One of the most common causes of failure is “Habit Of Quitting,” “I’ll Do It Myself,” when one is overtaken by temporary defeat. Every one of us is guilty of this mistake, whether in investing or everyday life, at one time or another.
Case history:
A regular factory worker was caught by “THE GOLD FEVER” in the gold rush days, went to the rumoured gold spot with a shovel and a handful of tools to dig up gold in the hope of becoming rich. The going was hard, but his lust for gold was definite.
After weeks of digging, he was rewarded with the discovery of shining Ore. He needed machinery to bring the ore to the surface. Quietly, he covered up the mine and retraced his footstep to his home. He told his relative and a few of his neighbours of the ‘strike.’ They got together the money needed for the machinery and had it shipped. He and his friends went back to the mine.
The first car of ore was mined and shipped to a smelter. The results proved that they had one of the richest mines in the state! A few more cars of that ore would clear the debts. Then would come the giant-killing in profits.
Down went the drills! Up went the hopes of the group of miners. Suddenly the vein of gold ore disappeared! They had come to the end of the rainbow, and the pot of gold was no longer there! They drilled on, desperately trying to pick up the vain again-all to no avail.
Finally, they decided to quit.
They sold the machinery to a junk man for a few hundred dollars and took the train back home. Some “junk” men are dumb, but not this one! He called in a mining engineer to look at the mine and do a little calculation. The engineer advised that the project had failed because the owners were not familiar with the ‘fault lines.’ His analyses showed that the vein would be found just three feet from where they had stopped drilling! That is precisely where it was found!
The ‘junk’ man took the millions of dollars in ore from the mine because he knew enough to seek expert counsel before giving up.
Often, we make similar mistakes, whether in our day-to-day life or in investments. We refuse to weigh out the cost and benefits of seeking professional help because it cost more than if we do it ourselves. If we consider the potential upside that can be achieved from the right business professionals, our lives would be so much better. If that factory worker hadn’t quit drilling, he could’ve hit the jackpot. When investments are losing value every day, we often quit those investments at a loss. If we seek professionals help, why is this happening and try to get to its bottom? There is a possibility that it has nothing to with the fundamentals of the company/investment. It could possibly be pessimism in the market.
Categories: All Stories
Leave a Reply