Nick Fernando @NickBFernando: best way to give away ideas per your suggestion?
ANSWER:
My suggestion is this: when you give, you receive.
I wanted to trade for a hedge fund. I had never traded for one before. But I was trading very successfully in 2002 using trading systems I wrote the software for. All the trades were automated. I was clocking in money every day. But still, it was too stressful trading by myself with my own money. I felt like any day I could go broke. SOme days I did go broke, because I had living expenses I barely met.
So I wrote to the top 20 hedge funds I wanted to trade for. I literally gave them all the ideas and trading systems. Even the software. One person wrote back with some questions that could only be answered by writing more software. ONE person. Out of twenty. And, I should say, this was the second batch of 20. So I wrote more software and answered his questions. Then he invited me to lunch. Then another day to dinner. I read every book I knew he was interested in. He allocated money to me. I was in!
Another time, I wanted to write for a publlication. I wrote to the main writer for that publication (Jim Cramer) and I said, “here’s 10 ideas you should write articles about”. I have to say, they were good ideas. I didn’t hold back. They were my best ideas for articles. I should’ve started my own site and written the ideas up. But I wrote to Jim and he said, “these are great ideas! Why don’t you write for us?” And I was very happy. I felt like someone had selected me. I ended up making millions of dollars because of that one relationship. Thank you Jim! Even when I write bad stuff about you, I’m always loyal that you gave me that chance.