The American economy is based on one major premise: its arc is long and chaotic, but it bends ever so slightly upward. From this, I’ve arrived at several working strategies. One, I do not invest on a short term basis in the stock market. Two, I commit to business ventures for the long term. And, three, I don’t take the ups and downs of the economy seriously. These strategies have treated me well over the years and I would recommend them to you for your consideration.
1. Never invest on a short term basis in the stock market.
In my twenties I “played the Market.” That is, I attempted to call the highs and lows of the stock market. I thought that the market existed in order to make a fortune off of killer stocks. It took me over a decade to realize that was one of the most foolish things I had ever thought.
In those years, I took substantial buy/sell risk positions, but had only one good call. By the time I was thirty five, I was about even with the market, with the growth arrow about ready to point downward.
A change was in order. As I reflected on my situation, I decided to go back to when I first started investing as a child. My mother got me into mutual funds (Keystone S4 was the first one) with the advice: “let it ride.” I did (actually I had no choice. I was only ten at the time and the fund was in my mother’s name.). And, over time it paid off.
For well over twenty years now I’ve followed my mother’s advice with one exception. I now invest in many different kinds of mutual funds, on a monthly basis, and rotate the bottom 10% once a year or so. By doing this, I’ve probably averaged an annual rate of growth of about 7%. That’s pretty good considering the problems we’ve encountered with the market since 2000.
2. Commit to business ventures for the long term.
For the first fifteen years of my professional career I was a teacher. I had no thought of doing anything else. But things change. I was about 37 or 38 when I owned my first company. It was a good and bad experience. It was good because we had a great service we were selling: a management consulting process that helped companies do strategic planning. It was bad because I was in a partnership where my partner wanted 60% of the business. As minority partner I quickly found out I had no control over the business, and I was like an employee.
As a result of this situation I fought to get out of the partnership. I did, and as a result was able to control all the variables of the business. That was the best decision I ever made, and the most lucrative one too. If you can control the operations of your business, over time, the odds are you will succeed financially. Nothing has ever made me more money than owning and controlling my own business.
When I violate what I learned from my first business start up, I almost always regret it. For example, since the first venture, I have invested in five different businesses. When my share is well below 50%, I break even or lose. When I am at 50% or above, and I remain in the business over five years, I usually make strong returns.
3. Don’t take the ups and downs of the economy too seriously.
I’ve been through two market crashes and five serious recessions (1972, 1981, 1987, 1991, 2001, 2007 and 2009), and I’m still here, doing pretty well for myself. Why? The only reasons I can think of are: for the most part I have not panicked at points of crisis, and the crises that have occurred were made to appear worse than they really were.
Only once did I take my money out of the stock market because I thought a potential crash (1987) was coming and it would forever hurt me financially. The October 1987 stock market did in fact go into a free fall and the DOW lost 22.61% if its value in one day. It was called Black Monday. I anticipated this fall, took my money out and put it into cash. Good move at the moment, but terrible for the long turn. Shortly afterwards, the market went on one of the greatest bull runs in history. I missed all of that. From that point forward, I promised myself I would not repeat that mistake again. Hence, when the market sags and the economy dips, I continue investing. The results have been positive, and I expect those positive results to continue for as long as America remains with the financial model it has been working under for the last 100 years.
Fear is a basic human characteristic. If you are halfway sane, you have fears. And when you are afraid, your reactions will usually be a little bit exaggerated. Market speculators know this about us and take advantage of it in order to make money off of you and me. For example, when the stock market is correcting, market speculators will exaggerate its seriousness and suggest that you sell your stocks as the market is heading downward. History has taught speculators that when you are fearful about your investments you will magnify its gravity and almost always sell at the bottom of the market. They then will come in and buy your stock at a discounted price. End result? They win, you lose. Why? Eventually, the market always comes back and reaches for new highs!
As far as investments are concerned panicking is counterproductive, and any fears you may have are probably magnified and are being taken advantage of by others. Lesson learned: patient money almost always wins as the market forever gyrates up and down, but over time forever bends slightly upward.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Friday, November 5, 2010
Positioning Yourself For Future Sucess
Positioning Yourself for Future Success
Part 1: Investing in the Market and Creating a New Business
I’ve been an active market investor for over forty years, and an entrepreneur for about twenty five years. In that time I’ve learned some important lessons. Here are some:
First for investing…
1. There’s only one free lunch when it comes to investing in the stock market: DIVERSIFICATION. I realized a long time ago that there are no “killer” stocks that will make you rich quickly. My best decision was selecting a good stock broker and investing in good mutual funds that select many companies, not just one.
2. Calling highs and lows of the market is futile, but “dollar cost averaging” allows you to take advantage of the market’s average growth. The stock market has an inherent bias: over time it steadily goes upward. So, by putting a little bit of money in each month, whether or not the market is growing or contracting, you’ll make approximately what the market makes over time. Over the last twenty years, it has grown on average about 8% annually.
Now, for creating a business…
1. Business is a jealous mistress. Be loyal to it, and it will forever reward you; cheat on it, and it will make life miserable. Creating a new business takes work above all else. When I started my first business, even though I had another job, I religiously increased the number of hours I worked each month. Eventually, it turned into a full time business with full time hours. A couple of times I slipped and short changed that kind of work dedication all with less than desirable results.
2. A new business grows when you solve small problems. It’s as if a struggling new business has a personality; it takes note of whether or not you are working at solving its problems. When you do, it expands, when you don’t, it contracts. Problem solving is the key to success, not a sign that the business is failing.
No short cuts…
As you can tell, whether it comes to investing in the market or creating a new business, I don’t believe that success comes from taking short cuts. At least, that has not been my experience. I’m convinced that true value emerges only as one exercises persistence. Great financial endeavors result when one sticks with the endeavor being pursued. Whether you’re investing or creating, “patient money always wins, fast money almost always loses.”
Part 1: Investing in the Market and Creating a New Business
I’ve been an active market investor for over forty years, and an entrepreneur for about twenty five years. In that time I’ve learned some important lessons. Here are some:
First for investing…
1. There’s only one free lunch when it comes to investing in the stock market: DIVERSIFICATION. I realized a long time ago that there are no “killer” stocks that will make you rich quickly. My best decision was selecting a good stock broker and investing in good mutual funds that select many companies, not just one.
2. Calling highs and lows of the market is futile, but “dollar cost averaging” allows you to take advantage of the market’s average growth. The stock market has an inherent bias: over time it steadily goes upward. So, by putting a little bit of money in each month, whether or not the market is growing or contracting, you’ll make approximately what the market makes over time. Over the last twenty years, it has grown on average about 8% annually.
Now, for creating a business…
1. Business is a jealous mistress. Be loyal to it, and it will forever reward you; cheat on it, and it will make life miserable. Creating a new business takes work above all else. When I started my first business, even though I had another job, I religiously increased the number of hours I worked each month. Eventually, it turned into a full time business with full time hours. A couple of times I slipped and short changed that kind of work dedication all with less than desirable results.
2. A new business grows when you solve small problems. It’s as if a struggling new business has a personality; it takes note of whether or not you are working at solving its problems. When you do, it expands, when you don’t, it contracts. Problem solving is the key to success, not a sign that the business is failing.
No short cuts…
As you can tell, whether it comes to investing in the market or creating a new business, I don’t believe that success comes from taking short cuts. At least, that has not been my experience. I’m convinced that true value emerges only as one exercises persistence. Great financial endeavors result when one sticks with the endeavor being pursued. Whether you’re investing or creating, “patient money always wins, fast money almost always loses.”
Monday, September 13, 2010
Riches in Looking Sideways
I was listening to an interview on the business channel the other day with the CEO of Starwood Hotels. I thought I heard him say that in the last twenty years three billion people worldwide have gone from poverty to be participants in the consumer class. That’s incredible, I thought, in as much as there are only six billion people living on the planet today.
As if he heard my thought he followed up by saying that in less than twenty years the possibility exists that the other three billion will also enter into the consumer class. If that is true the greatest social revolution in history will have taken place in less than forty years.
But he was not done with his observations. He added that the youth of the world now have more in common with each other than they do with the “next generation up” in their own culture. His reasoning was that because consumer brands are global, and because today’s youth are so brand savvy, relationships have been established globally using consumer goods as the medium. My opinion? Let’s hear it for Nike, Apple and McDonalds – private capital uniting people in a safe, non-ideological way.
A worldwide consumer class, whose standard of living will be improving over the next decades, has some important things going for it. For one, they will probably choose not to go to war with one another. And, they definitely will not tolerate acts of terror on people living in other countries. After all, these are their new friends that they now share things in common with. Quite simply, if these trends hold, we may be witnessing the birth of a generation of peace. Journalist Thomas Friedman calls this phenomenon a “Flat World”, suggesting a world that is becoming more equal and connected.
For those of us in business this trend has important implications for our success. As one who owns a business, I have noticed that it’s getting easier to do business internationally. Anymore, it’s virtually impossible to keep enterprising entrepreneurs away from global consumers. One way or another, today’s business people connect with people of different lands, cultures, and ideologies. I attribute this almost exclusively to one cause: the creation of a global system of information exchange. People find people with common interests by means of going where the new “information network” leads them.
Today’s global information network has the chief characteristic of moving sideways or horizontally. In other words information is best used when it is moving freely across barriers. When allowed to “swirl” around the earth at almost the speed of light, information creates value on its own. It does this by automatically connecting with other information also moving freely. How it connects is the entrepreneur’s opportunity.
For example, when I became weary of working in a vertical structure, where the only information I exchanged was up to my boss, I decided to go rogue. I stepped to the side of my up and down track, and started sharing information horizontally, or with people who were not part of my world. I told everybody and anybody who would listen that I wanted to do something different with my life.
One day my message connected. A radio executive (of all people) asked me if I could help him improve his relationship with one of his key employees. I agreed and the rest is history. That was the start of my career as a management consultant, radio commentator, and writer. Twenty-five years later I’m still doing the same kind of sideways communicating, only know I also embrace the internet, voicemail, email, blogging, social network sites and text messaging. No matter what I send out over the network, I always (yes, always) get back more than I send out. I then spend time culling through this information until I see an opportunity emerge. It’s usually in the form of a need that someone has that I think I can meet. The rest, once again, is history.
The world is growing sideways. That’s how new wealth creation is taking place globally. The vertical up and down world is being vacated. With each random click of your digital device, the orderly up and down world grows smaller and poorer, while the sideways world grows larger and richer. Click.
As if he heard my thought he followed up by saying that in less than twenty years the possibility exists that the other three billion will also enter into the consumer class. If that is true the greatest social revolution in history will have taken place in less than forty years.
But he was not done with his observations. He added that the youth of the world now have more in common with each other than they do with the “next generation up” in their own culture. His reasoning was that because consumer brands are global, and because today’s youth are so brand savvy, relationships have been established globally using consumer goods as the medium. My opinion? Let’s hear it for Nike, Apple and McDonalds – private capital uniting people in a safe, non-ideological way.
A worldwide consumer class, whose standard of living will be improving over the next decades, has some important things going for it. For one, they will probably choose not to go to war with one another. And, they definitely will not tolerate acts of terror on people living in other countries. After all, these are their new friends that they now share things in common with. Quite simply, if these trends hold, we may be witnessing the birth of a generation of peace. Journalist Thomas Friedman calls this phenomenon a “Flat World”, suggesting a world that is becoming more equal and connected.
For those of us in business this trend has important implications for our success. As one who owns a business, I have noticed that it’s getting easier to do business internationally. Anymore, it’s virtually impossible to keep enterprising entrepreneurs away from global consumers. One way or another, today’s business people connect with people of different lands, cultures, and ideologies. I attribute this almost exclusively to one cause: the creation of a global system of information exchange. People find people with common interests by means of going where the new “information network” leads them.
Today’s global information network has the chief characteristic of moving sideways or horizontally. In other words information is best used when it is moving freely across barriers. When allowed to “swirl” around the earth at almost the speed of light, information creates value on its own. It does this by automatically connecting with other information also moving freely. How it connects is the entrepreneur’s opportunity.
For example, when I became weary of working in a vertical structure, where the only information I exchanged was up to my boss, I decided to go rogue. I stepped to the side of my up and down track, and started sharing information horizontally, or with people who were not part of my world. I told everybody and anybody who would listen that I wanted to do something different with my life.
One day my message connected. A radio executive (of all people) asked me if I could help him improve his relationship with one of his key employees. I agreed and the rest is history. That was the start of my career as a management consultant, radio commentator, and writer. Twenty-five years later I’m still doing the same kind of sideways communicating, only know I also embrace the internet, voicemail, email, blogging, social network sites and text messaging. No matter what I send out over the network, I always (yes, always) get back more than I send out. I then spend time culling through this information until I see an opportunity emerge. It’s usually in the form of a need that someone has that I think I can meet. The rest, once again, is history.
The world is growing sideways. That’s how new wealth creation is taking place globally. The vertical up and down world is being vacated. With each random click of your digital device, the orderly up and down world grows smaller and poorer, while the sideways world grows larger and richer. Click.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Hendrix and Gedicks have been selected to be contributing co-authors of an upcoming book
Dr. Roger Hendrix and Professor Frederick Mark Gedicks have been selected to be contributing co-authors of the upcoming book, “Fundamentalism, Politics and the Law”, published by MacMillan Press (http://us.macmillan.com, 2008).
The chapter that will be featured in the book will be entitled, ‘Uncivil Religion’. This essay has been selected to be one of the main chapters in the book. It originally appeared as an essay in the West Va Law Review, 2005.
This type of writing is logical for Dr. Hendrix because he regularly writes and speaks on social, political and economic trends.
Professor Gedicks is a professor of law at Brigham Young University.
Dr. Hendrix and Professor Gedicks have co-authored several books and essays. In 1991, they co-authored the book, ‘Choosing The Dream: The Future of Religion in America,’ Greenwood Press, Connecticut. In the Winter of 2005, Hendrix and Gedicks co-authored the essay, ‘Religious Experience in the Age of Digital Reproduction’, which was featured in the St. John’s Law Review.
MacMillan Press is one of the most prestigious publishers in the world. The MacMillan headquarters are located in New York City and London, England.
MacMillan has recently announced that this book is moving into production.
The chapter that will be featured in the book will be entitled, ‘Uncivil Religion’. This essay has been selected to be one of the main chapters in the book. It originally appeared as an essay in the West Va Law Review, 2005.
This type of writing is logical for Dr. Hendrix because he regularly writes and speaks on social, political and economic trends.
Professor Gedicks is a professor of law at Brigham Young University.
Dr. Hendrix and Professor Gedicks have co-authored several books and essays. In 1991, they co-authored the book, ‘Choosing The Dream: The Future of Religion in America,’ Greenwood Press, Connecticut. In the Winter of 2005, Hendrix and Gedicks co-authored the essay, ‘Religious Experience in the Age of Digital Reproduction’, which was featured in the St. John’s Law Review.
MacMillan Press is one of the most prestigious publishers in the world. The MacMillan headquarters are located in New York City and London, England.
MacMillan has recently announced that this book is moving into production.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Radio Interview, Thursday, August 12, 2010, 102.7 FM
10 August 2010, I was interviewed by KSL Radio regarding the present state of the economy; jobs that are in demand now and in the future (and that yield higher income; the future state of the economy and the importance of education in being prepared to seek jobs and staying current in your job skills.
I will be heard tomorrow, Thursday, August 12, 2010 on KSL Radio, 102.7 FM. I am also open to requests for other radio and TV, podcast, etc. interviews. If you are interested, contact at my staff at amber@hendrixconsulting.com.
Please forward to your staff, who have have my permission to broadcast the above
through emails, blog, facebook, etc.
Thank you.
I will be heard tomorrow, Thursday, August 12, 2010 on KSL Radio, 102.7 FM. I am also open to requests for other radio and TV, podcast, etc. interviews. If you are interested, contact at my staff at amber@hendrixconsulting.com.
Please forward to your staff, who have have my permission to broadcast the above
through emails, blog, facebook, etc.
Thank you.
Monday, July 19, 2010
My Family in Danger
Palos Verdes California (Fall, 1973)
at a cliff next to the Pacific Ocean
We were having a late afternoon picnic out on the rocks. After eating, we played in the tide pools between rocks.
High tide began to come in, and instead of walking along the pathway next to the cliff to get back to our car, I suggested we take a short cut by scaling the cliff. I assured my wife I had done this dozens of times.
I put my two year old daughter on my shoulders, grabbed hold of the picnic basket, and started climbing up the cliff. My four year old followed behind me and my wife behind her.
Everything was going well until about fifteen feet from the top, where I ran out of small crevices and ledges to hold on to and stand on. At about the same time my two year old started rocking back and forth, causing me to have to work to keep my balance.
We had climbed about forty feet up, and the waves began to hit the rocks below. I looked down at my wife, who was now steadying our four year old with her left hand, and asked, “Do you think we should try and climb back down?”
“Dozens of times?” was her only reply.
“This whole thing is driving me crazy, “my four year old blurted out.
I froze, I had put my family in danger. I was at a loss for a solution.
I immediately dropped the picnic basket and watched it tumble down until it hit the surf. I then tried one more time to stretch my arm up as high as it would go to catch on to something. My finger tips found nothing but smooth surface.
The wind started up. I could feel my two year old’s body start to shiver as it hit her.
With nothing left to do, I reflexively started bargaining with God. As I did, I caught a figure out of the right corner of my eye coming toward me from around the cliff.
It was a mountain climber! Not just one, but two. They were dressed in khaki green mountain climbing clothes and tightly laced boots; and the first climber had a rope hanging from his shoulder.
As the first climber approached me, he asked in a surprising French accent, if he could help us.
I was so shocked at what I was witnessing, I could only get out one word, “Please”.
They quickly took control. The first climber lifted my daughter off my shoulders and easily took her to the top of the cliff. As he gently placed her on the ground, he calmly directed her to stay there. He then came back down a few feet and stretched out his right arm. I grabbed hold of it and used it as leverage to pull myself up to the top.
The other climber then placed my four year old over his left shoulder. Instinctively she grabbed and held on to his neck with her small left hand. Climbing to the top, in what appeared to me to be almost effortlessly, he placed her directly beside me.
Then, without a word, the climber returned down the cliff to where my wife was. He was above her when he sat down on his legs and extended his right hand toward her. Also speaking in a French accent he asked, “Madame, may I escort you to the top?” Cheri replied, “You may”, reaching her hand upwards toward his. In no time at all she too was brought to the top of the cliff.
Safe, the stress of it all hit my wife and me as tears welled up in our eyes. Watching us, both of our little girls also began to cry. Expressions of gratitude then poured out to our rescuers. They asked if we would be alright. We assured them we would be, and as quickly as they came into our lives, ever so quickly they were gone, continuing their quest along the cliff’s wall.
As the sun began to set, the four of us huddled together with arms wrapped around each other. Laughs of relief and joy spontaneously broke out.
I cannot remember ever being any more grateful than I was at that moment, for a rescue I had done nothing to merit.
As the years have gone by, my feeling of gratitude has added a deep sense of wonderment to it. Today, I have no quick explanation for how it was that two French mountain climbers happened to intersect with a small family in danger, along the side of a cliff next to the Pacific Ocean.
The odds of such a thing happening are so remote as to be virtually impossible. But, the virtually impossible happened. When I think back on it, all I can do is smile and turn my head back and forth in awe.
My two daughters now have small children of their own. Every flower pot these grandchildren might knock over, every drink they may spill on the rug means nothing to me, as I reflect back to that special day when their mothers were safely raised to the top of that precarious cliff next to the ocean.
Privacy Policy. 2010. Use of this material only with the written permission of Dr. Roger Hendrix and Hendrix Consulting.
at a cliff next to the Pacific Ocean
We were having a late afternoon picnic out on the rocks. After eating, we played in the tide pools between rocks.
High tide began to come in, and instead of walking along the pathway next to the cliff to get back to our car, I suggested we take a short cut by scaling the cliff. I assured my wife I had done this dozens of times.
I put my two year old daughter on my shoulders, grabbed hold of the picnic basket, and started climbing up the cliff. My four year old followed behind me and my wife behind her.
Everything was going well until about fifteen feet from the top, where I ran out of small crevices and ledges to hold on to and stand on. At about the same time my two year old started rocking back and forth, causing me to have to work to keep my balance.
We had climbed about forty feet up, and the waves began to hit the rocks below. I looked down at my wife, who was now steadying our four year old with her left hand, and asked, “Do you think we should try and climb back down?”
“Dozens of times?” was her only reply.
“This whole thing is driving me crazy, “my four year old blurted out.
I froze, I had put my family in danger. I was at a loss for a solution.
I immediately dropped the picnic basket and watched it tumble down until it hit the surf. I then tried one more time to stretch my arm up as high as it would go to catch on to something. My finger tips found nothing but smooth surface.
The wind started up. I could feel my two year old’s body start to shiver as it hit her.
With nothing left to do, I reflexively started bargaining with God. As I did, I caught a figure out of the right corner of my eye coming toward me from around the cliff.
It was a mountain climber! Not just one, but two. They were dressed in khaki green mountain climbing clothes and tightly laced boots; and the first climber had a rope hanging from his shoulder.
As the first climber approached me, he asked in a surprising French accent, if he could help us.
I was so shocked at what I was witnessing, I could only get out one word, “Please”.
They quickly took control. The first climber lifted my daughter off my shoulders and easily took her to the top of the cliff. As he gently placed her on the ground, he calmly directed her to stay there. He then came back down a few feet and stretched out his right arm. I grabbed hold of it and used it as leverage to pull myself up to the top.
The other climber then placed my four year old over his left shoulder. Instinctively she grabbed and held on to his neck with her small left hand. Climbing to the top, in what appeared to me to be almost effortlessly, he placed her directly beside me.
Then, without a word, the climber returned down the cliff to where my wife was. He was above her when he sat down on his legs and extended his right hand toward her. Also speaking in a French accent he asked, “Madame, may I escort you to the top?” Cheri replied, “You may”, reaching her hand upwards toward his. In no time at all she too was brought to the top of the cliff.
Safe, the stress of it all hit my wife and me as tears welled up in our eyes. Watching us, both of our little girls also began to cry. Expressions of gratitude then poured out to our rescuers. They asked if we would be alright. We assured them we would be, and as quickly as they came into our lives, ever so quickly they were gone, continuing their quest along the cliff’s wall.
As the sun began to set, the four of us huddled together with arms wrapped around each other. Laughs of relief and joy spontaneously broke out.
I cannot remember ever being any more grateful than I was at that moment, for a rescue I had done nothing to merit.
As the years have gone by, my feeling of gratitude has added a deep sense of wonderment to it. Today, I have no quick explanation for how it was that two French mountain climbers happened to intersect with a small family in danger, along the side of a cliff next to the Pacific Ocean.
The odds of such a thing happening are so remote as to be virtually impossible. But, the virtually impossible happened. When I think back on it, all I can do is smile and turn my head back and forth in awe.
My two daughters now have small children of their own. Every flower pot these grandchildren might knock over, every drink they may spill on the rug means nothing to me, as I reflect back to that special day when their mothers were safely raised to the top of that precarious cliff next to the ocean.
Privacy Policy. 2010. Use of this material only with the written permission of Dr. Roger Hendrix and Hendrix Consulting.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Positioning Yourself For Success
Part 1: Investing in the Market and Creating a New Business
I’ve been an active market investor for over forty years, and an entrepreneur for about twenty five years. In that time I’ve learned some important lessons. Here are some:
First for investing…
1. There’s only one free lunch when it comes to investing in the stock market: DIVERSIFICATION. I realized a long time ago that there are no “killer” stocks that will make you rich quickly. My best decision was selecting a good stock broker and investing in good mutual funds that select many companies, not just one.
2. Calling highs and lows of the market is futile, but “dollar cost averaging” allows you to take advantage of the market’s average growth. The stock market has an inherent bias: over time it steadily goes upward. So, by putting a little bit of money in each month, whether or not the market is growing or contracting, you’ll make approximately what the market makes over time. Over the last twenty years, it has grown on average about 8% annually.
Now, for creating a business…
1. Business is a jealous mistress. Be loyal to it, and it will forever reward you; cheat on it, and it will make life miserable. Creating a new business takes work above all else. When I started my first business, even though I had another job, I religiously increased the number of hours I worked each month. Eventually, it turned into a full time business with full time hours. A couple of times I slipped and short changed that kind of work dedication all with less than desirable results.
2. A new business grows when you solve small problems. It’s as if a struggling new business has a personality; it takes note of whether or not you are working at solving its problems. When you do, it expands, when you don’t, it contracts. Problem solving is the key to success, not a sign that the business is failing.
No short cuts…
As you can tell, whether it comes to investing in the market or creating a new business, I don’t believe that success comes from taking short cuts. At least, that has not been my experience. I’m convinced that true value emerges only as one exercises persistence. Great financial endeavors result when one sticks with the endeavor being pursued. Whether you’re investing or creating, “patient money always wins, fast money almost always loses.”
I’ve been an active market investor for over forty years, and an entrepreneur for about twenty five years. In that time I’ve learned some important lessons. Here are some:
First for investing…
1. There’s only one free lunch when it comes to investing in the stock market: DIVERSIFICATION. I realized a long time ago that there are no “killer” stocks that will make you rich quickly. My best decision was selecting a good stock broker and investing in good mutual funds that select many companies, not just one.
2. Calling highs and lows of the market is futile, but “dollar cost averaging” allows you to take advantage of the market’s average growth. The stock market has an inherent bias: over time it steadily goes upward. So, by putting a little bit of money in each month, whether or not the market is growing or contracting, you’ll make approximately what the market makes over time. Over the last twenty years, it has grown on average about 8% annually.
Now, for creating a business…
1. Business is a jealous mistress. Be loyal to it, and it will forever reward you; cheat on it, and it will make life miserable. Creating a new business takes work above all else. When I started my first business, even though I had another job, I religiously increased the number of hours I worked each month. Eventually, it turned into a full time business with full time hours. A couple of times I slipped and short changed that kind of work dedication all with less than desirable results.
2. A new business grows when you solve small problems. It’s as if a struggling new business has a personality; it takes note of whether or not you are working at solving its problems. When you do, it expands, when you don’t, it contracts. Problem solving is the key to success, not a sign that the business is failing.
No short cuts…
As you can tell, whether it comes to investing in the market or creating a new business, I don’t believe that success comes from taking short cuts. At least, that has not been my experience. I’m convinced that true value emerges only as one exercises persistence. Great financial endeavors result when one sticks with the endeavor being pursued. Whether you’re investing or creating, “patient money always wins, fast money almost always loses.”
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
I am Jake but I suffer from Repression
Creating a vision in your mind and fulfilling it in real life is a powerful experience.
In the movie Avatar the main character, Jake, is paralyzed from the waist down. Eventually he is transformed into a finely tuned, nearly perfect, scientifically created Avatar. As an Avatar he quickly learns to fly sitting atop a giant sized dinosaur looking bird.
As Jake and the bird soar and dive at extraordinary speeds, Jake becomes consumed with joy, for as he tells us at the start of the movie, all his life he had wanted to fly. His dream had come true.
Dreams are remarkable when they envision a seemingly helpless condition being overcome to accomplish a real and extraordinary outcome. Even though Avatar is a science fiction movie, it speaks truthfully about the human condition – especially my condition.
I am Jake
I was seven years old when I was stricken with a crippling virus called ‘Polio’. It left me with one leg smaller and weaker than the other. As a result I walked with a noticeable limp.
Even with this limitation my all consuming desire was to be an athlete. And although my handicap severely limited my ability to succeed early on in almost all sports, I continued to envision a day of athletic achievement.
Miraculously, by the time I reached twelfth grade, my vision had won out. I was starting forward on my high school water polo team, and a varsity swimmer. I had held a national age group swim record. I was elected President of the high school Varsity Club – an exclusive club reserved for varsity athletes, and I was the head varsity Yell King.
Commitment to my vision of athletic achievement brought me to a moment of triumph. I had in my own way become an Avatar. Ever since that personal victory, I have continued to create visions.
Suffering from Repression
Creating visions and pulling reality through them has been what I do best, and what I have been doing the longest and what I believe in most.
However, everything has its residual effects; its waste products if you will. For me it was Repression. Repression is when you suppress bad memories and have flash backs of them at a later time.
For example, on a recent trip to Southern California my wife and I were driving along the coast when we pulled off to look at the ocean crashing up against a long narrow jetty extending hundreds of yards out into the water.
As I looked at the spray of the waves going high into the air as they hit the huge jetty rocks, I had a flash back. It was the summer before I went into the tenth grade. Two of my friends and I were skin diving off of a similar jetty also in Southern California.
For some reason I had to stop diving and climb up and sit on one of the rocks. I think I had broken my spear. My two friends continued diving for fish. That experience seemed to deepen their friendship and left me odd man out.
Until that day with my wife, I can’t ever remember thinking about that experience. But, it was as clear as if it had just happened. It hurt me to think about it. The joy of the moment with my wife had been interrupted by the return of this repressed memory.
Flash backs have occurred frequently during my life. They almost always resulted in me feeling down emotionally.
How does one overcome Repression?
I don’t know that you can completely overcome repression, especially if you are a serious vision creator. It may be the price one has to pay for creating visions that overcome the limitations of life. After all, in vision creation one is challenging the reality of life as it exists. It’s no wonder then that this kind of person might be subject to the repression of painful memories.
But that doesn’t mean one shouldn’t try to face the problem of repression and improve things, especially if it consistently interferes with the joy one should have over the achievements of life. At least that is the conclusion I reached.
Confronting Repression
The most important activity I’ve ever engaged in is creating vision in my mind and then seeing them come true. Like Jake, I’m soaring inside when it happens. I am happy, happy as can be. For this reason, I’m not willing to let repression take that away from me. I will fight and confront the demons of flash backs.
This is how I do it. When a flash back occurs instead of trying to ignore it, I hold on to it. Then I share it with someone I trust. I then begin to analyze it by asking questions. At about this point the memory usually loses power and starts to slip away.
Let’s use the skin diving example to illustrate what I’m talking about. One, when the skin diving flash back happened, I focused on it. I turned to my wife and said, “I just had a flash back.” I describe it to her and explained it was painful.
I then started asking myself questions about the experience. “Did these two guys ever know that I felt like the odd man out?”
“No”, I answered. “I never told them”.
“Did they exclude you from any activities after that”?
“No”, I answered again. “By the end of the tenth grade, one of them had moved, and the other guy and I continued to swim and play water polo together for the next two years.
By this time I couldn’t even think of a third question to ask myself. The experience seemed to deflate and then to slip away. Not absolutely completely, but enough so that it no longer had the sting it did when I first experienced it.
I could feel myself beginning to relax and simultaneously returning to the pleasant time I was having with my wife.
Conclusion
I have always had the feeling that my life was meant to be filled with joy. When it hasn’t I have fought to get it.
Of the several things that habitually have held my happiness back, repression has probably been the major one. Repressing bad memories have visited me later as flash backs, which lead to feelings of depression and inadequacy.
I believe that in part I am responsible for creating my repression. For since my youngest years I have engaged in denying my handicaps by creating internal visions in my mind that saw me overcoming them.
I accomplished this by repressing experiences associated with my limitations and replacing them with visions or mental images of myself as having triumphed over them.
As the mental images began to come true in real life, my personal joy intensified, but so too did painful flash backs.
I realized that in blocking out unpleasant experiences associated with my handicap, I had not done away with them, I had merely neglected to face them. And, because I did not want my joy of accomplishment through vision creation to be overwhelmed by the anxiety of the flash backs, I decided to confront these demons.
As I did, I began to receive insights that helped. For one, I realized that the mind inflates memories – makes them bigger than they really are. Bringing them out into the open right sizes them. After that, they tend to lose their power to create intense personal stress.
When that happens the nice feeling created by the victories of life intensify. For me that kind of happiness has been worth fighting for. I am like Jake, flying high!
In the movie Avatar the main character, Jake, is paralyzed from the waist down. Eventually he is transformed into a finely tuned, nearly perfect, scientifically created Avatar. As an Avatar he quickly learns to fly sitting atop a giant sized dinosaur looking bird.
As Jake and the bird soar and dive at extraordinary speeds, Jake becomes consumed with joy, for as he tells us at the start of the movie, all his life he had wanted to fly. His dream had come true.
Dreams are remarkable when they envision a seemingly helpless condition being overcome to accomplish a real and extraordinary outcome. Even though Avatar is a science fiction movie, it speaks truthfully about the human condition – especially my condition.
I am Jake
I was seven years old when I was stricken with a crippling virus called ‘Polio’. It left me with one leg smaller and weaker than the other. As a result I walked with a noticeable limp.
Even with this limitation my all consuming desire was to be an athlete. And although my handicap severely limited my ability to succeed early on in almost all sports, I continued to envision a day of athletic achievement.
Miraculously, by the time I reached twelfth grade, my vision had won out. I was starting forward on my high school water polo team, and a varsity swimmer. I had held a national age group swim record. I was elected President of the high school Varsity Club – an exclusive club reserved for varsity athletes, and I was the head varsity Yell King.
Commitment to my vision of athletic achievement brought me to a moment of triumph. I had in my own way become an Avatar. Ever since that personal victory, I have continued to create visions.
Suffering from Repression
Creating visions and pulling reality through them has been what I do best, and what I have been doing the longest and what I believe in most.
However, everything has its residual effects; its waste products if you will. For me it was Repression. Repression is when you suppress bad memories and have flash backs of them at a later time.
For example, on a recent trip to Southern California my wife and I were driving along the coast when we pulled off to look at the ocean crashing up against a long narrow jetty extending hundreds of yards out into the water.
As I looked at the spray of the waves going high into the air as they hit the huge jetty rocks, I had a flash back. It was the summer before I went into the tenth grade. Two of my friends and I were skin diving off of a similar jetty also in Southern California.
For some reason I had to stop diving and climb up and sit on one of the rocks. I think I had broken my spear. My two friends continued diving for fish. That experience seemed to deepen their friendship and left me odd man out.
Until that day with my wife, I can’t ever remember thinking about that experience. But, it was as clear as if it had just happened. It hurt me to think about it. The joy of the moment with my wife had been interrupted by the return of this repressed memory.
Flash backs have occurred frequently during my life. They almost always resulted in me feeling down emotionally.
How does one overcome Repression?
I don’t know that you can completely overcome repression, especially if you are a serious vision creator. It may be the price one has to pay for creating visions that overcome the limitations of life. After all, in vision creation one is challenging the reality of life as it exists. It’s no wonder then that this kind of person might be subject to the repression of painful memories.
But that doesn’t mean one shouldn’t try to face the problem of repression and improve things, especially if it consistently interferes with the joy one should have over the achievements of life. At least that is the conclusion I reached.
Confronting Repression
The most important activity I’ve ever engaged in is creating vision in my mind and then seeing them come true. Like Jake, I’m soaring inside when it happens. I am happy, happy as can be. For this reason, I’m not willing to let repression take that away from me. I will fight and confront the demons of flash backs.
This is how I do it. When a flash back occurs instead of trying to ignore it, I hold on to it. Then I share it with someone I trust. I then begin to analyze it by asking questions. At about this point the memory usually loses power and starts to slip away.
Let’s use the skin diving example to illustrate what I’m talking about. One, when the skin diving flash back happened, I focused on it. I turned to my wife and said, “I just had a flash back.” I describe it to her and explained it was painful.
I then started asking myself questions about the experience. “Did these two guys ever know that I felt like the odd man out?”
“No”, I answered. “I never told them”.
“Did they exclude you from any activities after that”?
“No”, I answered again. “By the end of the tenth grade, one of them had moved, and the other guy and I continued to swim and play water polo together for the next two years.
By this time I couldn’t even think of a third question to ask myself. The experience seemed to deflate and then to slip away. Not absolutely completely, but enough so that it no longer had the sting it did when I first experienced it.
I could feel myself beginning to relax and simultaneously returning to the pleasant time I was having with my wife.
Conclusion
I have always had the feeling that my life was meant to be filled with joy. When it hasn’t I have fought to get it.
Of the several things that habitually have held my happiness back, repression has probably been the major one. Repressing bad memories have visited me later as flash backs, which lead to feelings of depression and inadequacy.
I believe that in part I am responsible for creating my repression. For since my youngest years I have engaged in denying my handicaps by creating internal visions in my mind that saw me overcoming them.
I accomplished this by repressing experiences associated with my limitations and replacing them with visions or mental images of myself as having triumphed over them.
As the mental images began to come true in real life, my personal joy intensified, but so too did painful flash backs.
I realized that in blocking out unpleasant experiences associated with my handicap, I had not done away with them, I had merely neglected to face them. And, because I did not want my joy of accomplishment through vision creation to be overwhelmed by the anxiety of the flash backs, I decided to confront these demons.
As I did, I began to receive insights that helped. For one, I realized that the mind inflates memories – makes them bigger than they really are. Bringing them out into the open right sizes them. After that, they tend to lose their power to create intense personal stress.
When that happens the nice feeling created by the victories of life intensify. For me that kind of happiness has been worth fighting for. I am like Jake, flying high!
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Happiness
For twenty years I’ve been spotting future trends and sharing them with readers, radio listeners, and audiences of all types.
Identifying what makes one happy has become a big topic. No wonder, with the increase in life expectancy, people want to know what constitutes personal contentment. They want to know if they have enough of it, and if they don’t they want to know if they can be happier.
I’m happy (no play on words intended to report that ‘yes’, happiness can be identified and it can be increased if we are in short supply of it.
Like most studies on nature vs. nurture, about 50% of our happiness is determined genetically and about 50% by our conditions and personal decisions. Our biochemical makeup in the front of our brains determines a lot of our contentment levels. But, so does our attitude. If you want to pick up your happiness, at a minimum consider picking up your attitude.
New research also suggests there are qualities or characteristics that contribute to contentment. They are, as best I can simply communicate them:
1. Having sufficient money. Fall below a certain amount and discontentment builds fast.
2. Having status that money brings. This seems rather shallow, but ignore it at your own peril. It’s one thing to have money; it’s another to have some degree of status that shows you have “made it” in life. Studies show we all need both to feel content.
3. Engaging in work. Retiring to an island to do nothing but relax is an illusion. Studies show that millionaires who work are more content than millionaires who do not.
4. Maintaining Good Health. Illness saps contentment. Having a body that allows you to perform a normal schedule of activities cannot be overlooked. This is probably what drives us from an evolutionary standpoint to keep our calories down, exercise routinely, take vitamins, eat vegetables, fruits, healthy foods, and drink lots of water.
5. Establishing Relationships. Research shows that people who concentrate on having good relationships live longer and are happier. Dedicating time to worthwhile relationships with a spouse, partner, family, friends or pets is essential to happiness.
Who would every have thought ‘Getting Happier’ would become a Trend. If you are reflecting on your present state of happiness and feeling you fall short of your desired level of personal happiness, then consider the following:
- Work on your attitude. Come to grips with negative feelings. Face them (tough as they may be), resolve, them, and get on with life. Facing negative attitudes and moving on in life produces greater personal contentment.
- Take control of your life by making goals. A lot is accomplished by deciding what you are going to achieve. Research shows that attitudes improve and financial security increases when goals are created and completed. Create short and long term goals. Then create action items to work toward attaining your goals. Planning your life is important.
- Save and invest. Studies show the average American will change jobs four or five times within their lifetime. Naturally that creates ups and downs in one’s personal cash flow. Get in the habit of having money set aside so you don’t feel overwhelmed when change comes. Work to have three months of cash on hand.
- Work hard at what you like. People who work at something they like usually make more money than those who don’t. In addition, they are also more likely to be recognized for making an accomplishment among their peers. They key is to strive to make a living out of what you like doing.
- Impose your will on your body. Move your body on a daily basis. Walk, swim, bike, exercise . . . whatever meets your capabilities and interests. Eat green and eat lean. Exercising and eating healthier will keep you happier and has longer term happiness benefits.
Try implementing these recommendations little by little. Happiness is not to the swift but to those who plug away at it.
Last, I have observed “Getting Happier” is not just available to those who live in rich countries, like America. Slowly, the possibility of achieving greater personal contentment is becoming available to people all over the world. The reason for this is that the world is gradually becoming more prosperous, and with growing prosperity the fundamental building block for greater happiness is created. Hopefully, that makes us all just a little bit happier.
Identifying what makes one happy has become a big topic. No wonder, with the increase in life expectancy, people want to know what constitutes personal contentment. They want to know if they have enough of it, and if they don’t they want to know if they can be happier.
I’m happy (no play on words intended to report that ‘yes’, happiness can be identified and it can be increased if we are in short supply of it.
Like most studies on nature vs. nurture, about 50% of our happiness is determined genetically and about 50% by our conditions and personal decisions. Our biochemical makeup in the front of our brains determines a lot of our contentment levels. But, so does our attitude. If you want to pick up your happiness, at a minimum consider picking up your attitude.
New research also suggests there are qualities or characteristics that contribute to contentment. They are, as best I can simply communicate them:
1. Having sufficient money. Fall below a certain amount and discontentment builds fast.
2. Having status that money brings. This seems rather shallow, but ignore it at your own peril. It’s one thing to have money; it’s another to have some degree of status that shows you have “made it” in life. Studies show we all need both to feel content.
3. Engaging in work. Retiring to an island to do nothing but relax is an illusion. Studies show that millionaires who work are more content than millionaires who do not.
4. Maintaining Good Health. Illness saps contentment. Having a body that allows you to perform a normal schedule of activities cannot be overlooked. This is probably what drives us from an evolutionary standpoint to keep our calories down, exercise routinely, take vitamins, eat vegetables, fruits, healthy foods, and drink lots of water.
5. Establishing Relationships. Research shows that people who concentrate on having good relationships live longer and are happier. Dedicating time to worthwhile relationships with a spouse, partner, family, friends or pets is essential to happiness.
Who would every have thought ‘Getting Happier’ would become a Trend. If you are reflecting on your present state of happiness and feeling you fall short of your desired level of personal happiness, then consider the following:
- Work on your attitude. Come to grips with negative feelings. Face them (tough as they may be), resolve, them, and get on with life. Facing negative attitudes and moving on in life produces greater personal contentment.
- Take control of your life by making goals. A lot is accomplished by deciding what you are going to achieve. Research shows that attitudes improve and financial security increases when goals are created and completed. Create short and long term goals. Then create action items to work toward attaining your goals. Planning your life is important.
- Save and invest. Studies show the average American will change jobs four or five times within their lifetime. Naturally that creates ups and downs in one’s personal cash flow. Get in the habit of having money set aside so you don’t feel overwhelmed when change comes. Work to have three months of cash on hand.
- Work hard at what you like. People who work at something they like usually make more money than those who don’t. In addition, they are also more likely to be recognized for making an accomplishment among their peers. They key is to strive to make a living out of what you like doing.
- Impose your will on your body. Move your body on a daily basis. Walk, swim, bike, exercise . . . whatever meets your capabilities and interests. Eat green and eat lean. Exercising and eating healthier will keep you happier and has longer term happiness benefits.
Try implementing these recommendations little by little. Happiness is not to the swift but to those who plug away at it.
Last, I have observed “Getting Happier” is not just available to those who live in rich countries, like America. Slowly, the possibility of achieving greater personal contentment is becoming available to people all over the world. The reason for this is that the world is gradually becoming more prosperous, and with growing prosperity the fundamental building block for greater happiness is created. Hopefully, that makes us all just a little bit happier.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
The Biology Economy
Here comes the Biology Economy. It is going to create millions of new jobs, billions of new products, and hundreds of thousands of new companies. Its mission is to improve the health, and extend the life of all humans.
Three Phases
The Biology Economy will come in three phases.
Phase one will be the Age of Spare Parts – this is a time when your joints, organs, ligaments, muscles, etc. will be replaced on a regularly schedule basis. We’ll be the first generation to unite the robot with the human.
Phase two will see the perfection of Gene Profiling. Here, scientists will go to the very center of what makes you up – your genes –and take a picture of them. If they see that one of your genes is faulty, they’ll customize a medicine or solution specifically targeted to repair it. As is the case with most diseases, such as cancer and heart trouble, which are genetic in origin, early gene profiling will become the most universal right that individuals will demand to participate in.
Phase three will be the pleasant time of Wellness. Staying well will take on a whole new meaning. As we come to understand that we become what we eat and drink, food and beverage will leap forward in nutritional benefit, enabling us to control the outcome of our own health.
Plan to Make it Part of Your Future
I believe that planning for the future is just about the greatest skill humans possess. Think about it. Humans have the ability to think about something that does not yet exist, and then make it come true, by planning for it. Nothing in the universe that we know of, can do that but humans.
So, if you want the Biology Economy to be a big part of your future, plan to make it so. Here are two suggestions.
A. Engage your Imagination. Dreaming about a better life for yourself is a big part of planning. For example, let’s say you are thirty years old and you start imagining yourself as a 100 year old person who is just as active as you are today. Why not? If the Biology Economy delivers on its promise, there is no reason why this could not happen to you. Also, the fastest growing segment of the population is the over 100 age group. So, go ahead, ‘imagine big’ about you and the Biology Economy. I am convinced that one of the biggest disappoints of our lives will be that most of us did not imagine ‘big enough about ourselves.
B. Write it down. There comes a time when you need to take a position. It is one thing to ‘imagine big’, but another to take a position about what you have imagined. Writing down, in an affirmative manner what you have envisioned about yourself is a powerful way to not only focus your thinking, but drive your behavior. For example, if you were to take the vision of “…seeing yourself as an active 100 year old person…”, and commit that to writing by saying, “I am going to live to be a very active 100 year old person”, all of the sudden you will begin to focus your attention on things that will contribute to that. All the resources necessary are all around you, but you do not see them until you focus your thinking. After that, you will begin to see things that you had not seen before. In turn, your behavior changes because you start to engage and use those resources.
In Conclusion
Good health and a long life are goals worth pursuing. The new Biology Economy will put that really within the reach of all of us.
Personal control will be the watchwords of this new era. Whether it is scheduling the regular replacement of body parts, probing deeply to repair genetic blueprints, or targeting food and drink intake for maximizing nutritional benefit, we will take control of the destiny of our bodies.
Knowing this it is imperative that we exercise the greatest of all gifts bestowed upon us: The Ability to Plan Our Future. “Planning doth make it so.”
Three Phases
The Biology Economy will come in three phases.
Phase one will be the Age of Spare Parts – this is a time when your joints, organs, ligaments, muscles, etc. will be replaced on a regularly schedule basis. We’ll be the first generation to unite the robot with the human.
Phase two will see the perfection of Gene Profiling. Here, scientists will go to the very center of what makes you up – your genes –and take a picture of them. If they see that one of your genes is faulty, they’ll customize a medicine or solution specifically targeted to repair it. As is the case with most diseases, such as cancer and heart trouble, which are genetic in origin, early gene profiling will become the most universal right that individuals will demand to participate in.
Phase three will be the pleasant time of Wellness. Staying well will take on a whole new meaning. As we come to understand that we become what we eat and drink, food and beverage will leap forward in nutritional benefit, enabling us to control the outcome of our own health.
Plan to Make it Part of Your Future
I believe that planning for the future is just about the greatest skill humans possess. Think about it. Humans have the ability to think about something that does not yet exist, and then make it come true, by planning for it. Nothing in the universe that we know of, can do that but humans.
So, if you want the Biology Economy to be a big part of your future, plan to make it so. Here are two suggestions.
A. Engage your Imagination. Dreaming about a better life for yourself is a big part of planning. For example, let’s say you are thirty years old and you start imagining yourself as a 100 year old person who is just as active as you are today. Why not? If the Biology Economy delivers on its promise, there is no reason why this could not happen to you. Also, the fastest growing segment of the population is the over 100 age group. So, go ahead, ‘imagine big’ about you and the Biology Economy. I am convinced that one of the biggest disappoints of our lives will be that most of us did not imagine ‘big enough about ourselves.
B. Write it down. There comes a time when you need to take a position. It is one thing to ‘imagine big’, but another to take a position about what you have imagined. Writing down, in an affirmative manner what you have envisioned about yourself is a powerful way to not only focus your thinking, but drive your behavior. For example, if you were to take the vision of “…seeing yourself as an active 100 year old person…”, and commit that to writing by saying, “I am going to live to be a very active 100 year old person”, all of the sudden you will begin to focus your attention on things that will contribute to that. All the resources necessary are all around you, but you do not see them until you focus your thinking. After that, you will begin to see things that you had not seen before. In turn, your behavior changes because you start to engage and use those resources.
In Conclusion
Good health and a long life are goals worth pursuing. The new Biology Economy will put that really within the reach of all of us.
Personal control will be the watchwords of this new era. Whether it is scheduling the regular replacement of body parts, probing deeply to repair genetic blueprints, or targeting food and drink intake for maximizing nutritional benefit, we will take control of the destiny of our bodies.
Knowing this it is imperative that we exercise the greatest of all gifts bestowed upon us: The Ability to Plan Our Future. “Planning doth make it so.”
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