Be A Little Greedy
Every time I get worried about the ‘Greater Depression’, I think that just about anything is going to be better than the way people lived in the past without crisis — just everyday life. No electricity, no central plumbing, no TV, not even hand-washing (seriously, they didn’t even wash hands in hospitals until 19th century).
On the flipside, if you’re not afraid of a lot of these hardships, it may hinder your ability to make money. Similar to the happiness thing – if you’re too happy, you’re not very motivated to improve your life.
“The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it. ” — Michaelangelo Buonarotti
If you’re not afraid of a lowered lifestyle, you have to find another source of motivation and greed, always keep dreaming and have specific goals – the higher the better.
For me it’s competition. I hate the thought of someone outperforming me. It keeps me on my toes, but my wife says it can be annoying. I hate losing at picking my nose, let alone missing a major move.I don’t really care all that much about $, which is odd I think.
Hi TSS…
you know what, I can relate to that. I feel great “winning” 🙂 money is just a nice reward but really, how much happiness can electronic numbers bring? 🙂 Sometimes I’m happy with my trades even if they aren’t profitable. It’s the thrill of the hunt and a well-executed trade, and being right!
As for “someone outperforming” you — like who? someone concrete? To me it’s all magic black boxes, I only recently started to feel that there’s someone out there, on the other end 🙂
The “need to be right” rather than the “need to make money” is a double-edged sword in itself. Do you read Dr. Steenbarger’s blog?
http://www.traderfeed.blogspot.com/
He recently posted on this topic (“being right”).