A reader asks Matt, as someone who was successful in business and investments, what his strategy is for building and keeping wealth in today’s volatile economy.

Matt responds:

I don’t believe there’s a one-size-fits all approach to investment strategy.  Simplicity is stupidity.We live in a complex economic world where many different factors, some transparent and some obscure, exist.  We cannot snap our fingers, wave a magic wand, and figure out what our needs are, or magically discover how we can uniquely plot our course to take care of our particular responsibilities and needs.

It’s not an easy task, and in my own case, most of the time I’m up at 4:30 or 5 in the morning to see what’s going on in the markets, how is the world stage going to affect our economy in the U.S...

I am an economics buff and a political buff.  I like to look at all sides of everything and come to my own conclusions.

The time that many people spend staring vacantly at a television screen—or resting their brains thinking about obscurities—I try to spend delving into every aspect of the political and economic processes, as well as religion, culture, and all the interrelated aspects of our world.

It’s a fascinating part of my life.  It affects everything I do.

I also know that it’s not static; it’s constantly changing.  And as someone who loves change, that’s the world I love.

Matt

I find that Ireland is full of very spiritual experiences.

It seems to me that all of my spirits in my paintings are coming through not only the cliffs and the waves, but also the birds, the fish, the animals...  Everything seems so natural.

I do a painting series called Once Upon a Time, which is about digging inside yourself and finding hundreds of thousands of years of knowledge.  I think it’s a glimpse of how things were.  When I paint them, I get a feeling of “home.”

Although I like the hustle and bustle of big cities and I do love the tranquility of the Florida Keys, the spirituality of Ireland is very special.

The real presence of my spirits here not only delights me, but haunts me, helps me, instructs me, and chides me.  They not only give me a helping hand, they also give me a kick in the ass to keep moving!

Matt

I’ve been having great fun here in Ireland.

Two weeks ago, I found two old rugs that were lying around and decided to paint them.

With great relish I brought them out to my tables.  One was about 8 feet by 10 feet; the other was about 6 feet by 5 feet.  I doused them with water, then liberally threw on a bunch of my paint.  Then I threw on a couple helpings of concrete, then a couple buckets of water, and finished off that cocktail with a gallon of paint thinner.

Then I stood there and wondered, “Now what the hell am I going to do?!”

I spotted a rake over in the corner and thought, “That is a perfect brush to paint a carpet with!”

So I attacked them with the rake and rigged them, pushed and pulled and gouged them, and did everything I could possibly do to them with this wonderful rake.  I had no idea what I was doing, and I really didn’t care; I just let the rake do its work and opened up my mind to all possibilities.

By this point, they have sat in the weather for two weeks.  I have put underneath them all kinds of stuff to make hills and valleys and mounds of these concrete and foreign substances.

The rains are coming in, the fog...  It’s been very warm, then very cold, here, and every day I go out and look at them maybe 10 or 12 times during the course of the day, looking for almost microscopic cracks in the concrete, which reveal beautiful colors underneath.

The rugs are so damn heavy now, it’s going to take 4 of us to move them!  I’m just going to march in front of it and take it to one of my drying houses, where it will sit and gestate for a year.It’s just been a delight, these past two weeks of exploration.

From now on when I start looking for different things, I’m going to look for old carpets that people are throwing out!

I would recommend that any painter who wants to change his style buy a rake!

LAMB

To some people, perception is reality.  That’s how you can make a silk purse out of a pig’s ear.

There is a question I have been mulling for a long time:  Do we artists make our art out of ego or out of passion?

Finding your passion is in your innermost longing.  The trappings of art, the outward manifestations, are a lot of bullshit.

The reality of art is digging inside oneself and finding that place where you bring a unique form to a known philosophy and say, “This is what I think about it.”  You put it out there, and if people like it, fine, and if they don’t, that’s fine, too.

Your art is your baby.  You’re going to love it because if you can’t love this part of yourself, you can’t love anything.

So are we constantly trying to cater to what “they” think?  Are we going to cater to some dealer who can sell three roses in a vase 20 times in a month so you can take a private jet to a beach and sit on your ass?

Or are you struggling every day to come up with an answer to the question:  Who in the hell am I, what am I trying to say?

I believe we are all unique.  We all have different DNA, ideas, faults, and grandeurs.  We have to find them all.  We have to go down into the mine and hope that we pull out chunks of gold and diamonds.  We are the DeBeers of the world; we just don’t know it.

Matt

One of my favorite sayings is the Nike slogan, “Just do it.”  I believe it has many connotations.

When you hear it, the easiest thing to say is, Just do what?

But that’s the mentality of waiting around for someone to instruct us what to do.

I believe that self-starting is not a blessing; it’s a reality.

If you spend your whole life taking orders from people, you have to ask yourself:  Is there anything original that’s inside me that I’m wasting?  When I’m gone, will anybody else pick up the slack of the talents I shunned?

We’d still be living in caves if we didn’t “just do it.”  Build a house of straw; when it burns down, build it of stone; when it’s too cold, put in a fire.  It’s a gradual trip, but why shouldn’t we be the ones to “just do it”?  Why does it always have to be somebody else?

People say it’s the easy thing to do, to leave it to someone else.  To me, it may or may not be easy, but it sure isn’t fulfilling.  I suppose it depends on what your vision of your life and the world is.

You’re born and you die; what happens in the middle is what counts.  I think that goes on forever.

Do we want to carry around a bag of bullshit that we happened to find on the side of the road or a bag of diamonds that we helped mine?

Just do it, and then be done with it.  Be proud of it.  It’s yours.

Matt

I absolutely, positvely believe you must love yourself before you love anyone else.

If you doubt, if you’re always sitting with a big cloud over your head which you put there yourself, then you will probably not love or be loved.

I believe we put ourselves in boxes.  Either it’s a happy box or a miserable box.

I have to get into the mood all the time that no one can do anything to me—that I do it to myself, whatever “it” is.

I choose to be happy and lovable.  There’s enough good friends and family around to tell me that if I’m not lovable, then I have to change.

That’s why straight talk is the best thing in the world.

Matt

A reader compliments Matt’s sense of fashion and asks if he is outfitted by a specific designer.

Matt responds:

Rose and I buy our own clothes.

We mix and match, and while I very rarely wear Rose’s or she wears mine, we do have a certain style that we continue to search out and are always looking for something different and comfortable.

Matt

When you’re in deep shit, look straight ahead and keep your mouth shut.