Summary
- I’ve never claimed to strive for perfection. Maybe Michelangelo did. For that matter, maybe he even achieved it.
- Vince Lombardi was right: “Perfection is not attainable. But if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence."
- ’d happily intermix the two quotes to say that, “Excellence is no small thing, but it is made up of small things."
- Looking for a portfolio of ideas like this one? Members of iREIT on Alpha get exclusive access to our model portfolio. Get started today »
The Internet tells me that Michelangelo once said that “Perfection is no small thing, but it is made up of small things.”
Whether Michelangelo actually said that or not, I genuinely don’t know. The internet can be a very misleading place, of course. But someone somewhere did say it, in which case that someone somewhere should be quoted.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m not against big things. That’s why I’m in the business that I’m in: Because of the big picture. I want to build my readers’ personal portfolios up to retirement-supporting levels. So you’d better believe I’ve got big goals for my platforms here, from the free one to iREIT on Alpha to Dividend Kings.
Each one comes with wide scopes, large offerings, and outsized profits waiting to be taken advantage of. At the same time, I fully realize that each one of those platforms are made up of much smaller pieces: Individual articles, recommendations, pieces, aspects, and tools.
It’s just that those “little” things all add up. That’s rather how life works, I’ve found. For better or worse.
Though, for the purposes of this article, we’re definitely focusing on the better.
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Achieving Excellence
Before we go any further, I need to go on record about that opening quote of ours…
I’ve never claimed to strive for perfection. Maybe Michelangelo did. For that matter, maybe he even achieved it.
The Sistine Chapel is, of course, phenomenal. Far be it from me to point out any criticism of such a work of art, hence the reason why I won’t.
However, as for my personal view of what can and can’t be achieved in the markets, I’ve acknowledged my missteps to you in past articles. That’s why I tend to side more with Vince Lombardi. He (allegedly) said that, “Perfection is not attainable. But if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence.”
In fact, I’d happily intermix the two quotes to say that, “Excellence is no small thing, but it is made up of small things.” That about sums it up on my end.
With that established, let’s get back to those small things that matter so much. The ones that add up. Big time.
To illustrate this, have you ever heard of the compounded penny example? When investing experts talk about it, they usually start out with a trick question.
Would you want a million dollars upfront or a penny compounded for 30 days?
It only makes sense that the vast, vast majority of people are going to fall for the trick. They want the million, and they want it now. They’ve got their eyes on the prize and their mind working full-speed over obvious details – such as the fact that there’s an absolutely enormous difference between $0.01 and $1,000,000.00.
It’s not hard to imagine all the things you could buy with the latter and all the things you couldn’t with the former.
Yet don’t ever discount the little things to such a large degree. It won’t go well for you, as evidenced by the conclusion to that “million-dollar question” we posed above.
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It All Adds Up
Remember that it wasn’t just a penny vs. a million bucks. It was a compounded penny over 30 days vs. a million bucks.
In which case, here’s how that penny would grow…
On Day 1, you’d start out with a single cent, amounting to an utterly uninspiring $0.01. And by Day 2, it wouldn’t look much better, sitting at a mere $0.02.
Twice nothing is still nothing. Right?
For that matter, you’d no doubt still be feeling rather silly about your decision all the up through the halfway mark. There, at Day 15, you’d have a decent bit more than you started out with. But $163.84 is still far shy of what you turned down.
Tragically so, by all appearances.
Yet $163.84 doubled is $327.68. And $327.68 doubled is $655.36.
From there, it’s $1,310.72… $2,621.44… and $5,242.88.
Are you starting to see the perfection through the small things?
By the time you hit Day 30, you would have not $1 million. Not $2 million. But $5,368,709.12
Clearly then, that significantly smaller option leads to much bigger gains.
I bring all this up not because I’ve found a stock that can double in price every day for 30 days. Like perfection, that’s quite the ideal to strive for.
But I can point you to a portfolio of companies that are up 30% for the year. Better yet, I see more growth for them up ahead.
They’re small caps, sure, but they’re making big inroads on their own. Moreover, they can make a significant difference in your overall gains when you buy them up.
Every portfolio should have at least a few such up-and-comers in play, especially when they boast the numbers down below.
...Originally Posted On Seeking Alpha
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