www.wealthwithin.com.au
Ever heard the saying ‘they were born with a silver spoon’? Ever wondered what it would be like, to have a dad who made millions in business? Now imagine it was all pulled out from under you. How would you feel then?
This story is about Simone, a young lady who had everything she ever wanted and at times lived like a rock star, going to fabulous parties and meeting amazing people from around the world. At just 25 her parents had built a global cosmetics business, selling to 20 countries and bringing in tens of millions in revenue every year. The family had worked their way up on the social ladder but when it came to the crunch, Simone really just took it all for granted and didn’t appreciate what it means to have to save.
Life was pretty good until…
The Global Financial Crisis hit, creditors were missing payments and orders started drying up for their major lines. In 2006, in order to improve efficiency Simone’s father expanded the business, investing nearly all the family money on new production facilities set up in different countries. This expansion put a huge strain on the business when orders started slowing down, suddenly revenues were not meeting the debt repayments and the business was going backwards.
In 2008 the bank took over and to everyone’s horror the business was put into liquidation. What had taken the family decades to build had now been destroyed in a few short months, including the selling of their family home. It was all gone!
Fortunately, a silver spoon wasn’t the only thing that Simone inherited, she experienced success and what it could bring, and so faced the world with the belief that she could do anything she set her mind to.
So what can we learn from this? Whilst most are not lucky enough to have been born into wealth, often they do what Simone did, that is, take a back seat rather than drive their own destiny. The first step moving forward is always honesty and awareness, and that is having the strength to really look at your life and take responsibility for it.
The process of learning to create wealth, trade the share market or achieve success in business is an incredibly rewarding journey. The secret is to make a decision and get started. With that in mind here are four ingredients to help you achieve success:
1. Take stock of your current situation, and be clear about what you want to achieve and why you want to do it – by understanding the ‘why’ you have a clear driver to achieve the goals set.
2. Get the right knowledge – make sure you understand the how. With the share market it is about understanding what you are investing in and the risks you are taking so you can minimise them.
3. Learn what the majority of people do and don’t do it – most people don’t even try. Remember 90 per cent fail due to lack of application and knowledge. They cheat themselves out of a good education and this is usually because of their beliefs around money or success.
4. Put in the effort to get the rewards – whether your goal is to invest or trade the markets, create a business or something else, success in any of these can transform your life and give you what you choose, rather than what you are willing to accept out of life.
The equation is like this: Knowledge + Effort = Success
Janine Cox is the Senior Analyst at Wealth Within, a private investment company specialising in managing direct share portfolios through their Individual Managed Account Service.
