Tao People Never Try, They Do

My beautiful wife has pleasantly insisted for some time now that I read "The Tao of Inner Peace," by Diane Dreher.

The book has sat next to my desk for two months now, collecting dust as I've given all my reading time to other books that I had urgently wanted to finish. Today, as I finished a book and was contemplating another visit to the local library, there was the "Tao" book staring me in the face. I finally had no viable reason to resist picking it up and starting page 1.

I've only made it to page 24 and I'm very happy that I've begun reading it. It dovetails nicely into certain things I am currently trying to accomplish with my life. The most important item on the "to-do" list is to discover a spiritual way to view and live my life. For people who are believers in some kind of religion this is usually relatively easy - they can just give themselves and their lives over to God. However, anybody who has ever engaged me on this topic knows very well that I am a fervent opponent of all forms of religion and generally scoff at the notion of "God." So, as you can imagine, my personal search for some kind of spirituality has been challenging. This new book of Tao has given me hope that perhaps I'm on to something good...

Meanwhile, two important quotes from the very front of the book have taken root in my thoughts this afternoon:

"Tao people never try, they do"

"Live with commitment"

When people say they'll "try," it means they'll go only as far as they can until they meet even the slightest resistance, then they'll give up. There is no commitment there. I am as guilty of this cop-out as much, if not more, than anybody I know.

In trading, as well as in all areas of my life, I continually use the word "try." Subconsciously, it leaves me with an out. It allows me to show people that I gave some effort, however is just didn't work out for me. It wasn't meant to be. And then I walk away whistling, never realizing that once again I've accomplished nothing. Time wasted.

For those of you who follow me on twitter, today I tweeted my "Quote of the Day" that reads:

"You can always earn more money, but you can never earn more time"

As I'm becoming more aware of this fact, I'm realizing that to "try" is to continue to waste my time. With this in mind, I've decided to "DO" something:

I've read a lot recently about entrepreneurs who have started successful businesses with less than $500. Granted, few (if any) of these companies went on to become Fortune 500 enterprises. However, many have been successful and have earned substantial incomes (if not fortunes) for the individuals who started them. There is also a famous story about a Trader named Richard Dennis who allegedly turned $400 into $200 million in the span of a decade.

Inspired by these stories, as well as my newfound appreciation of the difference between "trying" and "doing," I've decided to start my own little "enterprise." And I'm doing it with $200.

I have been trading calendar spreads in my trading account for some time now, and I am growing fond of the risk/reward balance of these trades as well as the relatively high probabilities for success. Earlier this week, I got to thinking: "What if somebody 'tried' to trade calendar spreads with all available cash, targeted 10% gains per trade, and cut losses at no more than 10%, how quickly could a Trader grow that account and could he turn $200 into $2 million?"

Contemplating this question for a good 48 hours, I decided that the only way to find out is to DO IT!! Start with $200, aggressively trade it...and see what happens. The worst thing that can happen? I lose my entire investment of $200. Big deal.

While this may not be a "business" in the traditional sense of the word, in my world - it is. In addition to simply trading my idea, I have created a blog entitled "$200 to $2 million" to document, step-by-step, each trade I make, and will list all profits and losses and cash balances as I test my hypothesis is the real world, in real time. If you are a Trader as well, feel free to trade along with me if you'd like (however, remember my trades are NOT recommendations - trade at your own risk). The site is still a work in progress (and I have no web-design skills whatsoever), so expect its look and format to change as we go along.

Wish me luck. However, don't feel bad for me if it doesn't work out. Even if I lose my entire investment ($200, and a little bit of time), I no doubt will have gained some valuable experience along the way.

Live with Commitment.