Three years ago I graduated college. I quickly landed this nice job as a designer for the luxury boating industry, in Fort Lauderdale where is known as the yachting capital of the world. Graduating has many consequences when you find yourself with a fat paycheck for the first time in your life (that's before Sallie Mae comes knocking on your door), look at yourself in the mirror and say "man, I'm a professional now..." It becomes addicting that anything is possible and you want to behave as an adult, being that you just got slapped in the face with your "adult permit" and the "you're on your own" certificate. I felt as lucky as I could and quickly changed things around, and fully upgraded because "I deserved it". I moved to a bigger apartment to fit my style and living expectations, got around to buy a smartphone (because business people need to be connected, and I am business) and even got around to buy some stock. What else can I do with a sudden strong flow of cash? What adults do on TV. Decided to invest, I looked around for the things I cherished the most in my brand new life, materially speaking. I loved my brand new Mac, my Verizon smartphone and my news feed on iGoogle. So, I did very little research and invested substantial (at the time) amounts of money in stock from Apple, Verizon and Google.
One thing that I didn't know, otherwise retrieving from my decision to invest (which would have been a mistake), was that I graduated at the "worst possible time". I put that in quotes because I can think of worse times than rich people not being able to afford their lifestyle therefore firing people that need the money desperately, but that's another $20 as the town folk would say. I went ahead and invested anyway, just for doing something risky that felt right and out of pure sympathy from the little consumer devil on my left shoulder.
Times changed quickly and everybody seemed desperate. All of a sudden all the boats were on sale, but nobody was buying. I was sitting nervously on my desk, knowing that I hadn't done absolutely anything so far on that given day. The workload wasn't flowing, I was working less and people we're getting laid off left and right. It was economic apocalypse, and what did I know? I was just the little guy waiting to be released of my duties and on the worst case scenario, would be forced to face a cruel world as some of my colleagues did. What would I do? By this time, Sallie Mae was already on my case (and will continue to be as far as my eyes can reach the horizon on my figurative timeline). So what does a trembling chiwawa do? I got the answer: retrieve.
My stock was worth close to nothing. I followed day by day negative numbers on a little application that was dedicated to give me specific numbers on my investment and willingly reminded me of how much I didn't know what I was doing. So, abruptly, I took a decision to lose even more money and sell the little I had invested. I walked out with literally close to 20% of what I had put in. I needed the money, the Earth was flat and I was reaching the border. As I wasn't ready to fall into oblivion with more debt (which I eventually managed to do anyway), I took as little as I could and paddled my way back. Bad decision.
What happened from there 'till now?
- new iPhones
- iPad
- iPhone on Verizon
- iPad on Verizon
- Google Chrome
- Android operating system
<span> If I didn’t sell anything back then, and focused on what was really happening, I could potentially be sitting on a pile nowadays, and I am referring to a pile of money. Maybe I’m exaggerating, but I know for a fact that the original amount that I put in would have close to tripled in the last 3 years.
I am happy to say, however, that the uneducated decisions of a new born adult can sometimes lead to great growth. Maybe not monetarily, but I’ve grown as a person who understands this, and that my friends is my success story. The story of my failure.
Now the facts: I managed to keep my job, boats are selling, freelance is coming in and I lead a happy life with what little I have. It only comes to show that if one invests in life, it pays.
:)
By Alberto Orsini
www.albertoorsini.com
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