In early 2000, I acquired a lot of British Telecom stock for $85 a share to which I gleefully cashed in at $235 a share providing a very Lexus-like return on investment. While it may sound like some genius type move, it really wasn't. It's easy to pick winning stocks during a bull market, not that I'm suggesting people go out and pick stocks by any means. It's like picking a fast car at a drag strip. The astute investors are the ones who can pick the winners in the bear markets and cash out during the bull markets. There were some who invested $10K in Home Depot, Microsoft and Dell stock in 89' that cashed out at $370,000, $960,000 and $8,900,000 respectively in 99'. That's much more impressive. The million dollar questions I begin to ask were how did they know, what type of investment analysis did they do and how did they make the transactions? I wanted to know every nook and cranny. I began looking for groups of people who looked like they were smart enough to provide those answers and 100% of the time, I came up short. I wanted to join a group where people discussed this kind of thing as well as other investments with real, systemic money earning strategies that could be put to use on multiple forms of investments. I searched and searched but still I didn't find.
Last month, I gave an investment presentation to a group of distinguished Ivy League panelist. At the end of it, I was asked many questions to which I delightfully answered. The next day one of the experts in the room tracked me down and said they'd been looking for this kind of thing but couldn't find anyone who could do it. I chuckled slightly and said I know the feeling as I searched for years before I found it. We had a lively discussion talking about these concepts before the gentleman got to the point of trying to locate me. He asked that I consider chairing an investment group similar to what I presented except on a larger scale. Before long, he'd contacted his organization's president and told him of his findings. The concept I presented to the panel was called The Investment Forum and the group is known as the Washington DC Alumni Chapter of the Harvard Business School. Currently, I am proposing a strategic direction to the group which will include panel discussions of the industry's brightest stars, top policy officials that pass laws that affect investment returns and most importantly the people who perpetually make these successful investments who are willing to share the minuscule level of details on what brought their success.
Due to my aggressive nature, I'm not exactly sure how far we'll take this venture and that's not important to me at the moment. What is important is that all the people who continue to call, write and schedule meetings understand what the future of The Investment Forum looks like. Whether I add the 3000 alumni to the current newsletter or you all decide to participate in the events and happenings of the new creation, the point is that you stay involved. I want people to understand that there is no need to feel intimidated if you didn't graduate from HBS. I know it may sound easy for me to say that because I have spent some time with the school, but allow me to say to you what my player hating colleagues said about me to top management when I wasn't present, "Yeah he went to Harvard but he didn't graduate!" Honestly, like that really has anything to do with my trajectory. At the end of the day they came back to me anyway. Coming back to me means that arguably the most elite school in the world is seeking investment club advice from someone who was born and raised in the trailer park. That should end anybody's intimidation. You are just as welcomed to best that life has to offer as anyone else. It doesn't matter one iota to me whether the Queen of England is having tea or the Obama's are chartering a yacht off the cost of Spain, if the door is open, I'm going in. If it's not open, I'm probably still going in and not the least bit concerned about being intimidated of someone else's title or rank. If they don't want to come to my hood, I'll bring my hood to theirs...I live in a mobile home.
With that being said, I also urge you to keep the entries coming for the Slide 68 Ultimate Dream Weekend contest. Don't allow your entries to get flooded by a new group of people when you have a huge head start. I've found that the Uber Rich tend to walk through a lot of doors with very low or no barriers to entry and leave them unlocked not in fear that those far less fortunate will flood the gates, but because they know many times those same people are their own worst enemies to success. You don't have to be concerned with writing some college thesis. Just acknowledge that you want a little better life than what you have and state at least one way that you are trying to get it. There are no wrong answers here folks. Don't allow somebody else to sit in your private jet seat due to fear (false evidence appearing real) of whatever.
Don't worry about changing who you are as I surely don't. A friend of mind had the nerve to tell me that I shouldn't serve fried chicken at my events. I gave him a weird look and in the most Gary Coleman of ways asked him, "WhatchutalkinboutWillis?" Are you nuts? No fried chicken? Please. Asking why did the chicken cross the road suggest that he looked both ways and gave that exaggerated, coordinated slow motioned shoulder shrug that's often mimicked when man imitates the walk of a chicken. In actuality, feet of the chickens that were captured in the Mickle clan barely touched the road. They were moving rapidly to no avail always blindsided in midflight by Adluh flour and hot grease. Not all black people like fried chicken, some of us LOVE it! You can say silly stuff like this when HBS comes to you.
So keep your entries coming and I can't wait to see you in Beverly Hills. I'm still Rick James and Mike Jenkins is still Charlie Murphy. Hey Darkness, what did the five fingers say to the face?
Anthony "Von" Mickle
-from the mobile home to where moguls roam
