Friday, December 16, 2016

Tools for Titans #7 : Nicholas McCarthy

Nicholas McCarthy is a pianist who was born without a right hand but proceeded to graduate from the Royal College of Music in London.

As this section is really short, there is only one significant lesson to share today which is about :

Playing the Long Game

Nicholas could have made a fast buck using his malformed right hand to play the piano as a gimmick, but that would have given him a very short time in the limelight. Instead, he focused on serious playing with his left hand which led to a long lasting career.

This lesson may have implications for many of us here in Singapore.

When you latch onto a new technology by attending some bootcamp ( in my case its MeteorJS ), are you looking to make a fast buck in a start-up or trying to build a long term career ?

Same goes for investing.

You see a lot of guys getting tricked or scammed by people who claim to make a lot of money via binary options. In fact, I would like to think that the same goes for the folks who sell TA trading courses. It's about making a fast buck and not about long-term wealth generation at all. In a world where people write algorithms to trade forex and stock counters, it would be ludicrous to think that it's possible to use your trader instincts to outwit an AI.

I know of some folks who peddle TA seminars who are now switching to dividends investing after many years who suddenly realise that anything value investing related requires a different and more involved skill set of reading financial statements and following the business news.

The attraction of TA has always been that you can get rich quick and can develop the ability to get started without investing time in serious study of finance as a discipline. This allows ordinary people to get started in investing.

As such, I recommend the reader to avoid any course or seminar which claims that something is "easy" and a panacea to rescue "ordinary people".

This is an age where being average is barely enough. In finding a job, developing a career, or investing your money for above average returns.

No one can develop an investing approach which can save someone mediocrity.

No comments:

Post a Comment