I’m a horseman, and I own several of these gorgeous creatures along with a small ranch in Southern California. I love my animals, and I take pride in learning about myself from one of the best teachers on Earth — the horse.
You see, the horse is a herd animal, and one that has evolved over hundreds of thousands of years to thrive in its group social structure. The horse also is an animal that requires leadership, as the highest-ranking mares (and sometimes the stallions) in the herd are leaders, directing the movement of the group to different grazing areas or water sources.
In “natural horsemanship” of the kind I practice, the horseman is tasked with taking the “lead mare” role. In doing so, the horseman must provide the leadership to his/her beloved animals that they require to survive and flourish.
This method works well, provided the horseman has the requisite confidence in his/her knowledge and skills, and provided he/she has accepted the responsibility of assuming the lead mare role. Confidence here is perhaps the most important ingredient, but confidence only comes after you’ve done the hard work to acquire the knowledge and skill necessary to assume that confident lead-mare swagger.
Have you ever noticed that truly confident people walk with their heads up? Think about that for a moment. Have you ever known a confident person who is always looking down? The answer is almost certainly no, and the reason why is because confident people don’t look down. They look up, and they take on life as the lead mare.
That lead mare role is one that I assume not only with my horses, but also with my approach to investing, and to helping readers of this publication, as well as subscribers of my newsletter advisory services.
After more than two decades in this industry, I know I have built up the requisite knowledge and skills needed to be the lead mare when it comes to helping investors grow and protect their money.
Your editor assuming the role of lead mare.
That’s why you’ll always get the sense from me through my writing and my speaking events, and if you ever meet me in person, that I am the type of person who never looks down when I walk. So, if you want to be the “lead mare” of your life, cultivate the confidence to take on the responsibilities and obligations reality requires of you, and step up to the task with the fortitude, intelligence and love required to live a beautiful existence as the best human you can be — a human that helps others celebrate the very best within us all.
And if you want to live a profoundly meaningful life, and I assume that if you’re reading this you do, then think about the world with the following mental scaffolding. There’s an old saying in the literary world that I’m fond of telling everyone that I can, and it is that a man’s life is incomplete until he has tasted love, poverty and war.
Beginning with the latter, my closest brush came in January 1991. I was just graduating from the U.S. Army Airborne School at Ft. Benning, Georgia, as the bombs began raining down on Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. As it turned out, that conflict was so short-lived that I missed out on the war leg of the complete life.
As for poverty, well, although I come from a modest middle-class American family, I would hardly say that qualifies as poverty by global standards. And aside from some lean post-college days working at the financial newspaper Investor’s Business Daily, I would also have to say that poverty has mostly eluded me.
Now, when it comes to love, I think this is where I’ve more than made up for any deficit in the other two complete life components.
Love of family, friends, career, music, literature, philosophy, nature, fitness, sport, combat and perhaps most of all, love of learning and educating are the animating forces at the core of my being. That love runs particularly deep when talking about the love I have for helping investors better understand — and better profit from — the financial markets.
In fact, you might say that this love is a form of war on poverty itself… the poverty of knowledge that keeps investors paralyzed into subpar performance. Ironically, my love for this pursuit also encompasses my own desire to be a complete man, engaging in a war to help others overcome their own conception of poverty — and in the process taking on the role of the lead mare that we all need to embrace.
So, be the lead mare — and be the very best human you can. The world needs it, and you need it.
P.S. I will be holding a subscribers-only teleconference entitled “Navigating the Markets Dire Straits” at 1 p.m. EST on April 27. Attending is free, but you must click here to register. Don’t miss out!
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More Horsemanship Wisdom
“You cannot train a horse with shouts and expect it to obey a whisper.”
— Dagobert D. Runes
The philosopher/author reminds us here that how you train a horse is as important as what you train a horse to do. More importantly, the quote here lets us know that you can’t expect a certain result if what you’ve always done is practiced the opposite of that result. If you want a successful, prosperous and epic life, you must do the things that lead to that outcome.
Wisdom about money, investing and life can be found anywhere. If you have a good quote that you’d like me to share with your fellow readers, send it to me, along with any comments, questions and suggestions you have about my newsletters, seminars or anything else. Click here to ask Jim.
