[[Start here]] → Self Reliance --- ![[emerson-self-reliance-1.png]] The investment industry is essentially designed to separate fools from their money. When others manage your money, they either charge excessive fees for the privilege, or bundle your money with thousands of others which limits your opportunity. When you manage your own money, you charge yourself through inexperience or by following the crowd. Of the two, the latter path is more beneficial, as it is a learning path, but the short term costs can be painful. > [!quote] **Rudyard Kipling** > The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. New investors are often lured into markets after, rather than before, strong returns. Markets reverse, and this leads to pain, but it is not the time to give up. It's the time to reflect and learn. Learning compounds through effort and experience. ![[payoff-to-self-reliance.png]] As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said *"to be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment."*. Learn from your experiences, listen to your instinct, but most importantly be bold in your decision making when it is contrary to the crowd. ## References - [Where Are the Customers' Yachts?](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Customers-Yachts-Street-Investment-Classics/dp/0471770892/) Fred Schwed Jr. - [Six hours with Rudyard Kipling](https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/pdf/KJ162.pdf). Kipling Society. - [Self Reliance](https://archive.vcu.edu/english/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/emerson/essays/selfreliance.html). Ralph Waldo Emerson.