Olympics

3.5-minute read

Winning the Olympics, but not even competing in it!

This week, I will share a valuable lesson from the 2016 Olympics and making money! Decent money!

The story goes like this.

My colleague and friend randomly came to the art gallery where we worked.

 All energized!

Now if a man has energy, a big smile, and positivity, then you know it has something to do with money or a woman.

He started to share his idea with me…”I am going to make money”… Well a man has to listen if someone says “make money”.

So I listened!

He explained how the system would work, and we would get about X9 of our money if everything went well.

Little did I know that if you get a 26% return on your money compounded, then you double your investment in 3 years. And that is fantastic!

At that time, I was sort of ignorant of investing, and the returns that one can expect. I thought it was OK. Not so much, but no problem, it is worth the risk.

So put down $1000 and get about $9000 back. Some fees to the house and get out around $8000.

mmmm sounds promising. “But what is the catch”, I said.

High risk, high reward!

The catch was that we needed to choose 6 events in the track and field category.

However,

They all need to get GOLD. First place!

Now this was risky… But who do we bet on?

People! (That is the important lesson here).

We surround ourselves with people who will bring opportunities to us, or they will drag us down to their level. (I just wanted to share my 2 cents reminder there)

These were the 6 events:

• 4×400m Men relay, USA

• 4×400m Women's relay, USA

• 4×100m Women's relay, USA (had 3 of top fastest 5 runners in the world)

• 4×100m Men relay, Jamaica (had 3 of the top 5 fastest runners)

• 800m Women, South Africa (In front by 20 meters)

• 400m Men, South Africa (Brooke the world record)

After a baton drop during qualification The U.S almost did not make the final, so they appealed it, leading to a unique, isolated rerun against China and the USA in an empty stadium.

The U.S. defended its women's 4x100m Olympic gold that year.

Lucky U.S., Or should I say lucky us? Pun intended.

In the 400m men’s race, the South African, Wade van Niekerk also broke the world record and got gold.

It was almost like a dream. Every event got gold and we celebrated!

Looking back now, I should have put more money in. Well, hindsight is 20/20, and we can either learn from the past or be victims. But more money would have meant a bigger win.

The amazing thing was, that my friend put double the amount than what I put. He just never told me about it. He was so convinced in his conviction.

What made it work

From the moment he told me about the investment, we tried to validate each argument. He looked at each event and carefully hand-picked the races. This was a huge fundamental analysis.

In some of these races, we would lose, if an injury occurred or an accident happened. Because the athletes were the best in the event they participated in and by a long shot.

Also, what made it work was that we put the money in and we waited. At that time, we did not have access to a TV, and we followed up on each event after it ended.

We were patient. And from the time putting the money down to getting the winnings was about 9 weeks.

What is the takeaway?

I try to remind myself this was not investing, quite frankly this was gambling, betting, or just rolling the dice.

Yes, we could have done all the research in the world, but so many things were out of our control. Almost like betting on horses, a sports team or even choosing RED or BLACK at the casino.

However,

• If I throw heads and win, and tails, I don’t lose much… Then I will take that bet any day.

• To take a risk of this kind, we need to be in a comfortable financial position. We need to have money put aside for emergencies, have our basic needs covered, and do it in an unbiased mental state.

  To think clearly and rationally.

• Always put money aside for high-risk opportunities that come your way. Because if this was the only money I had, I would have lost the opportunity.

• DON’T bet the farm! Put a small percentage of your net worth in it.

  (This bet was about 2% of my net worth then. A small amount, but it increased my net worth nicely. I am grateful!)

Thank you for reading.

Until next week

Keep Saving and investing