WTF!!!

"Bernard Madoff, who was arrested on Thursday, has been charged with fraud in what is being described as one of the biggest-ever such cases.

According to the US Attorney's criminal complaint filed in court, Mr Madoff told at least three employees on Wednesday that the hedge fund business - which served up to 25 clients and had $17.1bn under management - was a fraud and had been insolvent for years.

If found guilty, US prosecutors say he could face up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $5m. "

Okay, so I just want to make sure that I understand the logic behind this. According to this article, a person can steal $10,000 and then only have to pay back $1? This is absolutely absurd. I cannot even believe that this guy is getting off so easily. His actions have more than an immediate effect on the stock market, but they will also have a delayed effect. All of the people who were starting to get comfortable with the idea of investing again, are going to be scared shitless. This man is supposed to be someone that we can trust, he was the chairman of the Nasdaq stock exchange. This just really upsets me. If we cannot trust these people, who can we trust. Additionally, the United States needs to maintain our free market system that our country is based off of, and with incidents like this, it is going to be increasingly harder for the new administration to not crack down and make more and more regulations. I hope that we can get all of this out into the open now so we can finally mover forward!

Family

It's funny how things change. When young, one looks forward to growing up and moving away, off to a big city of wherever their imagination takes them. Now, living in the "big city", the idea of going home to the valley where everything is simple and quiet sounds so appealing. The thought of being with family and good friends simply makes me smile. It just goes to show that it's the little things in life that makes one happy. So even if you are young, don't take being at home with family and friends for granted, because later in life those simple things are what you will look forward to!

Mark Cuban

If you don't know whats going on with the SEC and the allegations of Mark Cuban with mamma.com check it out here:
http://blogmaverick.com/
This is what I think about it though:

This is the most erroneous thing I have ever heard of. Why would a
billionaire engage in this kind of activity? Short answer, he wouldn’t.
Mark Cuban may be called a lot of things by people who don’t understand
him, but truth be told he is a genius and a self made man. He is not
only a successful entrepreneur, he also turned the mavericks around.
I admire this man for what he has accomplished. Insider trading is
flawed from the core anyway. I mean in some regards it makes sense, but
if one really thinks about it the only thing people who violate “insider
trading” are guilty of is having friends in the right places. I mean, if
I had stock in an airline and saw on the news that one of their planes
crashed and I sold the stock I would in essence be doing the same thing
that Mark Cuban allegedly did. Additionally, making guinea pigs out of
people like Martha Stewart or Mark Cuban accomplishes nothing. The
people who have the connections to conduct insider trading is not the
same audience the SEC is trying to scare. They are trying to scare the
average investor who has someone else handling their finances. I think
that these allegations are ridiculous and I hope that they are dropped.

Success

When one looks up the definition of success they will find: the accomplishment of an aim or purpose. When I look up the definition of success, I find a picture of myself. I know that it sounds corny; however, if you literally put a picture of yourself in a dictionary next to the word success, you will become successful. In order for one to be successful, they must first find out what the word means to them; is it money, is it a girlfriend, is it to be a better friend? An answer must be reached before this person can be a "success". A wise man once said that "success is not the key to happiness, happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing you will be successful". For me, I have always wanted to be a billionaire, then I thought about it thoroughly and a light bulb turned on in my head. Do I want to be a billionaire for the money? No, I want to be a billionaire so that I can live the life of a beach bum and surf all day. Then I really started to think, do I really need to go through all of the steps of becoming a billionaire so I can live the life of a surf bum? For me the answer is yes. I love business just as much as I love the idea of being a surf bum. I love doing deals and making money. It makes me happy which in turn is my key to success. I want to be a billionaire so that money is not an object to me. So that I can do what I want whenever I want. Reaching financial security is my key to happiness and therefore success. For me it was important to realize that the money itself will not make me happy. It is the path of reaching my goal that will ultimately make me a successful happy man.

My Thoughts

Live your life: In order for one to be a success in anything that they do, they must be fearless. Not in the sense of having no fear; rather, having the ability to take on tasks without an opposition to fear. If one is always afraid of failing, it is certain they will never accomplish anything of substance. So I offer this advice: If you want something get it. If you fail, learn from it. Do not let failures hold yourself back. A good example of this comes from a story I once heard. A young couple invested $20 thousand into the stock market. They didn't know anything about investing so they trusted their "financial adviser". They angrily lost their $20 thousand dollars. So what? Learn from this couple and do not make the same mistake. Follow this advice: Instead of learning what went wrong, they gave up on investing. They in turn realized a large opportunity cost; they lost the ability to make more than one could with a "safe" savings account with earnings of only .5% interest. Do not become this couple. Take chances, live your life your way. You only get one shot. If all one has at the end of the road is failures, I bet they would not only have a hellofa lot of stories, they would also be wise from mistakes. In order to learn, one must fail. It is a part of life. So don't hesitate or let fear hold you back. Get out there and realize your dreams!