Definitely check
out the video if you haven’t yet, but then, I want to break down a few of the
lessons that came up from my conversation with Steve, which lasted FAR longer
than what was shown on TV, he was a surprisingly much better interviewer than this
media legend. This might seem a little repetitive, but I really want
to hammer these lessons home to you as you grow in your own journey towards
real wealth.
Lesson #1 – Keep it simple
Like a lot of
people do when they find out I became a millionaire in college, Steve asked me
what made me so good at investing. And I had to tell him the truth. At first, I
wasn’t good. I started out trying to trade big blue chip stocks
because that’s what everyone told me you had to do to get rich. The result was
that my portfolio didn’t move until I started trading lower priced stocks with
the kind of volatility I needed to bank 10%, 20%, 30% or more in profits on a
single trade.
The lesson here is
that, even though I’m always working towards big goals, it’s the small profits
I’ve taken along the way that helped me get where I am today. You have to keep
things simple. You’re not going to go out and start making $50,000 on a trade
if you’re new to penny stocks, or if you only have $1,000 in
your portfolio. But if you’re focused about taking profits of $500 here and
$1,000 there, you’re going to get to that big goal eventually.
Lesson #2 – Money can’t buy you happiness
This one is
totally cliche, but it’s true. And I love the way Steve explained it to the
audience in our conversation. What he said was, if you don’t know your purpose,
wealth and money will never make you happy. And unfortunately, according to
him, the average person dies never knowing why they were born in the first
place. How heartbreaking is that?
I have a hunch
that, since you’re here reading this, you know what your purpose in this life
is – and I’m guessing it isn’t to scrape by, day after day, while others are
living the lifestyle you want. Maybe your purpose is travel. Maybe it’s giving to your favorite charity, or taking
care of the family members that have taken care of you. If you know that your
purpose is to become wealthy and to use your riches to help others, you’re
already ahead of the game. You just need to learn the practical skills to make money.
I’m living proof
of what Steve was talking about in this video. You all know that I love taking
luxury vacations, and I love buying expensive sports cars (even if I’m still
learning to drive them). But while that kind of wealth and luxury is fun for
me, it isn’t fulfilling. You know what is? My teaching career. Teaching gives
me a whole new opportunity in my life to be the kind of mentor I never had.
Making trades doesn’t always get me out of bed in the morning, but knowing that
I’ve got a community full of students waiting for me gets me every time.
Lesson #3 – Find your community
Another tip I
shared in my interview with Steve that I think deserves repeating is the idea
that, if you have a motivated community behind you, you can do things you never
thought possible.
If you’ve ever
wondered what goes on in my TIMalerts chat rooms, all you have to do is
check out my
twitter feed. I’m constantly posting
examples of my students who are making bank based off of information shared
between my students:
And I don’t just
do that to brag. I do that because I’ve never been shy about the fact that I’m
not the best trader out there. I’m constantly working on new
training programs to benefit my students, so I miss things. I miss
news that happens. I miss earnings winners that are announced. I miss premarket
and after-hours spikes. But you know what? My students don’t. They’re in there
every day, supporting one another. They profit together, and they work together
to figure out what went wrong when trades go south.
It really is an
incredible environment, and it’s one that I’m proud to be a part of, even as
it’s taken on a life of its own – with or without me.
Lesson #4 – Be patient
I’m going a little
out of order from the video, but I really have to jump in with this lesson
here. When I tell you that I’m not the best trader, I tell you that for a reason.
I only make about 75% of my trades. That means that, for every three successful
trades I make where I get to bank a profit, I have another one that loses me
money. Sometimes it’s even more if I’ve
been making stupid mistakes.
But I don’t let
that stress me out, and I sure as hell don’t let it stop me. I’m patient. I’ve
been around the stock market long enough – going on two decades now – to know
that, as long as I’m calm and careful, things will turn around for me.
If you’re making
the kinds of big leaps in your life that me and Steve suggest, you’re going to
make mistakes. It’s inevitable. It sucks, but it’s also pretty much
unavoidable. What matters is how you handle them.
If you let your
mistakes get to you, you’re going to get frustrated. If you’re trading, you’re
in trouble – emotions have the power to bring down even the most successful of
traders if they aren’t controlled. But no matter what you’re trying and what
mistakes you’re experiencing, letting them get you down serves nobody. It helps
nobody. Look at them like learning opportunities. The sooner you recognize that
you can’t improve and grow without making mistakes, the sooner you’ll arrive at
whatever kind of success you’re chasing.
Lesson #5 – Never stop challenging yourself
Clearly, I’ve done
well financially with penny stocks. If I wanted to, I could stop trading and
teaching tomorrow, move to Bali and spend every day hanging out with my fiancee
and my family. I’m financially set for life at this point. I don’t have to work
another day in my life if I don’t want to.
But how boring
would that be?
I trade and I
teach because I love the challenge. I love waking up and knowing that all I
have in front of me are endless opportunities to profit on great penny stock
plays and to help my students build real, generational wealth. How amazing is
that? How could I ever think about quitting when, every day, I have the chance
to spend time on two things I’m truly passionate about?
I want you to have
that same kind of enthusiasm. I don’t care what you’re passionate about. The
world is so big and so vast that there’s something out there for everyone. For
me, it’s teaching. For you, it might be art, or travel, or charity work. It
doesn’t matter. What matters is that you find it, and you never stop
challenging yourself to pursue it.
I love this quote
from Steve. Take it, print it out and put it somewhere you can see it every
morning:
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