Tuesday Notes - The Best is Yet To Come

In a few hours, the clock will strike midnight and this trader will enter the final year where my age won't be preceded by a "5".

For on March 10, 1961, my mother gave birth to Donald Frederick Miller.  Yet as I've said in the past, the event almost didn't happen as my mother had survived an absolutely devastating stillbirth just two years earlier.

She could have given up.  She could have said, "why bother trying again?"  She could have taken the easy way out.  Instead, she took a leap of faith, for which I of course will be forever grateful.

There's no doubt that I inherited much from my mother, including a steadfast will that refuses to give up and seems to strengthen whenever confronted with setbacks, challenges, or critics.  Translation: one stubborn S.O.B.

It's also a will I see in both of my daughters, including my high school senior who hasn't let her daily challenge of diabetes stand in her way of accomplishing more in her seventeen years than many do in their entire life.  A proud papa comment?  Damn right.

I admit I've thoroughly enjoyed my late 40s, and have learned firsthand why many don't reach their stride until well after 40, including the fact that much of our 20s and 30s are spent sowing our oats and/or raising a family.

Consider the following: 

"I discovered, from the analysis of over 25,000 people, that men who succeed in an outstanding way, seldom do so before the age of forty, and more often they do not strike their real pace until they are well beyond the age of fifty." Napoleon Hill, Think & Grow Rich

History is full of noted examples of such.  Sam Walton was 43 years old when he started Wal-Mart.  Teddy Roosevelt was 43 when he took office. Vince Lombardi was 45 when he took the head coaching job with the Green Bay Packers.  Leonardo da Vinci was in his forties when he did the Last Supper and his fifties when he completed the Mona Lisa.  Ronald Reagan was in his fifties when he started his real career as a politician. George Patton was 60 when he took over command of the 2nd Armored Division, and all of his noted work came after that.

Some say trading is a young person's game, including someone a few years ago who was convinced that this discretionary trader & educator in his late 40s couldn't compete with young guns and black boxes.  Essentially, he "dared" me to put my money where my mouth was and make a million dollars in less than a year.

Turned out he was right.

He undershot the target by about 60%.

Apparently, he didn't know my mother.

No posts tomorrow ... just trading, training, and a quiet dinner with my wife.