Who wants to be a Billionaire?

I wanna be a billionaire so *@#&ing bad
Buy all the things I never had
I wanna be on the cover of Forbes magazine
Smiling next to Oprah and the Queen

So says Bruno Mars.

It wasn’t Forbes but it was the BRW Rich List I was flicking through recently. I do it every year just to see if one of my old mate’s still there.

We had lunch together 15 years ago when he wasn’t worth $300m. I’m quite sure I paid.

Then he went down one road and I went down another.

Regrets? No.

But not so for many wanna-be traders.

They get caught up in the hype of the easy profit, the lifestyle of a billionaire trader (whatever that is). They get sucked in by the spruikers shouting “Turn $17 into $468,000 in 2-months!”

Or, “The secrets to doubling your money every month!”

It’s always compelling to focus on someone else’s trading success. How they’re Commsec’s largest client. How they’ve bought the waterfront mansion on the back of one great trade. How they make more money in a day than you make in a year pushing the cart.

But it can make you feel lousy about your own situation.

And it can also make you try and speed things up. Rush headlong into the markets without a plan. Make dumb trades. Take excessive risks.

But what so many forget is that every great trader, at one point, was just trying to make a profit too. They were once trying to go from losing to breakeven and then breakeven to minor profitability.

They too took small steps once upon a time.

All that matters is what you’re doing, not what anyone else is doing. Focus on running and growing your own trading business rather than being a voyeur.

Maybe change the tune in your head from Bruno Mars to Confucius:

It does not matter how slowly you are going as long as you don’t stop.

Now, my old buddy owes me lunch. Paris sounds nice.