‘If I were you, I wouldn’t bother. I lost a total of $200 000 dabbling in the stock market.’
Those words came from my uncle when I visited him in Florida three years ago. We were driving during the early hours of the morning, making wholesale deliveries of bagels to restaurants, hotels and small businesses in the area. He would go on about how stocks exploded during the dotcom bubble, how he amassed tens of thousands of dollars overnight, and the car he prematurely bought his wife as a result. It truly was a craze. Unfortunately for my uncle, he was part of the masses that fell victim to the two prominent demons inherent in people when it comes to investing: fear and greed.
So why am I sharing this seemingly unimportant anecdote with you?
Well, that is because I believe, in my own humble opinion, that small events to even single words have the potential to change one’s decisions, and hence the path taken in life. Not to get too philosophical but this was true in my case; because if I could identify the point in time my interests in money and investing began, it would be then.
Firstly, however, allow me to introduce myself before I continue my talk about passion.
My name is Simon, and I am not going to pretend like I have achieved great things. I’m not a guru, nor do I hold any form of certification or degree in a traditional sense; in fact, I dropped out of university one year before I was due for graduation. I was studying mechanical engineering in Brisbane, Australia at the time.
This is a picture of my buddies and me during second year. I’m the one second from the left:
When I was a kid, education was a big part of my life and its ‘importance’, was particularly emphasized by my father. I was taught to be competitive when it came to grades. This mindset was so ingrained in me that when a new student was introduced in class, I would go out of my way to determine if they were more intelligent than I was. Overall, my goal every year was to be the top student in class, and bring home good grades so I could receive praise from my parents.
My ego played less of a role by the time I entered high school, but my attitude towards education remained unchanged. I worked diligently. Throughout my years, like many, little did I question why we were learning the things we were learning.
You might be wondering why it took me three out of the four years required for my degree to call quits. I think you kind of know by now. Yes, I admit, studying engineering became too difficult because I didn’t put in the time. But looking back, the root cause was that I had no passion for it. My actions carried little to no substance: it was the result of other people’s expectations; the result of what I thought at the time to be the only path to become successful.
Quitting to me meant accepting defeat. It meant failure, and I was in denial for several months latching on to the idea that I was still a student. I found it very difficult to let go partly because I was ashamed, and also being at university was really a security blanket. It gave me a sense of purpose in life, which I later found, personally, to be false.
I remember being told by many friends and relatives that I should've stuck it through and completed the course. I couldn’t disagree more however, because I know several people in my life that have done just that, and threw in the towel over a decade down the track. Or worse, still force themselves to commit to something they obviously dislike.
So back to the anecdote about my uncle’s experience with the stock market during the dotcom bubble, and when he ‘lost his pants’, as he would say, I was intrigue by the fact that he could make (or lose) so much money in a short period of time. I never gave much thought to investing before that, so while I was there, I downloaded an e-copy of Share Investing for DUMMIES and began reading about what a company is, IPO’s, earnings, PE ratios and what not.
To keep a long story short, when I returned to Australia, I did further research and over time my interests began leaning towards day trading equities. That is my passion and my bread and butter.
I later discovered there was so much misleading information and fake gurus on the internet, and that the first book I read only served the purpose of introducing terms related to investing. It was a crappy book in my opinion, and I don’t recommend it because what really makes an exceptional investor (or trader) is someone who is emotionally intelligent. That’s right, I said it. It’s not all technical with this game: it’s almost all psychological.
We’ll discuss that further in a later post, and also what I did to raise money in order to day trade and invest to begin with.
So to sum things up, the lesson is: if you find yourself lacking passion in your pursuit of anything, do some self-reflection and find out what the root cause is, because it might just be the thing that is blinding, or holding you back from other opportunities.
And also since I wasn’t sure where to add pictures throughout my post, I’ll just leave some of them here for you. They were taken by one of my cousin when I flew to America in 2014:
My uncle. He was probably talking about what makes a perfect bagel.
My uncle and auntie's bagel shop, 'Everything Bagels' in West Palm Beach
You wont find them there anymore because the shop now has new owners.
My brother, me and one of my cousins helping out at the back.
Thanks for reading my post and all the best fellow Steemians!