October 28, 2003

The approach one takes in life is usually mirrored in the way we as individuals approach investing. Recently, I have gone through events that have taught me that I would much rather be happy than "right". I will accept minor "losses" in some ways in order to ultimately be better off. Life is worth living, not worth "winning", especially at all costs. Whenever you fight to win, you also stand a good chance of losing. We glorify winners, because, well, that is what we want to be. We don't talk about losing much, and if you ever talk to the big winners in life, they all will talk about how much they learned from their failures.

So what does all this have to do with investment. Simply, that chasing the big payoff, instead of reaching for the slow and steady is trying to be right instead of happy. The slow and steady lets me sleep at night, the big payoff doesn't. I'd rather be happy. Realizing this, I really don't mind seeing the yo-yo stocks go up and up then down. I don't mind seeing stocks soar that would make me unhappy. Being happy is better than being “right,” in the wrong way.