A LITTLE TRUE "SHORT" STORY THIS GROUP MIGHT ENJOY!
As many of you know, I was married this summer, with special thanks to my wonderful brother's wedding gift to us of a "lifetime membership" to Silicon Investor (a gift that "keeps-on-giving"). You may also know that I've been on a rather extended honeymoon since the wedding. In fact, I plan to "extend" the honeymoon for the rest of my life.
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Anyway, to make a "short" story VERY "long,". . .
For our wedding day we had hired a professional photographer to take the "formal" family photographs. When it came time to take the photos of "my" family (the last of the "formal" pre-wedding photos) the photographer began by carefully arranging us all; painstakingly moving a person here, adjusting an arm there, a shoulder, a hand, a leg etc... etc...etc...Oh, she was good, very good. I know, because I was once (in a past life) a professional photographer, as were several of the family members being photographed that day.
Finally when she was satisfied with the "family composition" she starting taking photographs of us. Following each "click" of her camera she would immediately exclaim that someone had blinked, or somebody had not smiled (always pointing out the culprit). Now this wedding "event" was like a major family reunion. We had all not been together as a group in decades (and only for the really "major" weddings. . .and funerals). The photographer kept clicking and clicking, continually encouraging us all with her many variations (and very creative versions) of "Say Cheese". . .but to no avail. Someone would always screw it up!!! Someone would either twitch, move, blink, or not be smiling sufficiently for such a happy and historic occasion for mass celebration.
By this time wedding guests were starting to arrive in droves. The photo sessions were supposed to have been completed long before, and we were all getting pretty exhausted and tense (especially my mom, who was just recovering from a fairly major medical condition, and who only a few days before wasn't even sure she would make it to the wedding. . .let alone stand for a long session in front of a photographer. The wedding was scheduled to begin in just minutes. And heck, I had been up until 3:00 am the night before working out in the garden (where our wedding took place) trying to finish the last "projects" that hadn't been completed. And our family REALLY wanted this all-family group photo!!!
As time was running out for our "perfect" family wedding photo, and the photographer lifted her camera to her eye yet again (about to issue one last "Say Cheese" variation), a cheerful voice came out from someone in our "very poised" family group, saying. . . . ."THINK Go2Net". . . . . . . . . . .click!!!
"I got it! It's a wrap! You guys get outta here. We've got a wedding to do!," exclaimed the photographer with a big smile on her face.
PROLOGUE (Oh, I know it's supposed to come at the beginning of a story):
Back at the first of this year I had begun to twist the arms of ALL my family members to "invest" long-term in a really "cool" local Seattle company (that I had been researching for over a year) called Go2Net. This was long before a previous "neighbor" of mine had come into the picture, building his new home just down the road from where I had lived for years. Heck, just last night I drove past his house on the way to a meeting with a client, and I thought about ringing the bell at his gate house and drop in for chat about his "wired/wireless" world plans, but I was late for my meeting. And besides, I figured he might be in an intensive all-night high-level strategy meeting someone. A guy named Russell perhaps?
I had gotten several of my family members in that wedding photo session into their very first computers (mostly Macs, another passion of mine), and many of them I had helped set up their first "Internet" accounts. All of them I had helped to get into (and set-up) their first Charles Schwab on-line accounts (having "limited power-of-attorney" for the investing of several family members). And. . .ALL OF THEM were heavily invested in GNET because of my unrelenting very "subtle" persuasion.
PRE-EPILOGUE (I don't think there is any such thing. . .but oh well):
Well, would you believe that every single one of my family members in that pre-wedding photo session was heavily invested in one stock, GNET.
That voice my family heard during the wedding photo session say, "THINK Go2Net," came from my young nephew. He had just flown up from LA for our wedding, and is a really cool kid. I'm very proud of him. He's only in his 20's, but is already a very successful and award-winning director of music videos in California. The last two years he's directed music videos that have been nominated for the "Annual MTV Video Awards," this year he was up against "Cher" and lost to some guy named "Ricky Martin" (I guess the "kids" know who that is). All of my nephew's earnings the past few years had been sitting in a "savings" account earning almost nothing. I encouraged him (at the beginning of this year) to BUY GNET! Ironically, at the time of my wedding he was the family member with the most shares invested in GNET, although my younger brother "Puna" (now being "semi-retired" in Hawaii) most likely now holds the family title of having the largest investment in GNET.
EPILOGUE:
Anyway. . .the only ONE wedding photo of my entire nuclear family was perfect. Only one photo in which everyone's eyes were twinkling, with smiles beaming ear-to-ear. The best "all-family" photo we've ever had taken, and it will be in the family photo albums forever. It was the last one taken that day.
In our wedding album there will be a caption under one photograph that says. . . . . . . .
"THINK Go2Net!"
Roger #Forty Niner/Niner
PS. And just remember this,:
"Just because we're light-hearted, doesn't mean we're light-weights" when it comes to investing. And as PatrickMark has said several times in his recent posts, "be patient." And remember all you "long ones," patience can be a very valuable (and profitable) virtue!
PPS. Does anyone know who the heck this guy is?
Member 2982927
I stumbled across his "profile" while surfing the net one night, and coming across a site called something like "Classic Posts-SI Hall of Fame." If you check out this guy's "Favorite Links" you'll find out he has very questionable tastes!. He looks a little "fishy" to me. Heck, I had just been thinking about "deleting" it all, but I do have to admit it sort of "made my day." |
