What I Learned Losing A Million Dollars

by Jim Paul

Success can be built upon repeated failures when the failures aren’t taken personally; likewise, failure can be built upon repeated successes when the successes are taken personally.

Personalizing successes sets people up for disastrous failure. They begin to treat the successes totally as a personal reflection of their abilities rather than the result of capitalizing on a good opportunity, being at the right place at the right time, or even being just plain lucky. They think their mere involvement in an undertaking guarantees success.

Herb Kelleher, CEO of Southwest Airlines: “I think the easiest way to lose success is to become convinced that you are successful.”

people make purchases for only one of two reasons: to feel better (satisfying a want) or to solve a problem (satisfying a need).

We’ve been told that hope causes us to buy a stock after it has already gone up and we buy it at the top; fear causes us to sell a stock after it has already gone down a lot and we wind up selling at the bottom.

man is extremely uncomfortable with uncertainty, tries to substitute certainty for uncertainty, and, in doing so, succumbs to the herd instinct.