One mystery has held a fascination for me: why do some succeed at trading, and in life, while others, most others, fail?

Being born wealthy or having wealth is not the answer - we have seen many flit away this advantage; being educated or intelligent is not the answer - as a mentor, I have encountered doctors, lawyers, accountants, surgeons etc who have failed to become traders, even though they had already experienced a large measure of success in their careers; hours slaving in front of the computer is not the answer - I know many who have spent hours and hours seeking to hone their skills and still have failed.

So, what is the answer?

On February 17 2009, at 3:00 am, I had a flash of insight and this is what I am sharing with you.

There are two reasons we fail at anything:

1. We don’t know what to do. And,
2. We don’t do what we know.

We solve the first by acquiring the skills necessary. In trading this is not so easy. Not because the path to success is unknown but because we are surrounded with so many false promises - promises that pander to our human nature. We are promised unreasonably phenomenal success without expending time, effort, and money.

I run a no frills seminar, called Habits of Success, about once a year. The Habits of Success material seeks to address this aspect of success:

• the mission, vision and goals provide direction;
• the journals (psychological and equity) provide a means to learn from our successes and failures i.e. to provide a means for constant and never-ending improvement;
• the risk management spreadsheet provides a means to control risk; and
• a simple trading strategy teaches us to take a trade only when the probabilities favour us.
  

Together the tools provide a means for learning this: we achieve success over the long-term rather than on any one trade.

So, we have the means to know what to do. But, I would wager any amount that many participants would not be achieving their goals; they fail because they have failed to implement the material. In addition, of this 50% who failed, over half would think that the fault lies with the Habits Of Success content. But here’s the rub: “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings.”. In short why don’t we do what we know.

This was the 3:00 am aha!

To Be Continued….

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