In 1997, I felt bankruptcy on my skin, and it made me despise the helplessness of the situation.

My commitment to radical wealth became absolute, from that point on.

The first thing I did was to get a job. Since no one was too keen on hiring a 150cm (4’11 feet) kid, I got creative, a trait, which stuck with me. I started visiting a local clothing store daily, spending over two hours at a time, going over the various brands, discussing with the owner the details of each, until he was privy to the knowledge I possessed. Then, he saw that I had well-developed selling skills as well, when I helped a random customer out.

He hired me, paying a whopping $4 an hour salary.

That was the beginning of the asset accumulation phase in my life. I’ll never forget him for giving me a shot because it boosted my confidence and allowed me to learn the important lessons of saving, holding-off on pleasures, and investing proceeds, instead of spending them.

By age 14, I had also started to market my babysitting services and my private basketball tutoring services, which gave me the opportunity to save, within two years‘ time, $20,000.

At age 16, as odd as it may seem, my bank account was larger than my father’s. My next step was making that cash grow, which was an art that my grandfather, a retired man by that time, relied upon for his passive income stream in retirement.

He gave me two books. One was authored by Peter Lynch, the most successful investor of the 1980s, and the second one was a book about Warren Buffett.

I connected with Peter Lynch’s book first, since his was full of stocks his teenage daughter had picked for the fund, and they ended-up being huge winners for him. He pointed out that stocks represent businesses, so one should stick with companies that one can easily understand.

Buffett was the one, who opened my eyes to the fact that I needed to own world-class brands because they are much more competitive and enjoy greater loyalty from their customers, even when they need to raise prices on them. Buffett also taught me the importance of knowing what to do with business profits. In other words, by introducing me to his philosophy that a CEO’s role is to allocate the shareholder’s profits wisely, I began to look for my first ever stock.

It needed to be a brand, which I could purchase shares of, when they were priced relatively cheap, hold on to them, while reinvesting dividends (a hallmark of Buffett investing), and I had to understand the business model easily.

The stock I picked in June of 2000 was with a company I still hold today. While I didn’t know that diversification is critical and that proper position sizing helps to mitigate risk, I put the entire $20,000 sum in this one investment.

Today, after the 9.5-year bull market, this stock isn’t a bargain for new investors, so it is definitely not the time to be adding to my position.

Wealth Research Group doesn’t see much upside for it in the short-term, as it is overvalued, but I want to show it to you rather, as a case study for successful long-term investing.

This work is based on SEC filings, current events, interviews, corporate press releases and what we’ve learned as financial journalists. It may contain errors and you shouldn’t make any investment decision based solely on what you read here. It’s your money and your responsibility. Information contained in this profile was extracted from current documents filed with the SEC, the company web site and other publicly available sources deemed reliable. The information herein is not intended to be personal legal or investment advice and may not be appropriate or applicable for all readers. If personal advice is needed, the services of a qualified legal, investment or tax professional should be sought.

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