Breaking stereotypes: a business pen

Would you argue if I say that a vast majority of successful top managers own a Parker™ or a Montblanc™ pen for very special occasions? I bet you won’t, since your mind is firmly pre-associated with this type of visionary delusions. Furthermore, these obsolete associations make people believe that success is a by-product of a pen. Or that a particular pen is able to influence your carrier and entire living. Quite confusing, isn’t it? But basically it is applicable for almost any product intended to emphasize its owner’s social status. In other words, by buying such type of products, manufacturers want you to believe that you are simultaneously acquiring a bit of success. It works and clearly explains why we are continuously tending to present barely-affordable gifts to our closest relatives, friends and ourselves. Needless to say that this is a pure self-deception partially manipulated by an internal stereotyping.

What is it all about? Well, I recently received a gift from my girlfriend that is a whole opposite of the above description. It breaks all possible stereotypes related to “successful” writing devices. It is a “Winnie the Pooh” pen for children produced by an unknown Polish manufacturer St. Majewski, worth only 0.04 USD from a local discount store! Trust me, for its price it has amazing writing abilities :)

Now that I possess it, I find no better purpose than start using it for these “special occasions”. No joke. Embarrassing faces don’t confuse me. Instead, I believe it an excellent remedy for stubborn situations. It is seemingly to become my personal “Purple cow“. Let me see how far will I milk it :)

What stereotypes does your sick brain dare to break?

Photo credit, St. Majewski

Key factors to achieve global business success

Recently I had a chance to attend a local seminar on a widely-spoken topic “How to achieve international recognition of your domestic business” based on real success stories presented by company founders, CEOs and key managers. Depending on your geographical location you might probably not feel the necessity to expand your local business onto neighbourhood markets, especially if you are residing somewhere in the USA, China, Brazil, India, Russia or any other large-scale country. But considering the fact that mentioned countries are only 5 of totally 195 currently in the world, similar topics always find their audience. Particularly my location is Tallinn, Estonia – a 45,227 sq m country with 1,34 M population, located in Northern-Eastern part of Eastern Europe, washed by the Baltic Sea from West and Finnish Gulf from North, comfortably neighbouring with Finland, Latvia and Russia. Wouldn’t you feel confused not to expand onto walking-distance markets in this case? The answer is too clear to be questioned, especially when export markets serve your company a helping hand within ongoing economy crisis.

Crisis investment

Probably better title for this post would be “Praying for a miracle” to accurately emphasize my recent dull investment into Apple shares (NASDAQ:AAPL). Admit it, we are all sometimes craving for an easy dime to hit our pocket, so was my particular case. Fundamental rule dictates, “Buy low, sell high” and I emotionally followed it, but unfortunately in a wrong moment. This is how short-term investment suddenly becomes a long-term one :)

To give you some background, I acquired 38 Apple shares at 111.03 USD on September 30th with a firm confidence they grow enough within upcoming days to skim the cream. Well, they slightly did, but only on the same trading day. Since then, they keep falling in full harmony with all key indices stimulated by intensifying worldwide economy crisis. Even Paulson’s bailout plan didn’t affect the fall as it was followed by the announcement of the dramatic unemployment growth in US. Nevertheless, there is always sun after the rain and on October 9th, Apple announced the press about upcoming conference at its Cupertino campus for an introduction of their, presumably, new laptops. This bull news surged Apple’s shares by 9.08% to 96.80 USD on October 10th and +0.35 USD in after-hours session. Even though I’m still in significant minus, I believe it profitable investment in a long-term perspective, but if I loose trust in Apple, I’ll get along with the losses. However, to avoid similar “investupidity”, here are three valuable basic advices that every stock trader must know:

• diversify your stock portfolio, preferably within different industries.
• always setup stop-loss alerts.
• learn to accept losses.

What are your investment strategy? Are you able to accept losses? What would you recommend to a novice stock trader?