6 Lessons About Life You Can Learn From Succeeding and Failing on the Stock Market
by Andrew McGuinness Tem 16, 2019
The stock market represents a lot more than just money. The stock market is a great place to learn about success and failure. It’s a place to learn about mindset, consumer behavior, politics and many more things. It’s a place to gain a well-rounded education in business and any industry you might take a liking to. Trading 101 taught you how to operate in this environment, let’s look at what you can learn from the stock market to bring yourself to new heights in life.
1) Diversify your knowledge like you would your portfolio
Knowledge is the absolutely most important part of trading. Understanding how things and why things happen the way they do is critical to success. Often in life, like in the stock market, major events and milestones are connected across different periods of time, people and other factors. The same happens in trading – for instance, a major development in the IT sector could have a severe impact on the aviation industry in the next 3 months, making it a prime time to buy shares while they’re cheap.
2) Hard work is the only way to succeed
Over 80% of all traders are not profitable. They’re either breaking even on the same capital investment every year or they’re losing money regularly. Most of these failures boil down to a simple thing, which is hard work or a lack thereof. There’s hard work to be done in the preparation and execution, in strategy and in adjustments. Without it, failure is automatic.
3) There is no smooth sailing to success
Success does not come quickly, nor does it come easily. There will always be dozens of challenges and hurdles to overcome. Failure is necessary to succeed as it teaches a lot about hard work. Those who learn from the challenges they overcame, or more importantly, failed to overcome, will succeed the quickest of everyone.
4) This is the best time to be in business
With the positively growing state of the global economy as well as the rapid development of revolutionary technologies, now is the best time in the history of mankind to be in business. The internet has completely transformed the ways businesses work and has lowered the entry barrier in almost every industry by unfathomable amounts. Anyone can start a business no matter where they are. There are opportunities everywhere, even in place that aren’t considered major tech or investing hubs. In fact, one might argue that those places offer even more opportunity than the overcrowded investment cities of the world.
5) Location is an opportunity, not an excuse
Due to the power of the internet, anyone can trade in any stock market on the planet from the comfort of their home. Or while at a beach on vacation, or perhaps during dinner with friends and family. There is a whole subculture of young entrepreneurs who work solely from their laptops while they’re traveling the world – all they need is an internet connection to get their work done. The same applies to trading and investing.
6) Never lose money
It’s one of the key lessons that Warren Buffett teaches – never lose money. If you go aggressive on something, go in on something that’s a sure thing. Being afraid in the trading game is a good trait to have. There’s absolutely nothing worse than going all-in on something trendy only for it to blow up in your face and the next thing you know you’ve lost your entire capital or maybe even the rest of your personal savings. Investing like you’re afraid is a great trait to have. Slow and steady always wins the race.