From The Kirk Report...
Friday, August 17, 2012 at 01:37 PM
This market has been tough on many of us, including some of the smartest and best of the bunch. But, in the end, it is never the market that is our own worst enemy, instead it is always ourselves.
Recently I read the comments by Louis M. Bacon of Moore Capital Management who announced he was returning $2 billion to his investors. The reason he gave to The New York Times was that he had found it difficult to invest given the impossibility of predicting the European situation. He was quoted as saying, “The political involvement is so extreme — we have not seen this since the postwar era. What they are doing is trying to thwart natural market outcomes. It is amazing how important the decision-making of one person, Angela Merkel, has become to world markets.” Translation? What Mr. Bacon proposed was that it is impossible to make money in the markets when there is heavy political involvement, because political involvement introduces unpredictability in the market.
This is complete balderdash! Let me tell you something I learned many years ago. The moment you convince yourself that something is impossible, you have already failed. This is also exactly why Mr. Bacon, who I’m sure is a really bright and decent fellow, has already started down the path to his professional demise if he truly is absolutely convinced that investing in this market is impossible.
Over the years I’ve been told by more people than I care to count how it is “impossible” to make money in the market and that is “impossible” for anyone to accurately time the market. You know what, for these people, it is impossible because they’ve already convinced themselves of it. But, one lesson I’ve learned in my 20 years of trading the markets, is that nothing is impossible.
I’m not only talking about my own experiences here, but also in watching so many traders come and go through the years. In my 20 year career I’ve watched the smartest people you’ve ever seen blow themselves up and lose all of their money. At the same time I’ve seen the most miserable of failures achieve tremendous success in the market. You know what the key difference between these two groups of people is? In the end, what mattered most for the successful, was their undying, unshakeable belief in themselves and their abilities. Never, not for one second, did they think what they were trying to achieve is impossible. Because the moment they did, it would be “game over” for them.
So, if you’ve entertained such thoughts lately (and who honestly hasn’t?) it is still not too late to get back on the right track and remove the word impossible from your vocabulary. Moreover, the next time you hear someone say something is impossible, understand that for them, they are absolutely correct. But, for you, it means limitless opportunity so long as you’re willing to step up and do the work, believe in yourself even when you fail (and you will), and keep trying like no other. Do this and you’ll discover that what others see as impossible, can become your reality.
To remember this important lesson that will serve you well both in the markets and out, pick the quote from the list below that resonates best with you and write it down somewhere where you work. The very next time you hear yourself start to think something is impossible, review your favorite quote and keep working!
My Favorite Quotes On Impossible:
“There is nothing impossible to him who will try.” – Alexander the Great
“Without faith nothing is possible. With it, nothing is impossible.” – Mary McLeod Bethune
“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” – Muhammad Ali
“We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.” – Charles R. Swindoll
“The only place where your dream becomes impossible is in your own thinking.” – Robert Schuller
“We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible.” – Vince Lombardi
“Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone to accomplish.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done.” – Louis D. Brandeis
“Impossible only means that you haven’t found the solution yet.” – Anonymous
“To the timid and hesitating everything is impossible because it seems so.” – Sir Walter Scott
“The difference between impossible and the possible lies in a man’s determination.” – Tommy Lasorda
“I only want people around me who can do the impossible.” – Elizabeth Arden
“I wouldn’t say anything is impossible. I think that everything is possible as long as you put your mind to it and put the work and time into it.” – Michael Phelps
“Nothing is impossible – some things are just less likely than others.” – Jonathan Winters
“By striving to do the impossible man has always achieved what is possible. Those who have cautiously done no more than they believed possible have never taken a single step forward.” – Mikhail Bakunin
“I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, “move from here to there” and it will move. Nothing will be impossible to you.” – Jesus Christ
“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” – Paulo Coelho
“No one gets very far unless he accomplishes the impossible at least once a day.” – Elbert Hubbard
“Some of the world’s greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart enough to know they were impossible.” – Doug Larson
“To believe a thing impossible is to make it so.” – French Proverb
“I have learned to use the word impossible with the greatest caution.” – Wernher von Braun
“Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail.” – Charles Kettering
“What we can or cannot do, what we consider possible or impossible is rarely a function of our true capability. It is more likely a function of our beliefs about who we are.” – Anthony Robbins
“It is impossible to win the race unless you venture to run, impossible to win the victory unless you dare to battle.” – Richard M. DeVos
“So many of our dreams at first seem impossible then they seem improbable and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.” – Christopher Reeve
“It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.” – Walt Disney
“The word impossible is not in my dictionary.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
