It could have been worth $200 billion. Instead, he sold it all for $800 I'm going to tell you a story about a guy named Ronald. And how he lost a potential $200 billion gold mine. Let's rewind to 1976, when two young men named Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak approached their co-worker Ronald Wayne about starting a small computer company named Apple. To balance out the two brainiacs behind the company, Wayne drafted up the contract, stipulating he would receive a 10% ownership stake in Apple Computers, Inc., to essentially serve as a tiebreaker between the two. He even designed the first Apple logo! But less than two weeks later, he marched to a California courthouse to renounce his role in the company… collecting a paltry $800 for his troubles. What happened next is the stuff of legend. Something I'm sure I don't need to tell you. In the over 45 years since that fateful day, Apple's market cap has ballooned to over $2.25 trillion dollars. More importantly, Apple became the most important company in the world, innovating and democratizing the computing space and bringing innovation and invention into the hands of billions via the Macintosh, iPod, iPhone, and iPad. Meanwhile, Wayne is living a happy life selling stamps and coins in a small town outside of Las Vegas. But just imagine, for a second, if your $800 sale would now be worth over $200 billion... So why am I telling you this now? Because I'm scared. I'm scared people might make the same mistake as Ronald Wayne. Or the same mistake as Suze Orman, who sold $5,000 worth of Amazon in the late 1990s/early 2000s. "It makes me sick to my stomach," Orman said, wondering just how many millions those shares would be worth today. That's right, ask any investor worth their salt what their biggest regret is, and I think you'll hear the same thing. Selling stock in a company you believe in too early. And with the market behaving like it is now… 4% drops today, 5% gains tomorrow, massive sell-offs on Tuesday, high inflation on Wednesday… this lesson could be the most important thing you read today. This type of market makes it easy to cut your losses and sell before you see any further drops. But that type of mentality is the difference between $800 and $200 billion. Now… with that in mind, let me tell you another story. Orman wasn't the only one interested in Amazon in 1997. We were too And when Orman sold her shares a couple of years later…we did something radically different. We doubled down on it. In fact, since 1997, we have recommended shares of Amazon over a dozen times. Throughout the dot-com bubble, the Great Recession, the Covid-19 pandemic, and this current downturn, we haven't wavered. In fact, if we liked Amazon when it was $3,200 a share…we absolutely LOVE it now. So why am I telling you this? Because right now, the market is having one of the biggest sales ever. And if we change our mindset and recognize that now could be the time to get in and secure some of the best stocks at a fraction of the price… well, to me it seems like a no-brainer. Buy low. Sell high. And again, that's where we come into play. Because I'd like to add another step to that already simple equation. Buy low. HOLD. Sell high. What investors can learn from Orman is that it's one thing to buy low. But it's another thing to hold… through the good times… and especially through the bad. And that's one thing we've NEVER wavered on. Because for over 20 years, they've been there through it all, helping members achieve generational wealth that people can only dream of. By following Motley Fool recommendations, members have seen returns like: - Amazon, up 14,835% since we recommended it in 2002
- Tesla, up 11,016% since we recommended it in 2011
- Nvidia, up 9,161% since we recommended it in 2005
- Netflix, up 9,826% since we recommended it in 2004
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