How did I do? 

Since I no longer have to measure myself against an amorphous and ever-changing 'Leadership Standard', I thought I would take a look in the mirror to see how my predictions fared after 18 months (and six newsletters) on the soap box. Unlike sell-side equity analysts, I will avoid gazing into the crystal ball. So if you're looking for predictions on the S&P500, stop reading. 

Valuation (1/5)
While I never had an explicit view on where valuations in the bev-alc space would go, I was quite conservative starting in 2019 about private rounds in the context of a then frothy market. This was almost as big as a miss as the next call; one pandemic, bear, and bull market later, I am just happy to be on the sell-side most of the time. No more predictions on this front. Ever.  

Aviation (0/5)
The trouble with making explicit calls ("Aviation will not trade near its asking price") is that you can end up looking really smart. Or, in my case, really silly. I covered the specific reason for this transaction in my previous newsletter. Celebrities and Booze. What can I say other than where do I sign up? 

The Rock (5/5)
Shortly after the Casamigos transaction, I called my tequila category director saying we should chat with The Rock, who works like a son-of-a-b***c, and was then promoting TDJ (I bet those old posts from IG have disappeared). I covered his shoe-leather approach to Teremana tangentially (Vol. IV) while poking fun at Megxit. I will be generous and award myself some much needed points here. Not as many, of course, as the Strategic that got in here early deserves. 

Non-Alc (?/5)
As I noted in the summer, I am still not sure what to make of this. I love the idea but question the lack of take-up notwithstanding Seedlip (which takes the headlines thanks to both first-mover advantage and a quirk of financing). Here's to a friend showing up with an interesting product and its purported functional benefit. Watch this space.

Home Schooling (Between 0 and 5/5, depending on the day)
I didn't realise this would be 1/4th of my year. At times it was sublime and at others, a train wreck. The line between the two was often indiscernible. I will tell you what got me through. Hint: it wasn't non-alc. 

Thanks for reading. See you in 2021.