by Paul Merriman - MarketWatch
Most investors spend most of
their time and energy thinking about what they can get from their investments.
That makes perfect sense.
But there's more than that to
investment success.
A few investors are lucky enough to be successful
primarily because they were born into wealth and abundance. But the vast
majority of us have to rely on hard work and … what else?
If you can put your finger on that elusive "what
else" factor that leads to success, you can change your life — and your
family's life — for the better. So what is it?
As I researched my 2011 book "Financial Fitness
Forever," I posed exactly that question in a series of extended interviews
with nine seasoned investment advisers I respect and admire.
One thing that emerged was deceptively simple. Aristotle
said it this way: "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence comes not from
our actions but from our habits."
Again and again these nine advisers identified some key
habits that seemed to be ingrained in the most successful people among the
thousands of clients they have worked with. Pretty soon we realized that
successful investors' most effective "secrets of success" were
neither secret nor mysterious.
