Starting Over
Thursday, November 18, 2010 at 11:15AMAfter graduating from college with a physics degree in the mid eighties, I went to work in meteorology at the Trenton Air Force Base located in Trenton, Ontario. It was an interesting job, but after a few years carrying my lunch in a brown bag to work, I had enough.
By the time I finally quit my job I had decided I wanted to make money trading. I enrolled in the York University MBA program and learned more about business and trading. Aside from getting me a few good interviews, the education program was a waste of time. The cramming was plentiful, but I had no time for thinking.
Anyway, I’ve done pretty well in business overall.
The younger people reading this blog might have an interest in finding out what I would do if I had to start over again. Here is some of the stuff I would do.
- I would adopt the tenets of the 5 laws of stratospheric success (Amazon.com link).
- I would seek out the dream builders and try to help them build their dreams and learn from them. Current dream builders in finance that I admire are Michael Bellafiore, Steven Spencer, Thomas Peterffy, Phil Pearlman, and Howard Lindzon, but there are plenty of others. Figure out what you can contribute to the effort. When I invested in Innovative Fibers, Benoit Lavigne, the company's CEO, had big dreams about fiber optics and you felt he was going all in with this project. My investment helped him in small ways in the pursuit of his dreams. You can be helpful in many different ways.
- I would learn physics or engineering and complement it with some kind of computer science education.
- I would read Seth Godin, Chris Brogan, and other luminaries on a daily basis.
- Education: I would learn from the money makers not the teachers. I would not get an MBA. I would not get a CFA. Actually, through my experience I would plant the seed to develop an education platform at a very early stage in my financial career. Here is what John Templeton had to say about the education system before he passed away. The traditional is toast.
- I would start trading my money right away.
- I would learn about APIs as soon as possible.
- I would learn to write better.
- I would start a blog as soon as possible and write down everything. You are media.
- I would be obsessive about compounding everything at a high rate. Knowledge, money, relationships, platforms, content, etc.-everything that has value. -everything that moves you forward.
- I would learn about trading and investing from the best with no pre-conceived views on the subject. I would be a sponge, absorbing everything. Then I would develop my own trading recipes.
- I would seek greatness and promote it with any chance I have.
- I would not build a career; I would build a platform.
- I would start a business as early as possible.
- I would adopt a minimalist lifestyle right from the get-go.
- I would turn off my trading screen more often.
I would isolate myself more frequently to cultivate hunches; write everything down; play more often especially in the trading sandbox; make plenty of mistakes; frequent liquid networks (Twitter, Stocktwits, etc.); experience creative flow as frequently as possible; and build platforms. I would let others build on what I’ve built. I would mash-up, create, invent, and re-invent.
It is so much fun to be a rebellious kid with big dreams! You are young. Go for it!
Written by Michael Bigger. Follow me on Twitter and StockTwits.
Reader Comments (16)
i never saw this post until today. great write-up.
Jason,
Thank you very much.
Michael
Excellent post! Motivating to say the least. Regarding the MBA and CFA: You would not do that again? What exactly are the reasons for this? I am seriously considering a MBA or a CFA because I have this notion that they are a necessity in the investing industry. For respect or credibility, people want to see those letters at the end of your name, especially if you are trying to get their money and grow it. But the more I see, traders like yourself and @johnwelshtrades (the "money makers") say that an MBA is not needed, and actually provides little value in the trading world. I am leaning towards not getting either one due to the time and capital committment. I believe that my trading track record is all the credibility I'll need, but maybe I'm naive. Any additional thoughts on the matter are appreciated. Thanks for a great blog!
Hi Chris,
If you decide an MBA and CFA are programs worth pursuing for you then you should go ahead and enroll in them. As far as I am concerned I did not learn that much about trading and investing from these programs. Most of the wealth I have accumulated, has been derived from principles learned from people that have achieved. I have learned more from the achievers than the teachers. May be I don't give enough credit to my MBA and CFA certifications. Today, in the connected society, you get so much knowledge for free from great traders. If you go the MBA route, keep on learning from these traders and be skeptical of the teachers. If you decide to go your own way, learn from the best, adopt a minimalist lifestyle, and go crush it.
Chris,
I forgot one thing. I would get a Physics degree again and complement with an engineering degree in computer science or something of that nature. But that is just me speaking. We are all different.
Dear Michael, thank you so very much for referring to the 5 laws of stratospheric success in John David Mann's and my book. What an Honor! Please know how much that is appreciated! - Bob
Bob,
Thank you very much. The traders reading my blog have gone wild about your book. Congratulations!
Good day Sir, may I repost this article to my blog? I really find it motivating and inspiring to young investors/traders. I'm looking forward to you positive response :)
KennyV you can go ahead as long as you give me an attribution and you link to this site. Good luck with it.
Michael
@Michael- Thank you very much for this post. I just read it now, and just like Chris, in a way I was contemplating about getting the CFA. In any case, I've already decided to finish it and am currently enrolled for the 2nd level. I felt it was more of a fallback plan, and treated it more like a continuing education program. I agree so much with building a platform, rather than building a career. Also from my own experience, I do know that listening, learning from traders and money makers are far more valuable education than anything offered. It's funny that the best things are actually free, and people never really appreciate it. I'm happily spending time with openculture.com's wonderful links re Smart Youtube links. Thanks so much and I'll go take a look at The Go Giver, which you recommended. Many thanks and keep on posting! Btw, the post re using twitter as a second brain is wonderful.
thanks for spreading the love.
Regarding trading per se, neither and MBA nor a CFA will give you the necessary information or behavioral skill sets to develop a trading plan and the skills necessary to adhere to it. I believe these two factors are necessary for living as a financial trader. The last formal test, back in 1999, I took to continue my trading was a Series 7 exam. This content too had nothing to do with the knowledge or behavioral skills sets necessary to achieve a positive return in trading financial markets. I propose that all types of degrees, unless there is specific course work and labs designed to address specific trading skills, are similar. They may help you get your foot in the door. However if you search you will find many groups who recruited people to trade had many recruits with zero, yes, tha'ts zero business background or formal finance degrees. The degree or educational background bore little correlation with trading profitability. Other traits and developed skills are simply more significant.
I think the maxim in trading is: good traders trade. Internships and jobs with successful firms that show a history of creating good traders are desirable to get. At some point, however, the most important detail of trading will be one's ability to follow his/her plan in the presence of competing emotions. So if you get that kind of training from a large firm, or on your own, or a combination of both, success will come from doing it and learning.
I really like this website and its theme. Reading things like this helps me recharge and refocus on the 80/20 of what I do well. I am still going through it and thanks Mike for putting your thoughts down for us to share.
William Schneider
Equities Trader
Redlands, CA
Great post. This is useful information for us younger guys who are always looking to learn secrets from veterans in the industry. Thank you for sharing.
Best
Dan Bustamante
We just talked today - thank you!
I'll be spending a lot of time reading your excellent site entries such as this!
Sincerely,
David
Nice talking to you David. You know where to reach me.
Dan, William, and Nikki,
Thank you very much for the kind words.
Nikki,
The Go giver is an amazing book. I hope you read it.