Millionaire Tradersread about has had the baptism-under-fire trade. You know the
trade which occurred early in your career, where you nearly blew
it all and the event becomes a type of soul searching exercise where
you decide whether or not you can continue in this arena. If you
are a slow learner like me it actually happens twice. My warning
to all traders is that this will happen to you. What happens next is
up to you. Vince Lombardi, the all-time-great American football
coach, said, “Its not whether you get knocked down, its whether
you get up that counts.”
Second, focusing on the money and or pressure to make money
eliminates a large pool of potential traders from ever becoming
successful traders. I was lucky in that I was born to parents who
instilled in me at a very early age that they would love and respect
me and elevate my self worth no matter what my net worth was.
When I first started trading, I felt psychologically invincible be-
cause I knew that if I totally blew out trading then I could at least
count on two people who would always be there for me no matter
what happened. Thank you, Dad and Mom.
As time goes on, I try to surround myself with people: friends,
girlfriends, investors, etc. who do not pressure me to make money.
I am not aware of any successful trader who feels that putting on
massive pressure to make money will enhance their trading. We
all know that getevenitis—you know, the disease of getting even
with a market that just took some money from you—is the most
expensive form of revenge in this business.
In another vein, you wouldn’t think of getting in the boxing
ring with Mike Tyson and then focus on the belt you could win.
You would be knocked out in no time because you would be too
busy staring at the belt you could win instead of on the task at
hand. Don’t focus on the prize. Focus on the process. Similarly,
Mr. Miyagi would be a great trader coach because he taught the
Karate Kid to not focus on the karate or the black belts, but on
the process itself. He would show him how to sand da floor, paint
da fence, wax on, wax off. Embedded in that disciplined learning
approach was the attainment of black belt proficiency in the art
of karate. So my advice is to go out there and wax on and wax
off—meaning focus on the process. Each trader is different in this
regard.