The Motley Fool's What to Do with Your Money Now

Chapter 1: We Were Impatient

A New York Times cartoon from the late 1990s perfectly captured the spirit of the age. Entitled "How to Start Your Very Own Silicon Valley Startup," its captions went thus:

STEP ONE: Go to Menlo Park. Find a tree.

STEP TWO: Shake the tree. A venture capitalist will drop out. Before he regains his wits, recite the following incantation: "Internet, Electronic Commerce, Distributed Enterprise-Enabled Applications, Java!"

STEP THREE: The venture capitalist will give you $4 million.

STEP FOUR: In 18 months, go public.

STEP FIVE: After you receive your check, go back to Menlo Park. Find a tree.

STEP SIX: Climb it. Wait.

That is the environment that all of us were living through, and in which many of us were investing and working.

We were impatient.

The macro business environment was impatient.

And this point, like each of the points in this section, provides us both a business and investing lesson.

THE BUSINESS LESSON

As co-chairmen of the Motley Fool, we can say that we felt a tremendous amount of pressure ... read full excerpt from: The Motley Fool's What to Do with Your Money Now: Ten Steps to Staying Up in a Down Market ebook