The Burrard Street Blog

Phil is an investment expert who was speaking about how individuals can invest to make great returns. I really enjoyed his presentation because he reiterated a lot of ideas I am familiar with and have preached to family and friends who generally choose not to believe me.

The basic ideas:

•  Money managers make over 800 billion in commissions each year, so they have a vested interest in managing your money and maintaining control of the markets
• The most popular mutual funds results mirror the S&P 500 but charge fees
• You should focus on about 5 stocks
• Technology and freedom of information has given the individual investor power they never had before
• 85% of the market is controlled by fund managers, but because of their size they need to move very slowly when entering or exiting a position, so the individual investor can spot trends and profit because they can move so quickly
• He was a follower of the Buffet school of investing
• Rate of return is not = to risk. Its like if you drive your car it is not risky, but your 11 year old driving would be. More knowledge and skill = greater rates of return.

I ended up buying a package that included training and use of some investor tools. Ironically I have no money free to play with in the markets right now, but you know me I’m obsessed with learning and seminars and every bit of knowledge I can get my hands on. As I free up some money and start testing it out I will keep everyone updated about the results.

Here are some quotes I thought I’d share from the speakers I saw today:

“It’s not a black thing, it’s not a white thing, it’s a green thing”
-Christopher Gardner

“For $25,000 I’ll listen to him tell all the Ni$%^ he wanted. I was laughing all the way to the bank”
-Christopher Gardner

“When the CFO and the Chair of the Board are selling, its probably a good indicator of what to do!”
-Phil Town

“It was a small misunderstanding…..I had to go to jail”
-Martha Stuart

“If you don’t give appropriate attention to what has your attention it will take more than it deserves”
-David Allen

“The more something is on your mind, the less is probably getting done about it”
-David Allen

“95% of the time when you have the time and energy to do something you don’t have the time and energy to think about what you need to do”
-David Allen

“Life has been made too confusing, too complicated…Laugh, move, dance”
-Loretta LaRouche

“If you want to make god laugh, tell him your plans”
-Quincy Jones

“Live everyday like its your last, one day you’ll be right”
-Quincy Jones

“Copy the 10 people you admire most….once you walk in their shoes and gain confidence your own personality can come through”
-Quincy Jones

“When people doubt me I’ve practiced my response….Right, we will see”
-Quincy Jones

“Not one drop of my self-worth depends on your acceptance of me”
-Quincy Jones

“Dan, you have some amazing rhythm, don’t let it go to waste. One day you’re going to be a star”
-Quincy Jones

“When life gets to be too much, stop and let your soul catch up. Listen to a great song”
-Quincy Jones

“Tell someone you love them. Call, write, email or text an old friend. Tell someone you miss them.”
-Quincy Jones

“I played 1000 games where I didn’t have to be great, just better than the other guy”
-Andre Agassi

“Focus on getting one day better, not two, and build momentum each day”
-Andre Agassi

“Eat an elephant one bite at a time”
-Andre Agassi

“If this is co complicated for you, let me make it simple, if you see the ball move and hit it”
-Andre’s Coach during The French Open Finals

Thats all for tonight. Look forward to more indepth articles on each of the speakers over the next few weeks.

Dan.

Today I attended a Power Within speaking event at GM Place and so far have been very impressed by what I have seen (It is the intermission right now, so I decided to take the time to write down all my thoughts on the speakers before they float away). To benefit those who attended, and those who didn’t, I will review, recap and explore the ideas presented by each speaker. I will keep it to one article per speaker and while I will likely write all 8-9 articles today while the ideas are fresh I will edit and publish them every few days as to not overwhelm the reader and keep the ideas fresh in my mind.