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© Copying 2009 All Rights Reserved Content & Photos By www.inkmoney.com Pat Silver
Investments in Life that are Larger than Money, Business and Jobs
What does a good investment look like? A few years back I started to think about what was the best investment that a man could have. This is what I came up with.
The first and largest investment of life was something not physical, but spiritual. This would cost me the most time but would give me the greatest return. This was to invested in the Lord my God, the return is eternal life. I think that is a pretty good return of investment. I find that these returns of investment flow back to me in many ways on a day to day bases. I started to invest the 12 hours that I had been driving a road grader as a job into seeking God. Working crazy 12 + hours days 6 and 7 days a week gave me lots of time with God. I began praying and talking to God while grading the roads. I am grateful for this opportunity . In many ways it has made me into who I am today.
The second investment was not physical either. It was to invest in my wife and kids. We all have one shot at that and have a very short life on earth. That was and still is important to me.
We took the money that we made from the rundown house and put it into a acreage. At this time we had 5 kids, and the city life did not suit us all that well. We wanted the kids to have a place to run and explore like my wife and I had as kids.
These investments don’t have much to do with money, but they are very important. When we look back on our life we can say, “Hey, I am for the most part happy with the decisions I made back there no matter if it worked out for richer or poorer.”
My decision to have a business and work from home has not always worked out as I would have liked, but I am glad for the lessons I learned out of it. Early on in my pursuit of the home based business, my goal was to get that extra time with the kids when in mattered most to them.
I wanted to be a stock trader. I could do that from home and it was suppose to give quick small profits every three or four days. We set up a limit of what we were willing to lose before we started. It is a high risk business. I invested in a stock course, reading and studying through it diligently. We had our wins and our losses. When it was done, our loss line was breached and we were done as a stock trader. We moved on with our heads lifted high.
The greatest thing I ever learned from day trading was, not how to make or lose money. But how to overcome fear of failure. This was a priceless lesson to me. It helps me take educated risks today.
It is like this to me. If I risk something and people laugh at me, call me a fool, or praise me, it is all the same. It is the same if I win or lose. Wins and losses in life come in one way or another. This is how we grow.
We learn what works, what doesn’t work, and above all we learn what is in us. Are we strong enough to overcome fear, failure, loss, and our weaknesses.
The question we need to ask ourselves after we have found out what our investment return was or was not is, “What did we learn from it?” “What would we change next time?” “Did we risk to much or not enough?” “Were the odds in our favour or were we just buying a losing ticket?” “Are we wiser?”
If we answered truthfully and are honest with ourselves, we should be wiser.
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