What are your expectations from Trading?
Really, what is it you want?
I received a disturbing email the other day from someone who was complaining about the number of stock market programmes he was receiving via email. His complaint was, ‘if they are so good, why aren’t the advisors all multi-millionaires and retired on the French Riviera?’
Let’s get something straight here; Trading is a business, like any other business. Bill Gates did not become a multi-millionaire overnight, nor did he achieve his incredible success all on his own without mentoring of some sort, and he especially didn’t do it from sitting on his back-side. Regardless of whether you’re a self-employed welder, mechanic, deli owner, real estate investor, or stock market trader, if you want to become a multi-millionaire and retire on the French Riviera you have to do more than just your trade; you have to build a business.
If you think that just because someone tells you in their sales page that he can show you how to make a five figure income per month trading, and all you have by way of capital is a few thousand dollars, and a couple of hours a month to devote to trading, then you are the fool!
I highly recommend a book called ‘The E-Myth Revisited’, by Michael Gerber; in this book he explains why over 80% of businesses fail. Briefly; to succeed in business, three elements of a business must succeed, and they are the technical side, the managerial side and the entrepreneurial side.
Let’s take two examples and compare them. Example one is an employee mechanic with 10 years experience who now wants to start his own mechanical repairs business, and the second is an entrepreneur wanting to start his own law firm business with absolutely no legal qualifications, experience or education in the legal industry.
Out of these two, who do you think has the best chance of succeeding? If you said the mechanic you’d be wrong. Why? Because the mechanic is only a mechanic, he has no business experience and so does not know the first thing about being a manager or an entrepreneur. He has two new skills to learn.
What about the entrepreneur? Well he doesn’t need any legal experience or background. All he needs to do is hire a team of highly qualified lawyers (the technicians), a qualified business manager to manage them, and he can concentrate on doing what he does best, which is to be an entrepreneur and market his business.
In business, the levels are such that there are more technicians, less managers and even less entrepreneurs. This is the ladder in business and this is the way it has always been. Technicians do not become multi-millionaires and retire on the French Riviera - entrepreneurs do! A welder can become wealthy, but not by welding, only by building a business.
How on earth can beginner traders expect to generate a multi-million dollar trading business and retire on the French Riviera when they haven’t even got the technical side of trading right? Until you get this right, you can’t progress to the managerial side and then the entrepreneurial side. These are all skills that need to be learned and take time to learn. Most people aren’t even prepared to take the time to learn the technical aspects of trading. Is it any wonder less than 5% make money?
In fact, someone with entrepreneurial experience, has more chance of success by hiring a team of qualified or successful traders, a manager, and spending his time explaining to the public why they should invest in his business, than he has becoming a successful trader in his own right.
So to answer this disturbing email, yes you are receiving too many programmes, but what is it you want? Do you want someone to teach you how to trade while they are sitting on the beach? Or do you want to build a business? If you want to build a business, you need mentors, but a mentor does not teach from the beach.
I don’t claim to be a multi-millionaire, nor am I sitting on the French Riviera, but what I can say is that I have experience in trading, enough to be able to tell where most unsuccessful traders are going wrong and also how to help. I don’t want to deal with people that expect massive riches overnight or who aren’t prepared to work to build their trading business. Ask me for help, and I’ll be glad to do all I can, but I can’t help you if I’m away on holidays, nor can I help you if you think trading should be a 5 minute a month job.
Happy Trading
Dean Whittingham
Elite Insiders Group - Trading Systems
Financial Market Fisherman © 2004 - 2007
