Reaching For The Stars With Tony And Leo

The pursuit of mastery never ends. Neither does the amount of resources we have to teach us.

One of my favorite inspirations is this short clip from Dogtown And Z Boys about one of my childhood idols, skateboarder Tony Alva.

Listen carefully to one of his peers, skateboard champion David Hackett (@ 4:40), describe him.  It's one of my favorite aphorisms about what absolute mastery truly is.





"He could jump barrels, he could race downhill, he could do freestyle, he could do streetstyle, he could ride vert . . . he did it all better than anybody."

How could this translate to trading? How might you speak about a trader in these terms? Maybe something like this:

"He could trade futures, he could trade stocks, he could trade options, he could trade forex, he could scalp, he could hedge, he could ride trends, he could trade counter-trend . . . he did it all."

The point is to Go For It.

Whatever your It is: want it, go for it, and know you deserve it.

Online trading is a challenging profession. Not only is a trader up against thousands of other traders and institutions with access to far more information and capital, a trader is also up against a far more potent adversary, one that knows all the trader's weaknesses: his or her own self.

Stack the deck. Think big. Shoot for greatness. Defeat the conspiracy of mediocrity.

Chicago advertising legend Leo Burnett used to say:

"When you reach for the stars you might not quite get one, but you won't come up with a handful of mud either."