really interested in markets and want to trade all the time. But when you're a thinker, as I evolved to become and more reflective, then you can't switch off in Dubai because the time zone doesn't let you sleep. And here in Toronto, it's eastern time zone, right? So after 4pm markets are closed, I can be present in the evening with the family. I'm not forcing myself to check my emails or do any calls late in the evening. So that's been really cool.
The weather as well, I think from a creative standpoint, there's something about changing seasons. I couldn't stand the weather here, frankly, when I was a student because I felt a victim.