I’ve got only two action items for the day as I head into my self imposed EOY mini vacation until Jan 4th: #1: Wish everyone a happy new year.
Honestly I feel a bit conflicted about this one. You’ve always known me to be an optimist who regarded hurdles ahead as stepping stones towards becoming a more resourceful and successful individual in an effort to separate myself from the giant treadmill of debt slavery and system dependency.
Since I can remember my prime directive has always been: ‘if life hands you lemons, make lemonade’.
Admittedly in the golden age of Youtube self help gurus it’s become somewhat of a trite expression, but I firmly believe that challenges in life are given to us to test both our mettle as well as our character.
If living a successful and fulfilling life was easy then everyone would be able to do it, right?
However in my experience only a small minority of people in society truly live the lives they once imagined for themselves.
Over the past few years I have noticed an alarming trend of blaming outside factors for a lack of initiative or willingness to take control of one’s personal destiny.
“Things are too tough right now.”
“There are no opportunities for people like me.”
“I don’t have enough xxxxx.”
“I am not good at xxxxx.”
“I am too xxxxx in order to do this.”
“I don’t have the right connections.”
I could go on but I’m sure you get the general idea. My default response when hearing a litany of lame excuses such as these: “Boohoo, cry me a river. Now shut the hell up, work harder, and stop feeling sorry for yourself.”
At the danger of sounding like ‘that old dude’, but when I was a kid people still had to walk or drive a few miles in order to get to a library and (hopefully) find a book on a particular topic of interest.
I also still remember owing several hundred Deutsche Mark in late charges – LOL 🙂
These days at least half of the population on the planet has the entire library of human knowledge right at their very fingertips. Mostly for FREE.
You want to become a professional gourmet chef? Easy – there are literally millions of recipes and instructional YT videos on how to become a top tier expert in the kitchen. Heck even I managed to bake my own bread recently.
Want to be a journalist and host your own show? Building your own studio is cheap these days. All that’s needed is an Internet connection, a webcam, and an interesting personality. Or a few other personal attributes, but let’s keep it PG-13.
Dreaming of becoming a famous film director or producer? The same handheld phone you’re probably reading this on is most likely capable of producing movies that look as professional as anything that would have cost at minimum tens or hundreds of thousands of Dollars just ten or twenty years ago.
You have a knack for math and want to become a successful quant trader? There are literally dozens of academies online that teach you everything you need to start out in quantitative finance, statistics, operations research, or computer science.
Admittedly there’s always a long road ahead but it’s been cut at least in half courtesy of the fast paced networked society we all live in today.
Better yet: These days nobody cares what sex, age, or skin color you are. If you have talent and are willing to work hard then you have a high chance of being successful.
My point with all this: Don’t worry about what calendar day or year it may be. It’s just a set of numbers aimed at keeping track. The Chinese don’t even celebrate the new year until late January.
And don’t get me started on time zones.
Tomorrow morning you will be the very same person you are right now. But if you work hard and approach the future with a productive can-do attitude then you may have become a marginally better version of yourself than the day before.
Compounding works well for both trading accounts and personal growth.
Perhaps you added another stepping stone toward a personal goal, or perhaps you spent two hours at the gym while everyone else was out getting shitfaced with their friends.
I tell you what I’m going to do today: It’s sunny and sort of warm so once I finish my post I’ll take a ride on my unicycle along with the Misses. Then I’ll hit the gym for a while until it’s time to fix up dinner.
Most likely we’ll coil up together next to the fireplace and watch an old (uplifting) classic movie. I usually stay up until after midnight anyway as I operate on East Coast time (here in Spain) but I for sure won’t be boozing tonight and hungover come tomorrow morning.
Frankly I don’t care about New Year’s Day as for me every calendar day is a new exciting opportunity full of possibilities and adventure. The clock is always ticking along but for me it’s always ‘go time’.
Life is short. Best not to waste time, no matter what the calendar says.
So take this as an encouragement to keep pursuing your goals and your dreams. If that takes a roll-over on the big odometer for you then so be it.
With that let me wish you a healthy, successful, and prosperous new year.
Which brings me to action item #2:
There are only a few more hours left for you to take advantage of my 2023 kick start super sale which offers a massive discount if you sign up for Red Pill Quants Unlimited for an entire year.
If one year isn’t enough for you then I’ve got good news: For a limited time and on this page ONLY until midnight today you can lock in LIFETIME access.
That’s right, never pay me a single cent again and enjoy my premiere options trading service for the rest of your natural (or unnatural) life.
But you can only get it on this page for a few more hours, so lock in some massive savings now before the odometer rolls over into 2023.
The clock is ticking and once that deal is gone it won’t be back anytime soon.
LIVE cumulative P&L of all my trades over the past year can be found here.
You can sign up right here.
See you all next year 😉