A seed is pact with the essentials of growth, proliferation and fruition. But it has to be planted.
When we visit my wife's farm in Agbanawag, Nueva Ecija during harvest, I marvel at the tons of rice harvested per farmland. I especially see this in rice storehouses where buying and selling happen. And to think that all that enormous harvest came from mere small seeds.
By nature, big often comes from small packages. A full grown person started as a fetus in the womb. Big storms started as droplets evaporating in the air. They're mighty small packages. And I say "packages" because even if they come small, each one is a complete package. Like a seed. All the necessary elements for a full grown tree are there intact in the microcosm of a seed.
But unless the seed is planted, the potential remains a mere dormant idea. It looks good and can look better with further studies, but it will not bear any fruit unless planted in soil. Because it won't grow physically. Anything that doesn't grow cannot bear fruit.
A Seed of Investment
You don't plant the tree. This is common knowledge yet we often miss the point. We still plant the tree instead of the seed because we focus on size rather than potential. And anyway, planting the tree is greed. We do it hoping to get fast and big results. Yeah, sometimes it works, but even if it does, the greed will eat at our character and person and later ruin our lives. Yes, wealthy and rich but ruined.
We focus on size rather than potential.
Even Jesus hinted how big, amazing results like uprooting a mountain and throwing it into the sea begins with faith as small as mustard seed. The Red Sea was parted not by poetic prayers and theatric shouts--with grandiose show of authority--but with Moses merely raising his staff towards the sea. That small, simple, quiet "seed" of faith ended up in grand results.
Yesterday I attended a webinar on Forex Trading where I learned tons of valuable things and there was one advice the speaker said that had an impact on me. "Don't get greedy," he said. Greed, he added, makes you put in a lot of money in one investment to hopefully get a super profitable quick result. Like an all-in in poker.
That's what he did when he was desperate to get rich. It ended him up with a broken marriage eventually. Thank God that by HIS grace and mercy HE let him pick up the broken pieces later and restored his marriage. Again, don't plant the whole tree. Just plant a seed.
Smart Risk-Taking
He shared a vital tip. Take big risks but take them smartly so that impact of failure (if it comes) will be effectively cushioned. You're still propped up for another try. So, from your extra cash (not your household spending money) take 30 percent and then get the half. With the first half, invest gradually, about 2% at a time. You see how well buffered your capital is? You don't go all-out on a single investment and you grow gradually.
That's just an example. I'm not saying the formula applies to all. Device your own smart investing strategy.
GOD's Investment Tip
God is interested in investments, not so much in employment. At least that's how I read it in the bible. A lot of money lessons in the bible are on investment. And one of God's tips on bountiful harvests is planting a seed. Here's how it goes:
Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. [John 12.24]
Jesus used this to describe his mission. It's spiritual. But we can derive a lot of other useful applications from it and used in real life. After all, HE came to give LIFE. Here's how I see it. The seed falling to the ground and dying is the risk we have to take in investment. You can't let go of your money and take risk in an investment without something in you feels like dying first.
You plant that seed. You take the risk, the big leap. You place your money on an investment and leave it there. It pains you to think what might happen to it, but you let the thought "die" in you. You're ready to win or lose. Anyway, you got smart and invested only a small portion of your 30% capital. But only when you have actually invested the money can it increase and enlarge your capital. Meaning, "it produces many seeds" so you can diversify your investment portfolio.
Merely thinking about a good investment and agreeing that it is profitable will not make you any money. You have to act now and invest.
And remember, making money once is not the aim in investment. It's increasing your capital so you can make more investments. Then your money starts working for you. You just sit back and wait for the profits your money produces for you. Your wealth grows and sustains. Now you can buy more assets.
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