Is investing just about making money and securing a good/bright future? What should drive me when I invest? What really should be permanently etched on my mind? I believe these are some of the key questions anyone who intends to make success of investing (of any kind) needs to ask and deliberately find answers to. Whatever answers we find (and I hope we find the right answers!) should shape the pattern of our thinking when we commit our time and sweat to answering the deep questions that emanates from that "mild" but "needed" greed that aspires everyone of us to seek a better existence.
I see investments/investing within the larger context of life itself. If you are married, close to getting married or plan to get married someday, then you will understand the simple analogy we will use to set a tone for our investing activities in the days, months and years ahead. Investing can be likened to a marital relationship. The truth be told, when you choose to start investing for the purpose of wealth creation, you are announcing to your self the birth of a relationship. A relationship that will require a lot of care, patience and love. Any mindset lesser than this sets you on a guaranteed path of failure with your investments (be it time or money). Investing is treasure hunting, and you better have your heart in it! The whole essence of marriage is to value a "life" and to be valued back in return - you don't get what you don't give!
Investing should be about creating value: spotting a value creating opportunity, nurturing that opportunity, committing to that opportunity and then spreading that opportunity. Money (and lorry loads of it!) happens to be one of those things that you get splashed with in the process of enjoying your investing life (ask all the richest men of the world...they'll tell you the same). So does that mean I invest with the hope of not making money?....pleeease...I'm not crazy or some feel good lunatic! We all want to make money - The difference is in the "how?"!
I believe in staking investments with organisations for the sole reason that increasingly, these corporations have become greater agents of change than the governments of today. When you invest in an organisation(or start one), what you have indirectly done is provide the means for these organisations to effect these changes. If after investing in any company you complain against the Capitalist "west", you've missed the point...You just became one yourself, and the earlier you start enjoying that status, the better for your investing future. When you invest, you join with a large band of stakeholders, some known to you and others, you never even realise you are joined with in the same cause. I have come to admire some of the great investors of our time, ranging from the likes of Warren Buffet, Kerkorian, Soros, Fola Adeola etc. and how the various organisations they invested in have become massive agents of change. These guys staked something deep with the organisations they've been involved with, and for every dime of their wealth celebrated today by you and I, the value created by them has influenced our societies for the better.
I hope I'm not sounding off point here, because like I said in my last post, this is a journey - a long journey (no quick fix promises). Let's agree on our principles before we start...it will save us a lot of headache in the future and will bring us the returns we desire.
(it's getting close to that part of the month where I need to put some cash in the market, I will be ruminating on some basic financials of listed companies over the weekend to decide what order to give my stockbroker next week. So you can look forward to the recommendations I'll be giving in my next few posts!)
- Gbolade Shoyemi
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