![\"appalling\"](\"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/appalling.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThough nonsense, there are intelligent, sane, people who will believe it.<\/p>\n
These are the people who stayed out of the stockmarket in 2013, figuring it was over-priced and\/or something horrible was about to happen. Obamacare. Congress. Syria. Somalia. Who knows.<\/p>\n
There are people who actually make a living crafting words of fear, packaging them into a newsletter and selling for vast amounts of wasted money. They also frequent financial TV networks.<\/p>\n
I won’t predict 2014. I can’t. No one can.<\/p>\n
But I predict that\u00a0 those who participate are more likely to benefit than those who don’t.<\/p>\n
There are always reasons to stay on the sidelines, playing it safe, afraid of the impending disaster. Afraid to take a\u00a0 chance.<\/p>\n
I see friends stymied by their salaried jobs. Nice salaries.. Nice benefits. But stuck. Not willing to strike out on their own.<\/p>\n
2013 rewarded the strikers — the entrepreneurs, the risk-takers, the people who said “I can do it.”<\/p>\n
I saw friends make money buying and selling modern (ugly) art. I saw a friend sell $28 million of air rights to a building he bought for $6 million. I saw friends with shares of Google, Visa, MasterCard, Whole Foods, Honeywell, Gilead etc. I saw friends sell their companies for millions and then, promptly, form another one.<\/p>\n
There are four elements:<\/p>\n
+ Knowledge<\/strong>. You got to have plenty of it. You got to keep learning and studying. I use this column to teach myself.<\/p>\n + Confidence. <\/strong>You’ve got to have the confidence in yourself to strike out on your own. + Control.<\/strong> You can’t benefit big unless you control it. In simple terms, the checkbook better be in your desk.<\/p>\n + Luck.\u00a0<\/strong>No one succeeds without luck. You can’t buy it. You can’t wish it. You can only be there when it happens. And it will happen — if you’re there.<\/p>\n \u00a0Trillions of wealth was lost during the 2008 downturn. It looked (and felt) like the end of the world. Nobody escaped unscathed.<\/p>\n But 2013 was the year it all ratcheted back. With a vengeance, no less.<\/p>\n The politicians and the economists are talking about “income inequality.” It’s gotten worse, they say. There are millions stuck in dead-end jobs, or worse, without a job altogether. Yet there are also millions who have chosen to control their own destiny and largely have. They call them the one percenters.\u00a0 I call them the strikers, the ones who struck out on their own.<\/p>\n When I left for America, my boss in Australia told me I’d love the Americans. They were just like me: They substituted enthusiasm for intelligence. I thought it was an insult. It wasn’t. Virtually all the money I’ve made in the U.S. has been made because of my enthusiasm, speed, obsession, love, excitement — all the words they don’t teach at Harvard Business School.<\/p>\n There isn’t a business — new or old — that you can’t improve with better products, nicer service or better prices<\/p>\n And what’s unique about America is that failure is not s stigma. Failure here is a sign you tried and will do better next time. Failure overseas is failure forever.<\/p>\n As we begin a New Year, that’s my simple message:<\/p>\n You can do it. Get in the game.<\/p>\n Do it now.<\/p>\n Apps to smooth your journey.<\/strong> <\/span>From the New York Times. Click here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Favorite this week’s New Yorker cartoons:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Harry Newton is in Portland, Oregon visiting his new granddaughter, Eleanor.<\/p>\n
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