Psychological Analysis. Adam Sarhan

Чтение книги онлайн.

      Dumb money puts money into the market; smart money takes money out.

CHAPTER 1 How to Think Like the Top 1%

      One of the big goals of this book is to help you bring out the best version of yourself (your smart money superhero) and join the smart money circle. I will call that the alpha version of yourself. On Wall Street, alpha means above‐average returns, so the alpha version of you is the best version of yourself. Everyone starts out in the dumb money circle—even the children of wealthy families that are in the smart money circle. That's why most family businesses do not last past the first or second generation. The good news is that anyone can learn the skills necessary to bring out the best version of themselves, learn from their mistakes, live their “dream life,” and join the smart money circle. Once you do that you will accomplish more than you ever dreamed of and enjoy life at a completely different level!

      I started out in the dumb money circle. I began my professional life saddled with student loan debt and not having a clue about how to make money or how the market actually worked. For years, I toiled at thankless jobs for lousy wages. Some of my first forays in the market resulted in spectacular, soul‐crushing losses.

I was in the dumb money circle, but I had an overriding need to break out; eventually, I did, and you can, too. It started when I had my first realization that there is an endless battle raging inside all of us between (what I call) the smart money superhero (your good side) and your dumb money beast—a.k.a. Shmelf (your bad side).

ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT

      In order for you to properly understand the timeless concepts I discuss in this book, I give you some context by sharing some important stories with you.

      I was born in New York City. My mother taught elementary school, then later ran her own logistics business, and my father, an immigrant, ran a small business selling men's suits a few blocks from Wall Street. I remember seeing “Wall Street” guys come in and buy dozens of suits, shirts, and ties, and from a young age, deep in my subconscious, I felt the allure. My parents taught me the value of education, they taught me the value of a dollar, and they instilled in me a work ethic that propelled me through college, graduate school, and into my working life.

      I inherited my parent's entrepreneurial spirit, and even as a kid, I envisioned myself as a “businessman.” I loved the idea of buying and selling things, and I was intellectually fascinated with the idea of solving a problem, adding value, and making a profit. I loved using my mind to make money. While in middle school, before Costco and Sam's Club were “a thing,” I found a local source where I could buy candy at wholesale prices, and I sold the treats at school between classes. Blow Pops were my number‐one seller.

      Eventually, I was forced to shut down because the “business” grew and attracted the attention of the principal, who told me that I had to stop. He called my parents, and I was terrified that I would be in big trouble. In the meeting, my parents asked him, “What did Adam do wrong?” He stumbled and couldn't find something to say (because, technically, I did not break any rules), and he finally proclaimed, “He's competing with the cafeteria!” To my surprise, after we left, instead of being in trouble, my parents said the incident offered a very important lesson about monopoly and power. “Next time,” my parents said, “don't get caught.”

For my next “business,” I sold fireworks but stopped when I realized that, in the wrong hands, they were really dangerous. I knew that if someone got hurt I would really be in big trouble. Unbeknownst to me at the time, the big timeless lesson there was always respect risk.

AN INVESTOR IS BORN

      I had saved some of the profits from my early businesses, and by high school, I had taken an interest in the stock market. I looked around and asked a lot of people: “What is the biggest business in the world?” What did the top 1% of people do with their money? Some invested in real estate, I discovered, but the most common answer always led me straight to Wall Street.

      Back in the 1990s, the crash of 1987 was still fresh in people's minds. But the market and the economy were on fire, the flames fanned by dot‐com stocks and the rise of the internet. The U.S. economy seemed unstoppable. Cell phones were becoming widely used and telecommunications companies were hot. I consolidated my little horde of candy and fireworks money and bought my first stock: SprintPCS.

      For a period of time, the stock did great, but then it collapsed, and I didn't sell it until it was too late. Years later, as fate would have it, my first “real” job during college was working for SprintPCS, СКАЧАТЬ