The Rocky Balboa of New Zealand
Issue #2296
- WEALTHY: A good stock to have in your portfolio (Rick Pendergraft)
- HEALTHY: 3 proven ways to reduce muscle soreness (Craig Ballantyne)
- WISE: Winston Churchill on success
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- Why you should never ever give up (Robert Ringer)
- Meet the "Experts in Texas " this weekend (Charlie Byrne)
- It’s Fun to Know… about the world’s longest poem
- Add "sough" to your vocabulary
Prediction: The BIGGEST Stock Market Payout for Giving You an Early Retirement
Andrew Gordon’s “thing” is studying a corporation’s hidden numbers, then buying up shares in those companies ripe for takeover. His thousands of readers reap the profits from high-potential, low-risk investments…
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At Early to Rise’s Profits in Paradise conference in Orlando this April, Andrew will hand you the ONE investment that can bring you a tidal wave of cash… the BIG one that can give you an early retirement and have you sipping mai tais by the beach without a financial worry in the world…
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Another Recession-Resistant Stock
If I told you there is a stock that more than doubled during the last recession, would you be interested? If I told you it also doubled during the recent bull market – from 2003 to last year – would you would be even more interested?
Well, UST Incorporated (UST), formerly known as U.S. Tobacco, did just that.
The company has two product lines: smokeless tobacco and wine. Their smokeless tobaccos include Skoal and Copenhagen. Their wines include Chateau Ste. Michelle, Columbia Crest, and Domaine Ste. Michelle.
UST has a profit margin of 26.7 percent and an operating margin of 46 percent. The return on assets is a robust 38.6 percent. In the most recent quarter, UST showed a year over year revenue growth of 13.1 percent, and is expected to show growth of 9.3 percent in the current quarter.
In addition to this solid fundamental footing, UST boasts a 4.3 percent dividend. And dividend-paying stocks usually hold up much better in a bear market than non-dividend-paying stocks.
Despite all this, Wall Street is far from enthusiastic about the stock. But that’s not a bad thing. Of the 10 analysts following UST, five rate it a "buy," two rate it a "hold," and three rate it a "sell." This leaves plenty of room for them to upgrade the stock – and when they do, the stock will move higher.
Another bit of negativity that will add fuel to the fire of any UST rally is that its short interest ratio is a healthy 4.9, with over 7.5 million shares sold short.
Given the current state of our economy, UST is a good stock to have in your portfolio. Even if we manage to stay out of a recession, UST looks poised to move higher. If we slip into a recession, it could perform even better.
[Ed. Note: Rick Pendergraft is a professional trader and market analyst. In Rick's new investment service, he reveals how you can make hundreds - even thousands - of dollars just by playing a simple game of "guess the pattern." Learn more here.]
"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."
Winston Churchill
The Rocky Balboa of New Zealand
New Zealand hero Sir Edmund Hillary and his climbing partner, Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, became the first men to conquer Mt. Everest. An amazing feat! But Hillary isn’t the only New Zealander whose accomplishments still inspire me.
I am referring, here, to my one-time neighbor John Britten, who was born with a serious learning disability that made reading extremely difficult. Not able to learn in conventional schools, Britten attended night school and eventually earned an engineering degree from Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology. His determination to earn a degree – and, more important, gain precious knowledge – was a sign of things to come.
Britten was a quiet, unassuming, totally focused individual. Some years before I met him, he began building, of all things, a futuristic motorcycle in his garage. His stated goal was to win the prestigious Battle of the Twins international cycle race in Daytona Beach, FL.
His cutting-edge cycle involved over 6,000 parts, most of which Britten made by hand. With the notable exception of the engine, his extraordinary machine was constructed primarily of carbon fiber, a first for the motorcycle industry.
He had dedicated helpers who worked for free, mostly at night, while holding down full-time jobs during the day. Incredibly, the actual cost of Britten’s masterpiece was not more than a few hundred dollars. Meanwhile, many large corporate sponsors spent several million on their entries.
Working while others slept was a Britten norm that was accepted by those who agreed to become involved in his projects. Toiling around the clock was his trademark. Anything short of a superhuman pace would have made it impossible for him to build his one-of-a-kind cycle from scratch in just under 11 months, barely finishing in time for the Battle of the Twins.
With just three weeks to go before the big race, Britten’s carbon-fiber cycle crashed while being tested. It was a cruel blow, a bad break that everyone agreed Britten didn’t deserve. The task of locating and correcting the problem, then repairing the bike, seemed insurmountable. But Britten and his crew again managed to overcome all obstacles, and arrived in Daytona just in time.
Then, during the qualifying run, disaster again struck. Just 12 hours before race time, a hairline crack in a cylinder sleeve – one of the few parts Britten had not built himself – threatened to end his bid for the unofficial world championship for twin-cylinder motorcycles. His reaction? After tireless but fruitless efforts to find the part in the Daytona area, Britten, who had no previous experience welding cylinder sleeves, repaired it himself.
By race time, Britten had been awake 47 hours straight. But, as events unfolded, it looked as though the monumental effort by him and his team would finally pay off. Once again, however, bad luck reared its ugly head. With Britten’s cycle leading the pack, rain forced an end to the race one lap from the finish. The entire race had to be run over.
In the restarted race, Britten’s cycle again led the pack most of the way, until – you guessed it – yet another non-Britten-built part, a faulty rectifier, halted his bid for victory once and for all. John Britten had captured the admiration of the racing world, but had failed to come home with a trophy.
But when he returned to New Zealand, he didn’t waste time focusing on the bad breaks he had experienced in Daytona. Instead, he went right back to work, rebuilt his handcrafted motorcycle, and returned to Daytona the next year. This time, he won the Battle of the Twins, a Rocky Balboa finish if there ever was one.
The victory doesn’t end there. The first commercial version of the Britten motorcycle sold for a record $140,000. Not a bad return on the few hundred dollars he had spent on the design and construction of the original model.
The moral to this story is that most bad breaks, particularly those that do not involve life-changing injury, terminal illness, or death, are no match for human intervention. As Benjamin Disraeli once said, "Man is not the creature of circumstances, circumstances are the creature of man. We are free agents, and man is more powerful than matter."
Intangibles such as focus, commitment, and action, all of which John Britten displayed in abundance, have a way of rearranging the playing field, notwithstanding injustices harsh enough to bring most of us to our mental knees. John Britten proved that a determined individual can overcome most of the bad breaks life puts in his path.
Ironically, though Britten was a master at overcoming adversity, shortly after winning the Daytona title – in the prime of his life at age 44 and hard at work on a revolutionary new airplane – he was diagnosed with cancer and passed on quickly. It was a sad ending for those of us who knew him.
Britten’s story is a grim reminder that the typical injustices we encounter in our day-to-day lives are rarely of major importance. They could be more properly categorized as the "little irritants" that gave birth to Murphy’s Law, especially the part that states, "If anything can go wrong, it will – at the worst possible moment."
It’s nice to know that these little irritants can be overcome by anyone who is intensely focused on a goal and determined to attain that goal. And that, in a nutshell, describes John Britten. He is one of the few people I can say I feel truly honored to have known.
[Ed. Note: If you're ready for a treasure chest of proven ideas, strategies, and techniques that are guaranteed to dramatically improve your dealmaking skills - and, in the process, increase your income many times over - you won't want to miss out on Robert Ringer's best-selling dealmaking audio series, A Dealmaker's Dream.
And sign up for his Voice of Sanity e-letter here.]
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ETR Insider Report: Meet the "Experts in Texas " This Weekend
Here’s your chance to "personally interview" some of the brightest thinkers and business leaders in the marketplace today.
- Why did Michael Eisner leave Disney – and what’s he got up his sleeves next?
- Is Tim Ferriss working on a follow-up to The Four Hour Work Week - and if so, what’s it about?
- Got a question you’d like to ask key company insiders at Google, Yahoo, MySpace, FaceBook, Twitter, and dozens more?
Well, here’s your chance!
I’m off to the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive conference this weekend, which attracts "digital creatives, visionary technology entrepreneurs, and the best minds and the brightest personalities of emerging technology." (In spite of this, they still let me attend.)
So I’ll get to see ALL of those presenters – and a whole lot more. Check out the full list on my blog, and let me know the ONE question you’d ask ONE of them.
Then, if I’m able to, I’ll ask the presenter YOUR question – and report back to you, straight from Austin this weekend.
So go check out the speakers’ list and post your question on the blog.
- Charlie Byrne
Praise for Ready, Fire, Aim : "I find myself holding my breath and holding on to every word."
"This morning, I walked into Barnes & Noble. Looked around for 2 minutes and didn’t find what I was looking for. I went to the information desk and said to the clerk behind the counter, ‘I’m looking for the book Ready, Fire, Aim.’ ‘Oh yeah,’ came the reply from an employee standing by who was listening to the conversation, ‘that’s the big guy.’ The clerk looked at him and said ‘Yeah… Masterson!’ Then, without looking up, he checked his computer and said ‘Yes, we have it.’ The other one said ‘I’ll go get it.’ And without skipping a beat, he ran to the back of the store and, minutes later, came back carrying the prize.
"So while I was paying, I interjected ‘I know him. Masterson.’ ‘You’re kidding me,’ the clerk shouted. ‘This guy is big!’ So, smiling, I said ‘Yep, he is.’ Then he proceeded to tell me that Ready, Fire, Aim is one hot item. He added, ‘He’s going to do very well with this one, even if he doesn’t write another one.’ To which I replied ‘Oh, yes. He will write a few more.’
"And feeling proud, standing straight and armed with a big smile, I walked out of the store with my treasure.
"I’m reading the book now, and I find myself holding my breath and holding on to every word. I am certainly finding my motivation to attack my next venture."
Stanley F.
What to Do When Your Muscles Are Sore
Workouts can be a pain in the butt, literally. This is especially true when you start a new program or get back into exercise after a lull. While some nutritional supplements might be helpful in other aspects of recovery, they don’t reduce muscle soreness. Nor does stretching before and after the workout. But I know of three research-proven ways to do it.
For one thing, you can engage in some light activity in the days following the workout. You’ll feel sore when you start, but moving around increases blood flow. The increased blood flow should help reduce the soreness and stiffness at an accelerated rate.
You could also soak the exercised muscles in cold water immediately after the workout. Researchers from New Zealand found that by doing this, muscle soreness is reduced the next day.
And that brings me to the easiest and most convenient way to reduce soreness: prevention.
Excessive muscle soreness is the result of doing too much. But if you’re sore today because you did too much yesterday, you can still exercise. Just be conservative and reduce both the volume and intensity of your workout. And when you start up a new program in the future, cut back on the amount of exercise you intend to do by 50 percent. For example, if your regimen calls for two sets of push-ups, just do one set. Then, in your next workout, you’ll be ready for the full monty.
[Ed. Note: Fitness expert Craig Ballantyne is the creator of the Turbulence Training for Fat Loss system. For a free online source of information, motivation, and social support to help you improve your health, lose weight, and get fit, sign up for ETR's free natural health e-letter.]
It’s Fun to Know: The World’s Longest Poem
The record for the world’s longest poem usually goes to the Mahabharata, an ancient Indian religious text. The poem has more than 100,000 couplets and roughly 1.8 million words.
But Nigel Tomm – who is writing the world’s longest novel – has written another contender for the world’s longest poem. At least, the world’s longest poem in English. Volume 8 of The Blah Story is primarily a 728-page poem.
What Does Your Mother In-Law Really Think About You?
AHH, In-Laws…Can’t Live With ‘em… Can’t Kill ‘em! Is There Anything You Can Do to Salvage This “Wonderful” Relationship?
Tired of Your Mother In-Law Thinking You’re Not Good Enough for Her Boy?
I bet when you got married you thought it was just the two of you… right? Never thought for a moment you’d get the whole family, did you? My grandmother used to have a saying that is perfect for this occasion. Here goes…
“If you’re given lemons, make lemonade.”
Let’s face it, your mother in-law (has she driven you COMPLTETLY crazy yet?) isn’t suddenly going to fall off the face of the earth, no matter how much you pray for it at night. But what else, short of hiring kidnappers, can you do? No need to fear, we’ve got you covered. We’ll show you how to control your in-laws without giving in to them. Click here for more info.
- Patrick Coffey
Word to the Wise: Sough
To "sough" (SOW or SUF) is to make a soft, low, sighing or rustling sound. The word is derived from the Middle English.
Example (as used by Les Murray in the poem "Driving Through Sawmill Towns"): "In the dark of winter, tin roofs sough with rain."
[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker ... build your self-confidence and intellect ... increase your attractiveness to others ... just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR's new Words to the Wise CD Library.]
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2008
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