If you are an entrepreneur or investor in the trenches right now, most likely you are a “contrarian.” What I mean by contrarian, is the following:
Con-tray-ree-in (noun): one who goes against the grain. a person that adheres to the philosophy of: “what is right is not always popular and what is popular is not always right.” Someone who follows the strength of their convictions in the face of extreme adversity and human cynicism.
Now, this might not be the Webster’s Dictionary definition of the word or what Wall Street refers to when they talk about contrarian investing, but I feel it is an appropriate description of the mindset of an entrepreneur - constantly going against the grain.
You’ll have to pardon all the analogies and metaphors in this post, but I am an unusually excited about the opportunity available in this market to make real money, no matter what business you are in. With this being said, here are the Top 5 reason you need to be a contrarian right now.
1. The world’s greatest investors make their money being contrarians
Warren Buffet, John Templeton and George Soros are just a few of the world’s greatest investors that made billions of dollars by going against the grain. When other investors flee from the markets, the best investors are watching like hawks, waiting for the time when people become most irrational and then swoop in and pick up valuable assets for a fraction of their true value.
2. Being a contrarian makes you focus on the long term - which helps you build sustaining wealth
Having a long term focus is critical to building a truly sustaining business - a business that grows and turns out more cash flow year after year. If you simply run and jump at every trend or dip in the market or business climate, then you won’t be able to position your business for long term cash generating success. Being a contrarian means that you can see the forest through the trees, giving you keen perspective on making money in all economic clients.
3. If everybody is doing one thing, than you had better be doing the opposite
Do you know the old story of the lemmings? When one lemming goes off a cliff, the rest follow suit and mass suicide results. I know this is largely myth, but it does illustrate a point: there really isn’t that much true wisdom in crowds. If everyone is telling you how great something is or that you HAVE to do one thing or the other, you had better take a second to pause. There have been a lot of social psychology studies on crowd behavior, (too many to cite here), but what I have found is that crowd influence can strongly affect one’s behavior, so you have to have your guard up. Things are never as bad as people say they are or as good as people say they are either.
4. Leaders chart their own path and trust their instincts
To succeed in business, you have to have some leadership qualities. You have to gain the confidence of your customers, your suppliers, your investors, your partners, your spouse, and so on. If you bend and sway with the direction of prevailing sentiment all the time, you will never develop the inner strength and solid character necessary to succeed over the course of your business career.
5. If you don’t want to buy a dollar for 50 cents, then you shouldn’t be in business
This should almost go without saying, but logic seems to go out the window when the national/regional/local business climate is perceived as less than perfect by the media and this in turn trickles down to the business owners and professionals as well as their employees soon after. If you maintain a solid internal framework for seeking and taking advantage of opportunities, then when someone offers to sell you a dollar for 50 cents, you will be prepared to ask them how many they want to sell you.
As you ponder today’s Top 5, I urge you to GO AGAINST THE GRAIN. I promise you won’t regret it.
