The Importance of Patience
Patience is a virtue, we are always told, but its value goes beyond mere quality of character. In matters of wealth, patience is often the one factor that separates the winners from the losers. As they saying goes, bulls make money and bears make money, but hogs get slaughtered.
Why do I bring this up? Because I am at a somewhat awkward stage of the game. On the one hand, it’s far easier to find ways to multiply tiny sums such as the ones I have dealt in thus far. On the other hand, each transaction tends to take up my entire stake, so if the one transaction takes a while to complete, I must wait.
And that is where I find myself now. With my $3 stake I purchased another book, a hardcover this time, and listed it for sale. It has been up for several days, now, but no buyer has appeared. I begin to wonder if I picked the wrong book this time around.
Still, a few days is not all that long. I still have the lowest price up, and the book was recently a mega bestseller. So I will continue to wait — and scan the ground for change, should I get stuck with it. The one thing I will not do is give up, even if my stake is lost. And neither should you. If we have to start over, so be it.
Whether you’re on step 5, step 15, or step 23, always remember that it all came from one dime lying in the street, and any step that can be taken once can be taken again. In order to succeed, we must be willing to risk failure.
And now to take stock: I have multiplied my money 32 times over in just a few days. That’s a pretty good run for any investor. Onward…
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