The most dangerous enemies of success are those that hide somewhere deep in your own heart and mind. Those who say that the want success and yet hang onto the attitude of failure are deceiving themselves. Almost all failure is generated within a person’s inner self, through their thoughts and attitudes. Looking through some history, Aristotle warned Alexander the Great that the most immediate dangers confronting his success were enemies within his own ranks. As you may know, the Macedonian army was rife with disloyalty, drunkenness, carelessness, etc. On an individual level, these actions could have been prevented by having a proper attitude.
Let’s fast forward to now. A few years ago, a survey was conducted by a life insurance company to determine why unsuccessful salespeople failed. Here were the results:
37% failed because of discouragement
37% failed because of lack of industry
12% failed because they didn’t follow instructions
8% failed because of a lack of knowledge
This should come up to 94%, and all four areas are directly related to individual attitude problems. Discouragement is caused by poor mental posture. Lack of industry is cause by a general bad attitude. Failure to follow instructions means you’re just lazy and have a lazy attitude. Finally, a lack of knowledge comes from a mix of everything above. Most of the salespeople failed because their attitudes broke down well before they even displayed their failures through their actions. It’s all about attitude.
In war, morale is the first defeat in any war. One side always loses heart before they are actually beaten on the battlefield. The side that believes in their ultimate failure will fail, no matter what other circumstances exist. A negative attitude almost always starts small and as you cling to it and believe it, it grows like a virus. When this virus gets to become so strong, it will overwhelm you until you break down. Sometimes, the psychological effect is so great that it can actually breakdown the central nervous system.
A good attitude doesn’t come instantly though. It does not come from solving one big problem in your life. It comes from solving a lot of little problems, proving to your mind and others that you can overcome anything. For example, if you are consistently losing on your trades, take it day-by-day and isolate each problem and solve it. You have to train yourself to believe in yourself that you can overcome the difficulty of losing. You will most likely lose if you think that you will lose on a trade before you even place the order.
The quickest way to go from a bad attitude to a good one is through taking positive actions. Theodore Roosevelt once told a crowd of politicians before a major vote in Congress, “If you want to be brave, then start acting brave.” He didn’t say, “have brave thoughts.” He clearly wanted action. You’ve heard that action speaks louder than words. Well, that applies equally to thoughts that lead to success.
You must take action to become better. You can’t make successful attempts without first beginning with a successful attitude, and only you can make that choice. Suppose that nothing goes right for you, still. Do you quit? Hell no. No matter what happens to you, you can turn the “bad” experiences to your good.
Some people wish they could always have things exactly the way they want. However, suppose you could always have your own way – you would never make a mistake, never be opposed, never know trouble or failure. And…you would never develop the strength that comes from opposition, or the feeling of exhilaration that comes from success. Problems can become your best teachers. Remember Edison? He tried over 5,000 times to make a light bulb that wouldn’t burn out without success. He learned something from each failure until he eventually succeeded. Even Shakespeare knew about failure when he said, “The best men are often molded from their own faults.”
Listen, whether something is a problem or not, it’s all in your head anyway. You have to realize that your life (and trading career) can be whatever you let it be. You don’t have to let every little failure be a total wreck. Instead, tell yourself, “If there’s to be trouble, let it begin here, and let me be the one to handle it.”
Apply these principles to your trading.
If you enjoy the content at iBankCoin, please follow us on Twitter
Excellent advice CA,
Keep it coming,
“Men with principles are the principle men”
Hear Hear; good words of advice
Weak post.
thank you. nice post
Thanks for the post CA.
I definitely agree that honing your mental posture and attitude is key. I also agree that this can be a long and complicated process. Discipline is so important, but at times the market rewards the undisciplined (for a short while) so it is easy to lose your way, your money and your confidence. You give great advice.
BTW, have you read Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers” ? In the book he asserts that there is innate talents in many people, but a common characteristic in extremely successful musicians, athletes, software programmers etc.
is having practiced their skill for about 10,000 hours. After this point their careers really took off. (Gladwell gives the Beatles, Mozart, Bill Joy and others as examples) So, just out of curiosity, how long do you think you have been trading?? The book is a good read. I am about halfway through it.
i read that. it is a fascinating theory and makes sense. 10K hours would definitely give you an edge. The most interesting example to me was the sports figures. If you start a kid in baseball at 5, he’s got an edge on everybody by the time he’s ten…
good stuff meng!
INCREDIBLE POST! 5 Stars
CA..the only thing i cant beleive is you are that young…the wisdom and understanding of things is beyond your years…that explains why your are successful at a very young age…you must have been raised well..
LOL — I said the same thing to him. Here’s the thing — he’s still young enough to think his parents aren’t something special. (Sorry JC, had to make the observation).
Right on.
Great post and it’s all true. Sadly its lost on the majority of people and that’s why they don’t change.
hey, if I want to get preached to, I go to church. You? Just gimme your trades! lol…love ya CA – you’re too much…
“An error does not become a mistake unless you refuse to correct it”
John F Kennedy 1961.
Excellent post. Spot on.
Good advice. Thanks
C
xoma
as mentioned last week…XOMA & DCGN
DVAX, break above Fri’s hammerish candle
Bailed on RTK
CVM break out
Triangle: /ES
in /6E from .xx48
–sold on breakdown of /ES +4
SGMO
FRE
TSTR 1.69
OUT 1.62
YRCW 4.30
BEE is my only big winner today, lots of red otherwise.
KONG b/o
UFI 3.56
RODM
added at 5.30
short SVA
LVS
A good thing to read every morning of every day. In fact, I’m printing it out and taping it up. Thank you!
“We are what we think. All that we are arises from our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.”
~~Buddha
AGEN 2.21
MRNA breaking out of base with volume
XOMA-DCGN also.
Long TZA and SDS
and SRS
reduced SDS and TZA
back in original positions. thank you sir, may I have another.
CVM buystop @ 1.93
stop 1.89
come on bitch, one last push
+.01
KAZ looks like it wants to breakout again …. off to the beach, later
dndn
MTXX imminent
deep stuff! keep it coming 🙂
ANPI
AVNR maybe ready
AVNR
AFOP, ENER, LEHMQ
FRE
FRE break out
MRNA
DCGN
watch for virtually bankrupt CIT to possibly make a break for it, like FRE FNM ABK , etc
pay attention, son 😉
In ANPI at $1.86 from late yesterday. Looking perky. keep watch, may double down if it takes off.
in as well from yesterday…
sounds good. Also still holding GU, SVNT, calls in DRYS
FRE
LVS break out
H&S /6E from 8:40
Short .xx97
support at .xx86, PT would be .xx76 if broken
Didn’t break through .xx86 support like expected, rallied back over .xx92 resist, cover +4
OCLR btfo
In ANPI @ 1.87
Doubled up on ABK this morning
ABK about to make a move
UTSI might have follow through here
BPOP
bought ABK @ 1.83
There goes ABK!
MBI – ABK – Next up MTG
KMX at 21.13, EGLE at 5.60
MPG 2.52
out of kmx
RINO
Everyone see the action in BSDM?
“Co reports that significant and “medical practice changing” clinical study results were the subject of a news briefing at Europe’s largest cancer congress, ECCO15 – ESMO34. A Phase III study, which utilized the BSD-2000 Hyperthermia System, demonstrated that patients with high risk soft-tissue sarcomas were 30% more likely to be alive and cancer free almost three years after starting treatment if targeted heat therapy (hyperthermia) was added to their chemotherapy treatment.”
This thing has a 90 mil mkt cap now after its 100+% move on record volume. I think it at least has another double in it. ?
Is heat patentable?
well the device that delivers it correctly is what BSDM produces
Thx punch, this sounds very interesting, will watch
YRCW starting to make a move.
CIT
In YRCW $4.30
Bhrt.ob is in a consolidation period and abiut to btfo. a move to $3-4 is likely on volume and volume has been there especially the last month. it was a $5 ipo about 20 months ago and has a break through developement(a procedure and various devices, mind you) in heart care that has an amazing story behind it even though it has a very small float. I’m basing this on purely what i saw technically, not the story behind it though. Both are great so please do yourself a favor and take a look. You could easily anonymously manipulate the price if nothing else.
Smoke kush, aight pay.
opxa up .38 on low volume pre open ?