The Formula for Success Page 12

  A practical tool for dealing with discomfort

  This is another one of those lessons I learned from someone else. It is part of the algorithm that I use to manage that moment, just before I take the plunge, when the feeling of being uncomfortable is at its peak.

  Tim Ferriss, the author of great books such as The 4-Hour Workweek and Tools of Titans, teaches a technique for dealing with fear by defining the worst-case scenario. I talked about taking calculated decisions and being prepared to lose a few trades to win the majority in Chapter 9. Well, this deals with a similar idea: that occasionally the best analysis and planning in the world isn't enough to predict every outcome. But that doesn't mean you cannot be prepared to deal with every outcome.

  Ferriss observed that people often don't start something because they are too focused on the possibility of failure. So, he devised a strategy for dealing with fear. In my mind, it is like the safety net that is there to catch you if you fall after taking the plunge. Let's have a little look at his strategy:

  Start by defining the worst-case scenario: the fail. Ask yourself what the result of that would be – emotionally, practically, publicly (how your friends, peers, colleagues, and competitors would view it), and in terms of the effect on your life and business. Next, you make sure you apply every ounce of planning, analysis, strategy, effort, and commitment to making sure you are in the best place to prevent failure. Then you come up with a plan of how to fix the problem if the worst-case scenario happens anyway. Suddenly, the unlikely outcome of you making a complete mess of something that is far more likely to be a huge success looks a lot less frightening. You have a failsafe plan in place just in case you take the plunge and don't land too well (remember, the odds of success should still be stacked heavily in your favour by now).

  Let me share with you a few examples of how I have used this exact strategy in my own life.

  Starting a business

  At the time when I started my business, I was working at the leading independent private bank in the UK with a reasonable degree of security and a good income. Having worked hard to get there, built up a name for myself, and pushed myself into some pretty uncomfortable places already, I was concerned about my reputation. The thought of losing my salary and bonuses also bothered me, and by then I had firmly decided that an oil rig career was not the one for me.

  So, I made sure that I had enough cash behind me to sustain me for six months, I chose the people I wanted to work in the business with me very carefully, and I set up a business model and operational structure that I was convinced would work. I also put my safety net in place by ensuring I left the bank on good terms, with an unlocked door behind me and a way to nudge it open again if I needed to. In other words, I managed my reputation, income, and future before even taking the plunge. It was still an uncomfortable leap, but I knew I couldn't get hurt.

  Growing too fast

  The day came when I had over 60 contractors working for me and was teaching over 3000 people from across 63 countries. It got to the point where I could walk down the corridor and see people I didn't even recognise and, more concerning, who didn't recognise me. I had no idea if they were any good, if they had embraced the company ethos and vision, or if they would be a long-term asset to the business I was trying to build. It was a little scary, and I felt out of control.

  So, I pulled my senior team together and went over the basics of my business vision with each of them again. I wanted them to know the standard I expected from every single member of staff (admin, to researchers, to traders and the management team), and I made sure they knew that I meant it sincerely. Then I asked them to analyse the entire business and feedback the results for me to review. As I waited for their reports, I went back into my office and came up with the repair plan, just in case I didn't like what I heard – and that night I slept well again.

  Launching a cryptocurrency

  At the time of writing this book, this is happening. It is a few months before Brexit (I had detailed plans for dozens of eventualities there too), and there is enormous financial uncertainty in the air. But I decided that the right ‘next step’ for my business was to launch our own cryptocurrency. And boy was it a big fat scary decision to take. This, as I'm sure you can imagine, is a high-risk, high-profile, incredibly volatile venture that could either make or break my business and my personal reputation in the global trading world. At times, during the build-up to the launch, I have felt so uncomfortable that it has made me feel physically sick – but I had a plan.

  I have done more research than ever before. Read more, studied more, talked to more people, and listened very carefully to the marketplace. I have invested in the best possible team around me and created the correct structure and the right Know Your Customer (KYC) and anti-money-laundering (AML) processes. But what if it fails? Again, at the time of writing everything is going very well, but there is still a great deal of uncertainty in the marketplace. How could I rescue things if they went wrong, recoup my reputation, and recover the losses for my investors so I can pay them back?

  I have a plan. It is one I hope I never have to use, but one which will work if it ever has to come into play.

  Doing nothing is often the biggest risk of all.

  Taking the plunge and coming up wealthy

  I never take a punt on a trade. I simply refuse to risk losing money I have worked so hard to earn. But I'm always prepared to take a plunge into the right pool. Think about it. Would you dive head first into a pool without first checking how deep it was, if there were rocks just below the surface, if it was infested with piranha fish, or even asking if there was any benefit to taking the plunge? I hope you wouldn't. But, if you'd discovered there was nothing but a bag of gold down there, it was safe to jump, and all you had to do was hold your breath for 10 seconds while you attach your flag to it to claim the prize, you might think it was worth getting wet.

  Successful trading is just like that. It is a case of doing your research (the more thoroughly you do this, the better) and making wise decisions where the odds of success are significantly in your favour. And, if you are really smart, you should search out more than one promising pool to dive into, just in case your information was wrong or there was not as much gold in the bag as you'd hoped.

  Conclusion: Finding your algorithm

  Like any younger brother, I idolised my older sibling. Growing up, James was always faster than me, stronger than me, allowed to do things that I wasn't allowed to do, and his quiet assurance was something I aspired to match. What I didn't realise was that his Bushey Hall School experience was having a very different impact on his life than it would have on mine. It is obvious to me now why he left that school on another path to the one I would later find myself on – because he entered the school as James and me as Samuel. He was always my older brother and we came from the same stock with the same parents – but we could scarcely have been born less alike.

  Meet James Leach

  Samuel was always quite headstrong and wanted to do things his way. It was clear from an early age that he did not really respond well to convention or being told what to do. To me he was hyperactive, often rebellious and, while he was my little brother who I would have done anything to protect, we really didn't have too much in common. The old expression ‘chalk and cheese’ springs to mind, in that we looked similar, but that is where the resemblance ended.

  By the time Samuel had been through school and college and started to find his forte in the trading game, I had joined the police and then the Counter Terrorism Armed Response Unit. It would be something of an understatement to say that we were two brothers living very different lives. Perhaps the only similarity in our day-to-day activities was that we both learned to keep a very keen eye on managing risk.

  The concept of having a career for life is now an old-fashioned one, and even if people do the same thing throughout their career, it is rarely with the same company nowadays. But in the police, it is almost a given that you will pro
udly wear the blue and keep the badge through to retirement. And in my head, that was the route I was on – I'd invested too much time, effort, commitment, sweat, and blood to think of doing anything else. I also had a young family to think of and, while I certainly didn't see them as often as I wanted to, I was happy that they had the security of my, not insignificant (life-on-the-line), police salary.

  By 2018, I was on level six of the seven-scale pay scheme and doing OK. But one day, talking to Samuel, something made me wonder if there was another way to live and give my family the financial security they needed as well as more of my quality time. And in September of that year, I decided that the risk was all in my favour.

  Swapping one risk for another

  Everything in life is a risk. From crossing the road to paying for a takeaway online – there is always the possibility that you could lose your life or lose money. By joining Samuel & Co Trading, I gave up a career that I had worked all my life to excel at. The fact is that I could return within two years, but I would have to go through all my basic and advanced training again and potentially start on a lower pay scale. It is a risk.

  On the other hand, I get to spend more time at home with my family and my life expectancy has increased significantly (which they always worried about more than me, to be fair). My income has also already increased and I have quickly learned that being exposed to the Samuel & Co environment certainly opens your eyes to potential and opportunity. All my life I have been taught to make split-second decisions, analyse life-and-death scenarios, and obey strict rules and methodology – while also thinking out of the box. And all of that had to be done in an analytical, non-emotional way.

  One of the things that Samuel has shown me is that my experience is perfect for becoming successful in the world of trading. The point here is that if I, a Counter Terrorism Armed Response Officer, can change my life and do something completely different in the world of trading – surely anyone can.

  The Traders' Challenge

  It wasn't necessarily James joining the business which prompted the idea of The Traders' Challenge; it may have had more to do with shows like ‘Who Dares Wins – are you tough enough?’ where civilians are put through SAS basic training to see if they can make the grade. But I have always had the idea in my head that I would like to take someone off the street, or a person with seemingly no life prospects or hope of a break, and teach them to trade.

  The idea behind this book is basically that anyone can find and achieve prosperity. It is as simple as working out who you are, what you love doing, and what you are good at doing (those two things are invariably the same). Then finding some way to learn all that you can about that thing and applying yourself to practice and to become the very best that you can be. In following this simple formula, everyone can be happy and successful. And, once you have become an expert, you should be able to find a way to monetise your skill – if that is indeed what you want; you might not be remotely interested in financial wealth, and that is fine too.

  The algorithm part of the process is simply that you can represent your vision, desire, activity, and progress as a system that you follow. The structure is there, as described throughout this book, and the variable, which ultimately determines the result, is the amount of effort and commitment that you are prepared to apply.

  To test this theory, I launched The Traders' Challenge early in 2019. We took 18 people, from all walks of life, stuck them in a room and started to talk to them about trading. Among the group, we had ex-military personnel, a market stall trader, a teacher, some students, a supermarket cashier, and a recovering drug addict who had spent years living on the street. At the time of writing this book, we are halfway through filming, and nine of the candidates are left in the process. It has been fascinating to watch them learn, grow, and discover their own potential for prosperity.

  At the end of the show, anyone who proves that they have what it takes will be offered a job role with Samuel and Co Trading. If they can do it – why not you?

  Finding your algorithm

  Everyone is different, I get that, and some are born into more favourable circumstances than others – I get that too. But what is stopping you from becoming more prosperous? I was born into an ordinary home, in the ordinary town of Watford, and was destined for a life of ordinariness. Along the way I dealt with a tough school life which turned me into an angry, rebellious teenager; I hid in my bedroom for a year to escape life's reality; and I never displayed any obvious signs that I knew how to learn. But I worked out my algorithm – I worked out what made me tick – and I worked out how to turn it into prosperity.

  If I can do it, then so can you. I refuse to accept that you, reading this book now, cannot go and become a better version of who you are now. Imagine who you would like to be, picture the people who inspire you, go back to Chapter 11 and apply Leach Theory, do whatever it takes! You only have one life, time is ticking, and you have the algorithm of life and prosperity in the palm of your hands. Go and become somebody amazing. Go and become a more prosperous version of ‘you’ today.

  To get started in trading or to follow my ongoing story, please connect with me through my social media channels:

  Instagram: samuelleach

  YouTube: samuelleach

  Website: www.samuelandcotrading.com

  I would love to hear from my readers and learn how you have unlocked your algorithm of prosperity and success.

  Index

  4-Hour Work Book, The (Ferriss), 175

  80:20 Law (Pareto Principle), 5–6

  100-hour work week mentality, Elon Musk, 154, 164

  10,000 hours of practice to master a skill, 54–5

  abilities, unleashing, 64–7

  accidents, short-selling, 131–4

  actions, 77–80 Leach theory algorithm, 167

  algorithms, xi-xiv finding your own, 185–6

  importance of, xiv-xvii

  Ali, Muhammad, 37–9 Foreman's defence against, 42–3

  qualities, 155–6, 165

  Alton Towers Smiler rollercoaster crash (2015), 131–2

  anger, 24–5, 33, 45 leading to focus, 91–4

  appearances, judging by, 84–6

  Audi showrooms, 84–6

  averageness of the majority, 64, 66–7

  bank savings, low value of, 121–2

  belief in yourself and others, 157, 159, 166

  betting, avoidance of, 120–2

  boxers, 34–45

  boxing, 24–5, 30–3

  BP oil spill (2010), 133–4

  Buffet, Warren on being patient, 9, 14

  on fear and greed, 6, 120, 124–5

  qualities/traits of, 150–2, 162

  risk-taking, 159, 162

  Bushey Hall School, 22–5, 27, 33

  business decisions, trade to win, 122–4

  Call of Duty computer game, 67–72

  change changing your circumstances, 108–12

  changing yourself, 104–5

  Chinese bamboo story, 15–16

  choices, making, 20–1, 76–7

  comfort zone, operating outside, 170, 173–5

  computer games, 64–5 Call of Duty, 67–72

  convention, challenging, Alan Watts, 150, 161

  cryptocurrency, launching, 178–9

  currency (Forex) trading, 13–14, 110, 116, 120–1

  Deepwater Horizon oil spill (2010), 133–4

  deliberate practice and skill acquisition, 54–5

  Dempsey, Jack, 34–5

  discomfort, 170–5 looking for, 173–5

  strategy for dealing with, 175–7

  diversified portfolio trading, 110

  education experience of schooling, 20–7

  learning about trading, 10–12

  education system, revolution needed in, 62–4

  electronic dealing, start of, 90–1

  emotions, learning to control, 7–8

  employee limits, Steve Jobs pushing, 153, 163

  entrepreneurs
, 144–6 Elon Musk, 153–4, 164

  first venture, 95

  from a young age, 82–4

  Steve Jobs, 152–3, 163

  Ericsson, Anders, 'The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance', 54–5

  ETF funds, safe investing, 120

  ethics, 130–40

  expectations, learning to manage, 126–7

  expert, becoming, 54–5

  extraordinary, standing out by being different, 157, 159

  failure fear of, 176

  plan to overcome, 176–7

  fear and greed, 6–8, 120, 124–5

  fear, strategies for dealing with, 175–7

  feedback loop, Elon Musk, 154, 164

  Ferriss, Tim, 175–6

  first impressions, 78

  Foreman, George, 42–4