I love learning new things and tend to soak up information like a sponge. I was born with an almost instationable curiosity about how things work and why things are the way they are.
This happened when I went on a six-month deep dive before I bought my first stock. I read everything I could get my hands on concerning markets, and the best way to invest limited funds in a conservative manner (The answer for me at the time was utility stocks).
Those months of study worked out for me as I found a unique investment that many others had missed. I found a company with a one-of-a-kind advantage, with almost no competition. Speaking with other investors in the company, we were surprised that others hadn't found it. They would in time, but I was able to invest early. I'm so glad I did my homework and found this little gem.
Taking the Plunge
You see, some people will open up a new device and start playing around with it without looking at the instructions (as you can with many intuitive products from Apple). Not me. I'll break out the booklet and read it cover to cover before attempting to use it.
Deep dives are a great way immerse yourself into a new field of knowledge. The important point is to do more than just dip a toe in, but not to spending so much time learning, that you never end up doing, you know what I mean?
And that's exactly what I'm doing right now as I expand my knowledge into new subjects. I find the process of learning to be much like the iterative steps taken in the creative process itself.
When I get into something new, I go all in. In my last post, I explained about how I went Down the Rabbit Hole in the search for Riley Strain. In the years I've been studying missing people, particularly young men who end up wandering away from bars then end up being found dead.
You'd be surprised at just how many of these guys end up being either Irish or German-Americans, or a mixture of Irish and German. And you only see these patterns after poring over many cases. Many of these people simply get drunk, stumble to a river to take a piss (attracted by the sound of water?), and just fall in. But its strange that so many tend to have an Irish or German background.
Where are the African-Americans, Latinos and Asian-Americans? Strange indeed.
When I took a deep dive into stocks, I gave myself a six-month max end date. I felt that would give me a solid base to learn as much as I could, and then make a hard decision as to whether to go forward.
I spoke to many, many people about investing. I didn't want to just know the "what" but also the WHY. Why did you choose this stock as opposed to that one? How'd you get started, and what are the pitfalls?
Many older people were only too willing to share their knowledge to someone just starting out in their investing journey. Always curious, I saw seniors as living libraries packed with information, who loved to talk about it. We both got something out of the exchange, and I became a better, more well-rounded person because of it.
And that's how it is with just about anything. Show a genuine interest, and you'll be handsomely rewarded.
I've interviewed prostitutes, Wiccans, Pagans, communists, drug dealers, and all manner of different types of people. I'm not there to judge them, I'm only there to learn. I'll never forget the young teen who was butchering a goat to celebrate a holiday when I was in the military in East Africa.
Everyone else was horrified, but I stopped to talk to him, surprised that he spoke English. You can't learn if you don't ask, right?
There's a world of information out there, and the internet is like great pool of knowledge just waiting to satisfy your curiosity.
All you have to do is...
Dive in.
