Take the first step

Lao Tzu said "that a journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step", or for the pedantic amongst us " a journey of a thousand leagues begins beneath ones feet"







Sometimes that first step seems gargantuan.

The majority of people never take that first step, you know the excuses

• I cannot because,
• what if,
• what will people think

A million excuses but if you are one of the few who take that first step, the journey never seems as hard or as long.

Best of all the pride you feel at the end of the journey or even half way through as you look back cannot be beaten.

Take that first step

ps. take a second one too and then one after that and so on. Even small steps in the right direction will get you there.

Lesson of the day! (for me)

Yet again I discoverd today that doing the tough stuff is in fact not so tough.

I, for one, am guilty of making mountains out of molehills, overanalysing possibilities and over preparing plans to deal with the endless possible consequences. The result - "paralysis by analysis" and procrastination.

Perhaps I am particularly hard to teach but I constantly have to relearn the lesson of

1. Pick the issue that needs to be dealt with.


2. Decide on a plan of action.


3. Schedule the issue into my day.


4. Address the issue and get it resolved.

Scheduling has generally made me much more effecient - vastly more so than preparing a general todo list. With my todo list, it was always overfull (impossible to get done in one day anyway) and of course you tend to focus on the tasks you like and enjoy leaving the others at the bottom of the list to carry over into the next day - the result (for me) nagging guilt and dis-satisfaction.

Scheduling and addressing the less pleasant tasks and doing them:

• Leaves you feeling fulfilled having completed the task.


• You frequently find that the task was not as hard or time consuming as you first thought.


• You often discover that the task was not that unpleasant anyway.


• Most importantly you learn how to deal with the particular issue and from learning comes growth and an ability to deal with the issue better the next time.

What now for investment?

Unfortunatley, many of us have now discovered the risks of investing in stocks, bonds, contracts for difference and all sorts of other financial products dreamed up by financiers and bankers.

Here in Ireland the banking horror stories seem to come one upon the other.

Anglo Irish Bank, the third largest in the state, has just been Nationalised, as it has been reported in the papers that its previously respected CEO and Chairman, Sean Fitzpatrick, had successfully hidden up to €130 million in personal loans from the banks auditors, the financial regulators and even some of his fellow board members by "bed and breakfasting" his loan with another financial institution whenever the inspectors came to have a look at the books!

Warren Buffett is quoted as saying "It's not until the tide goes out that you know who is swimming without trunks" and it is now apparent that many of the the banks and finace houses have been swimming nude!

Intrest rates have fallen to historical lows with the bank of England rate now at rates not seen since Winston Churchill was in power.

Those with money in the banks are receiving so little interest that they are actually losing money annually comapred to inflation and it seems impossible to make a good stock pick in the current climate.

Commodity prices have fallen in line with decreasing demand from the largest of the world's economies and now with decreasing demand from the emerging economies.

Land and house prices are falling.

But.....land is real, commodities are real, these are tangible assets. Although price and demand for commodities may fall in the short term, increasing world population and conicident increases in demand for commodities will make them a solid long term bet.

When it comes to land - guess what - they just ain't making any more of it....need I say more.