My Day In Pictures – Sunday, October 17th, 2010
Today, I wanted to write new content for Investing for Beginners at About.com, a division of The New York Times, and then go through the S&P stock sheets for fun.
Today, I wanted to write new content for Investing for Beginners at About.com, a division of The New York Times, and then go through the S&P stock sheets for fun.
I had originally planned on reading today, then working on some detail work that needed to be completed but ended up heading over to the Country Club Plaza to go to the Apple store with my parents and sister. It turned into an entire day outing, which was wonderful. Here is my day in pictures.
Given the historical importance of the book, and my decision to finally read it, my brief introduction to a few pages of Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand turned into an all day affair. I have some very significant reservations about the author’s stated philosophical belief system, Objectivism, but that deserves its own future essay. Suffice it to say, though she gets 70% of the equation correct by supporting free market decision making and individual liberty, I think her model of human behavior is incomplete and therefore not entirely rational and realistic when carried to its logical extreme.
The most important part of success in life is: Get Started. Too many people wait until things are “perfect” or until they are completely confident in themselves. They are paralyzed by fear. They worry about the judgment of others; about public embarrassment if they fail. Don’t. Set your sight on your future and what you…
Due to our disciplined value investing philosophy, coupled with our insistence upon diversification of income and assets, we haven’t experienced a lot of big losses. When we do, we try and study what went wrong so we can understand if there was a structural problem or a blind spot in our mental cognition that should be avoided in the future. We never want to have to “return to Go” in Monopoly terms. That is just intelligent portfolio management.
The best advice I ever received came when my parents dropped me off at college. As they were getting in the car, my dad looked at me and said, “Your mom and I have done everything we could for you. We fed you, we clothed you and you have a high school education. From now on, it is your responsibility to make your dreams come true. We can’t do it for you, and no one else can either. If you want it, you have to do it on your own.”
When I come into the office, I begin by sitting down with a white pad of narrow-ruled paper (narrow-ruled, which is smaller than even college-ruled because that is how I like it), and set out everything I want to achieve that day. If I knock off the top 5 things, I consider it a success.
Once you begin to have success, shopping for clothes is a very different experience.
Along with learning the piano works of French composer Erik Satie, Aaron’s latest project has been learning the art of gardening gladiolus and other flowers. I was indifferent to the plan in the beginning, but after seeing the fruits of his passion, I wholeheartedly support this.
How My Grandpa Dennis Could Have Turned His Pepsi Habit Into a 7-Figure Estate I’ve written in the past about how nearly every American alive today has been confronted with perhaps a dozen different companies that they knew first hand because they enjoyed using the firm’s products for years (in some cases, their whole life)…