Wealth Begins With You

On Friday, I acknowledged the challenge you face aligning investment opportunities you see today with near-term trouble coming the pike.

The current intense geopolitical turmoil, divisive democracy, and plain uncertaint obscure the promise of innovation’s Sixth Wave.

The noise gets so intense that you can’t help but feel your future is under attack.

But here’s what you must keep in mind. No period of chaos since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution has had enough power to slow the roll of these waves.

Why?

Industry draws its power from individual actions.

Self-determined individuals striving to make the most of what they have day by day lead to better ways of doing things. Our actions to improve our lives and livelihood feed the innovation machine.

It always has, and it always will.

Even small actions like hustling on a side gig to earn extra cash for that vacation add momentum because those small actions sometimes lead to breakthrough technologies.

The small waves of individual acts combine into more giant waves of innovation.

The more freedom we have to act individually, the more powerful innovation becomes.

Capitalism is the byproduct of a high degree of individual liberty.

It’s no surprise that Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations was published the same year we delivered the Declaration of Independence to King George III.

They were both a sign of the times. It was the Age of Enlightenment– an era that not only shattered faith in the Divine Right of Kings but also gave rise to merchants, industry, and personal property rights.

Now, I know free market capitalism is under attack by its opposite, collectivism, in its many, many forms.

But collectivism only wins by force.

No one goes there willingly.

And that force can’t stand up to capitalism any more than turmoil can crush innovation.

They are two sides to the same powerful individualistic coin.

And will push today’s opportunities through whatever turmoil heads our way.

Think Free. Be Free.

Don Yocham, CFA

Managing Editor of The Capital List