Friday, August 21, 1998

A Lesson From Fooldom
by George Runkle (TMF [email protected])

As Fooldom's 4th anniversary passes (actually 5th if we count the newsletter), I've found myself thinking about this venture by the Gardner brothers and Erik Rydholm. Imagine yourself in your mid to late twenties, and you decide to publish your own newsletter on investing. What would your family and friends say? Would they support you? Or would you be the subject of ridicule and nasty jokes? My bet is the latter. How many of us avoid potentials for opportunity out of fear of what others would say about us?

Think about the worst thing that could have happened to these three guys if The Motley Fool had failed. Would they have suffered financial ruin? I find that highly doubtful. Would their careers have suffered? No, the experience of trying to start a newsletter and a business may have enhanced their abilities in other careers. The worst thing they would have suffered is the knowing ridicule of Those Who Know Better.

I can imagine it now. "Har har, I'll bet you guys thought you'd be on CNBC! You thought you'd sell books, have a big web site, and even come up with a new use for the word 'Fool'. Ha! I told you it wouldn't work, but you wouldn't listen." Oh, how many people have given up trying something for fear of Those Who Know Better?

At the time Tom, David, and Erik started out, there was no way of knowing so many people would be online. Getting on the Internet at the time was an agonizing experience, with FTP, Veronica, Archie, and other intimidating protocols that few of us wanted to understand. I believe Prodigy was the most popular service at the time; America Online was just beginning. Many of us were still struggling with DOS-based programs. So much has changed in five years, and The Motley Fool was in the right place at the right time.

Now, Those Who Know Better, be they your relatives or "friends," will tell you that the Fools were lucky, and you never will be. How do you know this? Is what you want to accomplish so outlandish that it doesn't have a chance to succeed? Or without knowing it, could you be right in on an upcoming trend? There's no way of knowing until you try.

As we look at the success of Fooldom, let's learn a lesson other than a personal finance one. Let's learn to attempt to accomplish our dreams, and ignore Those Who Know Better. Why not be a little Foolish in our own lives, and take a shot at our own dreams? I can't guarantee you or I can succeed; maybe we will give Those Who Know Better a chance to ridicule us. I do know that we cannot succeed at anything if we don't try. So, if you have some wild dream you want to fulfill, and you are afraid, think about those three young guys in that shed in Alexandria. Who knows? Maybe you'll be on CNBC someday.

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