The Alchemist – Following Your Dreams

The Alchemist – Following Your Dreams

Hello Traders,

I hope everyone’s week is off to a good start. We just had our second biggest meetup ever (after our September 2019 New York City meetup with Dr. Brett Steenbarger). This time we were in beautiful Clearwater Beach, Florida. Over 60 traders, many accompanied by their families, joined us for an evening of socializing and getting to know each other! We had traders traveling from Washington State, Montana, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia to attend this event. It was an impressive group of traders having great times together! You can see some of the photos here! We had several non-members joining us as well to learn about our community. After speaking with some of them, I know they were impressed to see how serious, and like-minded of a group of traders we are, and that we together share the same values and goals: with the most important one being to make trading better for everyone.

One interesting observation I had was that some of the non-member traders who attended the event, did not know me. (At the entrance, when other people pointed them toward me, they asked, “Andrew, who is Andrew? Why should we meet him?”. They came for Bear Bull Traders, and not for me. In my opinion, this is a huge accomplishment for our community, Bear Bull Traders is now known as one of the most important trading communities out there, but it is not built around me or any of our other experienced traders. This is worth celebrating. We have a brand beyond Andrew, or anyone else involved in our trading community. It is about “us” now.

Congratulations to everyone who contributes to our community, and of course a massive “thank you” to the great and experienced traders who take the time to mentor and help our new traders.

On a different note, one of our members recently cancelled his account after being with us for a few months. His comments posted to the cancellation page are worth sharing:

“Reason [for Cancelling]: Fantastic community! I really couldn’t have come as far as I have trading without all you guys. I will be back! But for now I have some other things that have come up in my life taking priority. Andrew if you’re reading this, thank you for being an incredible teacher! Whether I’m able to become a successful full time trader or not it doesn’t matter. Your book inspired me to chase after what I want and be relentless in reaching our goals. Thank you for everything! I hope to return when I feel I can contribute better to the community after I’ve sorted these other things in my life. Cheers!”

These words mean a lot to me. If we can inspire you, even just a little bit, to follow your passion or dream in life, we will have made an important impact. If I can inspire you by my travelling, climbing, trail running and mountaineering trips, I feel blessed in life to have encouraged you to go beyond your comfort zone and to explore more. Life starts beyond one’s comfort zone.

One of my favorite novels is The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. In the novel, the main character is a boy named Santiago who is following a dream and travelling from southern Spain to Egypt to find himself his treasure. He goes through many ups and downs, but he will eventually find his long-sought treasure. My favorite quote in this book is, “Life is really generous toward those who follow their dreams.” And I have seen that principle unfold in many of the people around me. They followed their bold dreams and have been blessed by the Universe.

Go for it, and you will get there. Even if trading does not work out for you, your next endeavor may very well be the one for you. What you learn about yourself in the process will serve you better in life.

To your success,
Andrew