Is this something that is inherently woven into every person, or just a few people who are destined to do great things?

The spirit isn’t confined to business matters; in fact, it can be applied to everything we all do and see everyday. It’s the drive that is the catalyst for change.

Are some people geared towards making changes and others not? In its most basic form, entrepreneurial drive can be compared to the desire for independence. Independence in forging your own way through the paths of life, decision-making, and most of all, attacking a problem in your own way that feels right to you.

What does it take? I really haven’t thought about it. I might make post later that futher illustrates some of the common traits of the most famous ones, but a few that I can think of off the top of my head are:

Imagination – Common sense says that you cannot sell something if you aren’t able to foresee its potential. You must be able to look down at the high level and see beginning to end, start to finish, brainstorming to production, procurement to distribution. As an entrepreneur, you must be able to have a vision of your goals and look at it like a map to plot your course through the challenge.

Resilience (no fear of failure) - You will fail over and over again. That’s the nature of starting something big. Nothing worth doing is easy. You’re going to fail many times before you’re able to succeed. Initial (and sometimes ongoing) failure is crucial to success. It is failures that you learn from, it’s called a hard lesson. No textbook or article in a magazine will prepare you for something as well as a complete failure will. As an entrepreneur, you will buy lessons like that. But if you don’t learn from the lesson, it is money and time wasted.

If you fail at something, evaluate what caused it, why it failed, and what you can do better next time. Write that down as a lesson and move on. You will learn to embrace failures almost as if they are a gift. If you’re like me, I attack problems without planning or thinking as much as I should and I fail at times, then i pick myself up and go at it again with slight changes from what I learned. If you run at a wall enough times, you will eventually find a soft spot that will let you break through.

Persistence is key, those who give up after a few lost battles will never be around long enough to enjoy the spoils of war after the victory.

I find it surprising that very few people I talk to really know the difference between a rich person and a wealthy individual.

Whats the difference between being rich and being wealthy? Rich people have fancy things, they buy fast cars and big toys. They have money to follow their dreams and make memories. Most people aspire to be rich. Athletes are rich, movie stars are rich,and  lottery winners are rich.

Wealthy people have the same things: fast cars, fine jewelry, the means to do whatever they please. But there is one big difference between the two… the rich have money but the wealthy create money. Bankers are wealthy, investors are wealthy, and politicians are wealthy. They have the means and the know how to create wealth whenever they please, and use that to sustain themselves and their families for many generations to come. For them, money really does grow on trees.

 See the trend?

Rich people usually have their money run out of run low after a certain period of idealistic consumption during their earning prime. Wealthy people never have a shortage of money since they have investments and multiple streams of active and passive income. While the rich cannot sustain a lavish lifestyle indefinitely, the wealthy can, and do.

The rich are where they are because they exhibit a certain talent or skill and they are in demand because of it. Once they are in demand, they can parlay that into opportunities where they can monetize their abilities. Movie stars know how to act. Professional athletes know how to play whatever sport they are good at.

The wealthy, on the other hand, know how to make money. That’s their speciality, that is their skill. They know how to create wealth, which is a skill that is infinitely more important than any type of conventional entertainer or business owner. According to the 2008 reports of the distribution of wealth in this country, 95% of the wealth is controlled by the wealthiest 5% of the population. This is 5% of the population that has discovered how to secure themselves and their families by learning how to create wealth on demand.

This guy is definitely a 5%'er. Richard Branson of Virgin.

Wealth that only compounds as time passes by, wealth that pushes their children and grandchildren into a lazy sense of entitlement that runs rampant in the second and third generations of old money families. When an individual creates so much wealth, that they can ensure that no future generation of their namesake will ever be as productive as them, it means they have done their job of being wealthy.

I’ve made a lot of mistakes in the market, it’s just what I do. I have to learn lessons the hard, expensive way… sometimes a few times over to get it into my head. But thats another story. I compiled a list of my top 10 tips to investing that I hope will save people money in the market. It’s a tough world out there and some people say that the market favors the institutional investors and the big boys at the cost of the small players. I found this to be pretty much true, so you have to know exactly what you’re doing or you’ll get pushed and pulled all day long. Please give this a read and let me know if I can help in any way. I’m in a teaching mood lately .

1) Always try to invest in what you know. Don’t get into industries or areas that you know nothing about, or don’t care about, as you will not have that natural edge that comes with being familiar with what you’re investing in. You need to be able to have faith in where you put your hard earned money in, to be able to sleep at night… at least I do.

2) Check your emotions attachments. Once a stock had its run, it’s time to take your profits and move to the next big thing. A lot of time, people will develop an emotional attachment to a stock since it brought them a ton of money, and they foolishly stay invested in that company even though all the indications (and maybe even their gut) is telling them to move on.

3) Don’t chase a stock. When good news hits and a stock is on a massive uptrend, it is almost always better to let it go and stay on the sidelines… unless you’re planning on daytrading it for a quick pop. Investing late on an uptrend puts you in a precarious position when the pullback happens (usually later in the day or the next day). Stocks rarely push higher more than one day in a row unless the news is ridiculously earthshattering. If a stock jumps 100% in one day, it is almost guaranteed to be in the red the next day or after hours due to people taking their profits on the stock and daytraders cashing out for the day.

4) Don’t hold a stock past its prime. Once you feel as if a stock made a good run and it has slowed to the point where you could put the money somewhere else where it will give you a better return, sell. Nothing is worse than knowing that you missed an opportunity because your funds were tied up in a stock that hasn’t moved in weeks. You can always buy back into the stagnating stock if you so choose, but you’ll have more money to do it after you made your money work for you in the other opportunities.

5) Sell on a downtrend. A lot of people will tell you that you haven’t lost money on a stock until you sell it. That’s absolutely wrong.

If I bought 100 shares of Company X at $10 a share ($1000) and the share price tanked to $5, my shares are worth $500, not $1000. So yes, you lost $500. If a stock is tanking, it is better to sell on the way down so you can accumulate more shares at a lower cost.

If you have 100 shares of the same company above and it’s falling, sell it on the way down… lets say $7.50, so you sell and pocket $750, which is much better than $500. So with that $750,  you can buy more shares at $5 so when a stock is at the $5 mark, you will have 150 shares ($750 /5), instead of $100 if you chose to hold onto the shares and didn’t sell. 

6) Sell high, buy low. If you look at any chart, you will notice that stocks go up and they go down. Once you learn to detect the uptrends and downtrends, you can sell at a level you think is high enough so there will be a pullback, and then buy after the pullback to increase your number of shares. An investor who is able to see these trends and ride the waves, will be able to maximize their gains over one that just stays in a stock and lets the market do the work.

7) Research! Do your due-diligence. You’ll be tempted to invest in a company after reading about it in an email, messageboard, or a tip from a friend. Of course, you can invest in that company blindly, but you really really really should do your own research. You might find something fishy about the company that the others didn’t see/ignored. At the very least, you’ll have peace of mind that you put your money into a sound investment rather than the latest hot stock from Twitter.

Never feel bad about taking profits. If a stock is going up and you think it wont go up more, sell. Even if it does go up more, you still realized a profit. Never regret taking profits as that is money that you just made in the bank. You can always buy back in for a ride if you think theres more gas left in the tank, but now you might be able to do it with house money that you just made. Do not let greed make you hold a stock longer than you should, a lot of times, you will end up losing money in a pullback and you have nothing to thank but greed. Greed is a trader’s worst enemy. I personally don’t do it, but a lot of traders set guidelines for trading where if they make a 15% ROI on a stock, they sell automatically. This takes greed out of the equation altogether if you follow the guidelines.

9) Keep a cool head. Don’t panic. The worst thing you can do is have an emotional trading day, where you freak out and sell too early or buy too high. This may relate to a few of the other tips above, but I cannot stress this enough. Do not throw emotion into the mix when you are investing. Stocks will go up and they will go down, don’t get emotional and sell when your brain and all indicators are telling you to hold for a rebound. Always stay calm and think things through.

I know what it feels like to be bleeding money from every angle possible, your heart is telling you to dump everything, but your brain is telling you that a rebound is imminent. It’s very easy to listen to your heart, but fortunes are not made by emovesting, they are made by cool headed, rational decisions made during intense periods in market activity. Once you’ve been through a few of these moments,  you will be able to handle the stress more easily in the future.

10) Penny stocks are good investment. A lot of good compares are listed on the OTCBB, usually brand new companies or companies that have changed hands with a new company operating within the shell of a previous traded one. When investing in pennies, there is a very high probability that you will lose money, so do your due diligence and make sure you keep updated with their news releases and even their IR firm. When you are seeing swings of +/- 20%+ a day, you will need an iron stomach to stay in the game and not sell all your shares. You have to learn to go with the waves and handle the volatility and stomach the tides, otherwise you will sell too early, the stock will pop, and you’ll be kicking yourself.

If you choose to invest in pennies, you MUST be watching it every few hours, you should never leave your investment and forget it. This is due to the extreme volatility of OTC stocks.

I hope this guide helps some people out there, I made almost every mistake on this list and I’d love it if I could help you from making any of the same mistakes. As ways, feel free to contact me if you have any questions/comments/additions you would like to make. Have a great night!

I bet at this point, most people have seen District 9. Metaphorically speaking, everyone made the connection to apartheid and of the political instability experienced in South Africa (and many other parts of the world), which led to widespread segregation and prejudice. At the lowest level, this movie outlines that and runs the table with a plot that runs parallel to that. But at a higher level, this movie was inspired by what happened in Cape Town from the 60’s to the 80’s, when the apartheid movement hit an area of town called ‘District 6′.

In South Africa about 100 years ago, there was a place called District 6. A melting pot of all races and religions, they lived in a harmonious community, in an area of town with bustling traffic, foreign visitors (thanks to Cape Town’s ports), and open air markets and shops (not unlike what you see in District 9). An article I read on it described it as extremely “cosmopolitan.”

“District Six was and is probably the most celebrated piece of land in South Africa,” says Anwah Nagia, a longtime resident and former anti-apartheid activist. “It was a microcosm of what modern societies were later to enjoy.”

Unfortunately, the area was mostly colored (even though there were large concentrations of Christian and Jewish individuals). In 1966, the apartheid regime slated that this area be a whites-only area, via the Group Areas Act (which sought to transfer power to whites through the process continusous division of land and reclassification of the best areas to whites and the worst to blacks.

The removal process stared with the poorest Blacks, who did not have any land so they could easily be uprooted and transferred (since they were not allowed to own property), then went to the Chinese, Malays, etc… The government offered much below fair market value for the homes, and if they chose not to sell, they removed them anyway. 15 years later, and 70,000 people less, District 6’s transformation was complete.

The previous inhabitants of District 6 were put into an area of Cape Town known as the Cape Flats, a stretch of nothingness that was as difficult to get to, as it was to leave. There was one way in and out of the city, as there was the housing: this was to contain the residents in the event of an insurrection. They lived in fragile shacks and government housing. As the population grew to over a million, poor sanitation and disease ran rampant, as did the poor care of children and the scarce availability of food. This led to surges in both drug use and crime and as gang rape, murder, and robbery ran rampant.

Is there any improvement?

Well, today, the government realized its error as nobody wanted to live in a whites-only District 6. The land became lonely and desolate with the absense of people who wanted to be there. Maybe the government noticed that some people like living in a melting pot of diversity and culture. In any case, Cape Town has begun the process of repatriation of the lands there. They have recieved 36,000 claims to houses in the area and expect 30,000 people back in District 6 within 3 years.

Kinda makes you wonder whats real life and what’s fiction.

I was on a plane back to Dallas about 2 weeks ago, when I met this fellow on a plane who described himself as a “professional hobo”. This was quite possibly the single most interesting man that I have ever met.

His job is to escort heavy cargo on trains going all over the US. He was portly and unshaven, he has only seen his boss twice in as many years, and he is on a minute’s notice to fly wherever cargo needs escorting. Sometimes, he rents a car and follows them, and sometimes he rides along on the trains. He doesn’t have a mortgage or a car as he doesn’t ever need those. He travels all day, every day, to every city… riding on trains.

Needless to say, although I learned a great deal from this gentleman, I wont post it all here since some of the “advice” he gave me isn’t appropriate to say anywhere but outside a hick bar in West Texas. But one thing that I will remember for a while and that I promised him that I’d do is…

Go here:

That’s right. Grand Junction, Colorado. Supposedly, it is magnificent. But according to him, here’s what you have to do.

First, fly into Denver and then hop on an Amtrak train that goes to Grand Junction. The 6 hour train ride will take you straight through the Rockies (September is the best time to take this trip). If you’re in the viewing train, you can sit down, lay back, have a drink, and just watch the scenery as you travel through Colorado, cutting straight through the mountains. Once in Grand Junction, you spend the night at a hotel and rest up, and the next day, hop back on the train and ride back to Denver, enjoying the trek through the mountains once more.

He spoke of this trip as if it is something that truly cannot be expressed in words and was very adamant that I try this. It’s on my calendar now. I might go in the winter so I can see some of the snowfall while I’m at it. Anyone want to go with me?

I guess George Jesus Bush is punishing me for bashing the market and my commentary about his administration’s ineptitude. He must have a voodoo doll of me… and Al Gore.

My single greatest fear has caught up with me… I stepped in the poo. Yes it’s bolded because of the magnitude of the situation at hand. So for the first time in my recorded life, I stepped in what appears to be the poo. I can only hope it is the poo of a small dog that preferably belonged to an attractive female, but with my luck, it is probably the poo of a gigantic disgusting pseudo-bear dog belonging to a juiced up douchebag.

Funny how the thought of a cute girl’s small dog poo is so much easier to digest than the poo of a man-douche doggie. WOO SAHHH.

From my initial forensic examination, the poo was tracked in on the rainy Monday morning of 10/6/2008. I did not discover it until tonight, as I was looking down admiring my taste in fine rugs, I saw the footprint of poo desecrating the fine craftsmanship of an authentic circa 2002 tapestry. The amalgamation of all that is beautiful with the demonic doo of death threatening to break all that is good in my life… it was almost too much to bear. At first, I didn’t know what to do. Thoughts raced through my mind… “I hope that’s mud”… “mud’s not that light”…”what if it’s…”… “no…”… “smell it.”

So I inched my nose closer and closer to the stain, imagining the sweet smell of strawberries and love juices… until “BAM.” the sour odor of rotting death hit me in the face like a Volkswagen hitting a Chihuahua. I actually flinched and as I did, the tip of my nose came in direct contact with the poo. I paused out of shock, never being exposed to another mammal’s poo on my skin, I did not know what the proper course of action would be in this situation. I wanted to cry, I wanted to vomit, I wanted to fornicate… all at the same time. I also wanted to throw something, but I reminded myself that throwing my own possessions would be a silly idea. i immediately dashed over to the sink and started scrubbing my face with industrial strength antibacterial soap, hand wash, and even dishwasher detergent. None gave me even a remote assurance (mentally at least) that all the poo is gone from my nose, even though I almost drowned in a cocktail of handsoap and dishwasher soap. Only after blood started coming out of my nose and my skin turning into a shade of penile-pink, was I satisfied that the poo was gone.

So not knowing if I even had anything powerful enough to combat the carnage that is being played out before me on the rug, I had fleeting thought of just leaving my apartment to find a dark, quiet place to cry.

But then I realized that I’m Chris Oh Baby, and I’ve done much, much harder things in my previous adventures. Like a Roman Warrior, I went over to the kitchen and found some 409. I sprayed and sprayed and sprayed until half of the bottle was soaking it’s way into the wounded rug. I grabbed some paper towels and started scrubbing as hard as I could… until I realized… paper towels break apart when you try to scrub with them! I noticed that the towels were disintegrating from under my hands and spreading papertowel-poo fibers all throughout the area I was scrubbing! I’m the worst Roman Warrior Ever. I’m a damn Trojan. Losing the battle to the boy-loving Greek Warrior, DogPoocious.

I can’t win.

So I grab dry towels and started swatting at the area, trying to hit off the family of wet fibers that took refuge in my poo-rug. At this moment, I had an epiphany… This is what it must feel like to live in Houston. Houstonians being the millions of poo-towel fibers clinging on for dear life in a poo-fested area, a.k.a Houston, as the gigantic swatting of my dry towels are trying to knock them off like Hurricane Ike.

As I knocked out as many as I could, I had to leave. I couldn’t stand there watching the destruction unfold with the obsessive thoughts started seeping into my head… “Where else could the contamination be,”… “did I get most of it…” So I throw on my workout clothes, hoping to burn the image of my palace being taken over by the evil poopa-loompas out of my head. Halfway to the gym, i realize that IM WEARING MY POO SHOES”. I slowly lift up my heel to see if there is indeed any poo…

I hate Poo