One of the first things we do with our Partnering For Your Success students is to have them plan out how many hours they can spend on lease purchasing.
We know that many of you are working and want to start part-time. Well the best way to do this is to take a calendar and to put in the times you will work your lease purchasing business, or whatever business you want to get started.
By some estimates, 95 percent of the pure Internet companies that went public in the past couple of years eventually will fail. Many already have done so -- with a lot less fanfare than when they were offered. Nonetheless, their very existence scared the daylights out of many "old-line" businesses, which quickly responded with their wherewithal, existing infrastructure, and newly energized management. These "new Old Economy" players are now wiser, stronger, and more nimble thanks to the brief threat from on-line competitors. I'm sure it's sweet justice for them to have the employees who jumped shop for greener pastures come running back -- even as the stocks of dot-com competitors fade faster than Fourth of July fireworks.
How many times has this happened to you? You're at a social function and the conversation turns to investing. Pretty soon, people are comparing how well their investments are doing. As you might imagine, being an investment advisor this happens to me a lot. However, I recently had an experience with it that startled me.