I have been reading this book recently that leaves me pondering. How did some financial bloggers achieve F.I.R.E (Financial Independence, Retire Early)? How did some people become successful at work and get their job promotion? How did some entrepreneurs become so successful at their startup? I spoke to some of my friends about these questions. They told me it is related to “Talent” or “Fate” and if you are not talented at stock investing, you will not achieve F.I.R.E. Their answers definitely are not satisfying. I found my answers in this book I found.
This title of the book I have been reading is “GRIT – Why Passion and Resilience are the secrets to success” by Angela Duckworth.B. Before I read the book, the word “Grit” is alien to me. The book defines Grit as holding the same top-level goal for a very long time.
According to Wikipedia, below is the definition of Grit.
Grit in psychology is a positive, non-cognitive trait based on an individual’s perseverance of effort combined with the passion for a particular long-term goal or end state (a powerful motivation to achieve an objective) – Wikipedia
From the book, I have learnt a few attributes on Grit that I can apply in my stock investment journey and at work.
Interest
You need to have passion so that you enjoy the thing that you do. If you want to invest in stocks, then you need to have the interest to further dig into the companies you are investing in. This can range from reading annual reports and analyzing their latest financial results.
Practice
As the old saying goes, “Practice makes Perfect”. Even though I am not an expert in analyzing financial results of companies, I am practicing. I have wrote a few posts on Personal Analysis of Stocks. Not only should we keep practicing, we should try to do things better than we did yesterday.
Purpose
The work needs to have a purpose, which means that the work matters. I started this website “My Sweet Retirement” for the purpose of sharing my stock investment journey and at the same time exchange ideas with other financial bloggers.
Hope
Hope is about perseverance. I hope to achieve F.I.R.E one day, although it is not an easy feat. This quote is from the book I read, “If we stay down, grit loses. If we get up, grit prevails.“
FYI, she also did a TEDTalk on this. You can find it on Youtube.
Hi liang seng, thanks for sharing!