Saturday, August 17, 2013

A quick thank you to Bill Ackman

My visit to a Herbalife club in Queens inspired me. If those guys could lose weight on a protein shake meal replacement diet so could I.

So I started mostly with local Australian brand products (but a few Herbalife products, notably the tea). Anyway I am now 9kg (20 pounds) lighter and I can fit into trousers I purchased on a trip to New York in 2004. [They have sat unused in the cupboard for about six years!]

And so the new svelte me (well not really svelte - this is relative) is off to Claudes - a Sydney dining institution - and I suspect I can knock off the evil even that will do to my waistline.

And not just the dining performance that has improved. Going long the stock has rather helped my stock picking performance.

And so Bill Ackman,

Thank you.





John

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ackman rehashed old allegations about network marketing already decided in court decades ago. They are a legal business model; Herbalife is a legal and profitable business. He tried to manipulate the stock price, and short-sell. I was hoping anybody who could buy the stock, would. Men using the word pyramid to describe legal businesses is the same sour-grapes tactic as when they call women whores.

Anonymous said...

Which local brand shakes, John? I could shimmy down a tad.

John Hempton said...

BSC was the local brand.

ADG said...

Well done!

Anonymous said...

With HLF's top sales spruiker having just off himself with a bullet to the dome, impending details will be interesting.

Anonymous said...

So are the skinny Thai, Malaysian, Indonesian need these wonderful diet powder, oh the sales stop growing TTM, but no worry the S. Americans and Mexicans need these wonderful products that can make them "slimmer" while "everybody" make $100K/year.

What a wonderful company.

Logic, rational thinking, common sense - who cares? There is always another sucker(s) around the corner.

Anonymous said...

Way to go on both counts - what was the % weight loss over what time and what BSC products did you use? Wonder what the drop would have been if you had the support network cocoon like the group you visited.

Andrew said...

Is the herbalife tea different from any other tea powder?

Anonymous said...

Oh dear oh dear. It isn't the whatever shake that is doing it. It's more that you watching the amount you eating and therefore eating less and maybe exercising more as well. Wrong conclusion, my friend.You can swap the shake with water you will get more weight lost. Therefore your conclusion would be there is something in your water. Right!!!

Anonymous said...

i feel sorry for bill. seems like the whole world is hating on him. shame he couldn't convince the government to support his investment thesis. I thought GS had already set this precedent. He even went to the trouble of creating a powerpoint.

Anonymous said...

The greater irony is that prior to his Herbalife diet, John was planning to purchase new trousers from JC Penney on his next Stateside visit.

Wyrdo the Sane said...

Gee that's great. You lost weight on Herbalife.

Why not become an Herbalife distributor?

After all--Work from Home Inc says you can totally make mad dough selling Herbalife.

Or at least it did say that prior to Bill Ackman's allegations.

But you know, Mr. Bronte Capital, I think you can really pull this off. I think you've got that particular mix of motivation and massive self-deception that it takes to really make it. And best of all? One of the top spots just opened up (on account of suicide).

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/death_of_dream_HjMELCEfcyEJiGXxP9PN4N

Go, Unicorn, Go.

--
Furry cows moo and decompress.

Anonymous said...

Claudes! awesome and just the right venue.
I have very fond memories of the night we arrived to partake of a friend's 60'A ( still too young to drink) and Vince brought a 55 Grange ( perfect). The sommelier was suitably reverential, asked if we really were willing to let him do the decanting ( he also wanted the empty bottle but settled for the cork).
The best lobster bisque I have had anywhere in the world was at Claudes.

SOG in NY

Stocks DD said...

Ackman's latest 8 page diatribe on Herbalife can be found here-> http://stocksdd.blogspot.com/2013/08/stocks-dd-cites-ackmans-quarterly.html

dmitry@sg said...

You do not have to drink these bad tasting shakes :) you are privileged to leave in area with great possibilities for hiking...just in two hours of Sydney is great area of Blue Mountains...just do Katoomba to Wenthworth falls hike in a day(not in three as recommended) 10 weekends in a row and you will become lighter faster than through drinking the supplements...and in Australia if you lose your bearing while on the hike it's not a problem.. Just call 122 and you'll get pleasant free ride on police helicopter to Katoomba centre ( for my stupidity and partially laziness I had this mostly pleasant experience once but would not repeat it again)

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