The Stock Market, It’s the closest thing to an all digital human being, that I can think of. It devours money on one side, and passes it out on the other. I does not discriminate, it does not care how bad your day is, it gets to know you intimately, Only for a brief second, in the present moment, when your money hits the dinner plate, better known as “The order book”.

Now that i’m writing this post, I just realized that The Markets as a whole, are kind of like the “god” of the financial world!  And the stocks etc., that make up the market, would be the people!

I was bitten by the stock trading bug years ago. I was 20, and one night, while starting on a night shift at a new  job, I met Walter Conger, a retired stock broker. As we got to know each other, he was sharing some wisdom about how financial markets work. It was kind of interesting, but very confusing, until one one night, Walter said, “John, do you know how compound interest works?”, I said no.

He proceeded to tell me the age old analogy of “A penny a day, doubled every day for 30 days”, would equal over 5 million dollars!  In that moment, I realized, how I wanted to make the big bucks. I have a really aggressive nature, when I lock onto something I really want. Within a month, after reading book after book, I just knew I would be driving a Ferrari by years end!  My first stock purchase, I lent $6k from a credit card to my brokerage account and bought “50 off” stores, at $2/share. The 52 week high was $24/share. This is where I learned the most valuable lesson that most traders Still miss. The stock went Down to $1/share, where I sold it and lost a cool 50%!

The lesson I learned here is, Just because “I” Happen to pick up a paper, and select a beaten down stock, on This Particular day,  In No Way means that “This Stock” cares about me, and will Decide to start going Up right after “I” buy it!

I have always liked to go against the grain. To buy the stocks that nobody wants, To jump in the middle of a fight and take the small guys side, or to pull over in traffic to help the scared turtle.

In the same way, Stocks are like people. The stocks that have not acted right, are quickly shunned and discarded, and attention then flows to the charismatic stocks, that radiate high hopes and promises. But there are 2 sides to every coin. For when others see doom and gloom, I see “Room to Zoom”!

The Road less Traveled, that I see, Is where we find more treasures hidden in plain sight.

This belief of mine, must be deep, because I constantly find myself “initiating” the biggest challenges, which ends up pushing all my buttons. But I now realize now, that my counselings with some of the most arrogant, hardheaded, egotistical people (Prison), is exactly, when I find, what I would call, a “Hurtful Satisfaction”. But the flip side is, Thats where I usually discover by my best revelations!  Now, I truly understand where the phrase, “Labor of Love”, comes from.

So if you feel like taking a challenge, when it comes to helping people, try taking the road less traveled, and give service to someone who has been beaten down by the “market” of society, or has been out of style for a while, and been overlooked by the “In” crowd.

I tell you the truth. I believe there is no greater satisfaction, than going Off the main path, To take the Risk of doing good works, for the seemingly undeserved, just to find out that, “This time”, it is YOUR Single input, That sparked The Turnaround!

Thank You,  John Hilderbrandt

Spark a Turnaround !