Chester’s Tips for Success

If you’ve ever read anything written by or about the investing genius Warren Buffet, one perennial piece of advice that pops up consistently is: “invest for the long run.”  It’s a simple investing tenet that unfortunately most are unable to follow.  So while the advice sounds great, for most people it’s not very effective.  Thinking long term, or having a long game, is the antithesis of  the have-it-when-you-want-it culture that we have today.  Waiting? That’s for losers.  Or is it?

Of all the things that are written about Warren Buffet, what surprises me the most about the immensely successful investor is that he’s consistent; he practices what he preaches.  This is a man who invested in companies that he believed were undervalued (Coca Cola, American Express, The Washington Post) and held onto them for decades.  Because he had a long game vision in mind before he made the investments, Buffet was able to weather the market declines and crashes that popped up through the next three decades. (A page from his book that might be worth taking given today’s economic crisis.)

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Tags:   Career Development · SuccessNo Comments.

It’s been a long, long time since I’ve posted on my blog, embarassingly long.  I apologize.  Life took a strange turn in the last few months and I needed to take some time to explore myself, my situation and my hopes and plans for the future.

I felt inspired to write this blog entry today because it has been on my mind for a long while now and I think it is particularly relevant to young people today.   Discipline is one of those things that older people like to criticize young people for not having enough of, but frankly, from my humble experience, most people, young or old don’t have enough discipline.

While there are a number of definitions for discipline, such as military discipline or behavioral discipline, the one I will explore in this post is the discipline that is involved in training and improving a skill.

From dictionary.com discipline: an activity, exercise, or a regimen that develops or improves a skill; training.

I’m a firm believer that discipline is something that can developed in anyone, regardless of how smart, talented, young or old one may happen to be.  However, the earlier its developed the sooner one can reap the benefits.

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Tags:   Personal DevelopmentNo Comments.

The other day my mother taught me a Chinese proverb that when translated into English means don’t put your feet in two boats .

The reason you don’t want to put your feet in two boats is that if one sinks, you sink.  You are twice as likely to sink because you have to ensure that both boats stay afloat, whereas if you have your feet in only one boat, you have a better chance because you can concentrate your efforts on one.  This advice has been extremely relevant to me right now in life because I am now ready to put my feet into one boat, but have been facing the challenge of ignoring the other boats that continue to float my way.

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Tags:   Words of WisdomNo Comments.

This is something that has been on my mind quite a bit recently and I mentioned it once in my previous post Choosing the Best Path to Achieving Your Dreams but now I would like to delve into the concept of the Ideal State a bit further.

What’s an Ideal State?
The Ideal State is a state in which one is free from almost all external and internal influences and pressures that may influence one’s thoughts or actions.  The reason I say almost all instead of all is because it is almost impossible to be completely free from all influences.  While you won’t be able to eliminate the impact of gravity or other natural forces from affecting you, it is possible to eliminate both the internal and external barriers that may be keeping you from living life to the fullest.

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Tags:   SuccessNo Comments.

Friday was my last day at work. I am now officially unemployed.

There is something that is at once both freeing and frightening about my new found place in society. On my way home, one thought kept running through my mind, “How am I going to support myself?” Though I don’t have everything figured out just yet, the metaphorical wheels of my brain are now spinning faster than ever before.

Being unemployed isn’t such a bad thing, if you have a source of cash flow. Investment properties, royalties, side businesses or dividends, are all sources of income that can either substitute or even replace a regular paycheck. But what happens if you don’t have any extra source of cash flow and no paycheck? What do you do?

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Tags:   Time Management · Wealth buildingNo Comments.

Living a successfully is one of my goals in life. Though sometimes I don’t like to use the word because, for many people, it conjures up images of books with emphatic titles littered with cheap words written by authors sporting unnaturally wide smiles beaming unnaturally white teeth.

There is no three step method to success and if there is I don’t want it. The pursuit of success for me is a deeply personal journey, one that is laden with personal challenges and obstacles. My version of successful living won’t be the same as yours, but that’s a good thing.

For some, the word “success” conjures up feelings of achievement and power; people who feel this way have usually experienced some form of success in the past and enjoyed it. Perhaps you were the star of your baseball team, one of the top students in your class, a top performer in your office or other organization. People who taste success, usually want more.

Then there are those who hear the word “success” and cringe. It may leave you feeling inadequate or perhaps even vapid and empty, like someone who is perceived to live only for money. You won’t read a book titled “The Seven Steps to Success” because it rubs you the wrong way and seems cheap. Perhaps you’re right.

But before you embrace or reject the notion of success, let me share with you some conventional definitions of success, with a small ’s’, and my definition of Success, with a big ‘S’.

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Tags:   Passion · SuccessNo Comments.

I finally had a chance to pick up the book The Millionaire Next Door from the library this week. The book was reviewed on a number of finance related blogs that I read regularly including Get Rich Slowly a great blog on personal finance, the title says it all.

Although the book is a bit dense (it’s written by two PhDs), there are lots of insightful nuggets of information and statistics that I found intriguing. Since a full review would be quite lengthy, I will instead list my top three takeaways.

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Tags:   Book Reviews · Personal Finance · Wealth building1 Comment

Originally I thought about entitling the post, “Choosing the Right Path to Achieving Your Dreams,” until I realized that there is no “right” path. Life is a tricky game in which we are offered many options and paths to take but aren’t told which ones will lead us where we want to go.

While there may not be one “right” path, I believe you can decide between what is the best path for you to achieve your desired goals and dreams.

One of my hobbies is reading success stories. I do it because it encourages me to move forward with my dreams bit by bit in a consistent way. From all the success stories that I’ve digested in my life so far, I’ve noticed two basic patterns: there is a direct and an indirect route.

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Tags:   Personal Development1 Comment

I have this habit of asking lots of people for advice when I am trying to make a decision in my own life. I think this has to do with my own fear of failure, of making an irrevocable mistake that will cause my whole life to come crashing down before my eyes.

Sounds a bit dramatic, I know. But it’s true. I have an overactive imagination.

Ever since I got into the habit of speaking to people older and wiser than me for advice, getting advice before making a decision has become second nature. While it’s great to hear other people’s input, most of the time it’s not applicable to you; honest people will tell you straight out, “I’m sorry but I don’t know what to tell you,” or “I can only give you my story, but in the end you have to decide for yourself.”

Ain’t that grand. In the end, we have to make our own decisions.

This can be nerve wracking for some; I know it is for me. But it’s an inevitable reality for those who want to live successfully, we must learn to make our own decisions.

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Tags:   Personal DevelopmentNo Comments.

In Part I of this series we discussed the difference between a Smart Stock Investor and a speculator as well as first steps for a newbie investor interested in learning more about the stock market.

In this article I will explain how Smart Stock Investing can lead to a substantial increase of your annual income as well as five tips on how to pick stocks that will add to your income in the long term.

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Tags:   Personal Finance · Wealth buildingNo Comments.