The world of Investing is extremely competitive, and yet people attempt to make money by casually dabbling in it on the side. Anyone financially ambitious will come across ads for books and courses about how to make money with: real estate, stock trading, bitcoin, futures, along with home-based businesses such as blogging, AirBnB, Fiverr, selling on Craigslist, Amazon, Shopify, or eBay – and many other activities. However, it is highly unlikely you can be successful at investing or a small business by treating it as a trifle.
For example, if you would like to be successful at stock trading or real estate, you must approach it like a PhD dissertation. This means full-time immersion for several years – reading, researching, studying, learning, experimenting, getting mentors, joining groups in the field, taking courses, and adapting methods to fit with your personality and situation. In order to sustain you through this, you must develop a fanatical desire and love of the subject matter in order to keep learning and experimenting. If it isn’t for you, it will become clear, which means it is time to drop that and find a different money-making activity that suits you better.
Sure, amateurs can sometimes get lucky when they start out, but they rarely keep that profit or sustain the activity for the long-term without a solid base of knowledge to build upon. Beginners usually make all of the common amateur mistakes – which can be catastrophically expensive. You cannot avoid these costly mistakes if you do not know what they are. It takes intense and sustained focus to become competent in anything, particularly with investing and business as their landscape is always changing. In general, by the time the masses hear about a totally new opportunity the easy money is long gone. This is why so many people turn to selling courses as a guru instead of actually making money from that trading or business method.
Where to begin your study? Many people watch free YouTube videos by experts. There are many places where like-minded people chat and share information:
- For stocks there is SeekingAlpha.com or BetterInvesting.org
- For real estate there many popular blogs like BiggerPockets.com and local real estate associations
- MeetUp.com for all kinds of investing and business activities
- Run from any “guru” that only talks about their own alleged success instead of highlighting their numerous successful students with documented proof
Avoid the distraction, lost time, and lost money from dabbling in many competitive environments, let alone concurrently. Instead, slowly and carefully narrow down to a single area of interest, find a mentor with lots of highly successful students, and then immerse yourself into a long period of learning.
