Plan to Invest in 2021? Ignore These Actions at Your Own Risk.
Focusing on these 6 actions will set your investing portfolio up for success no matter what 2021 throws our way.
Action #1: Prioritize evergreen efforts .
Busy investors and business owners don’t have time to put energy into actions that are short lived. Time is of the essence and with so many things grabbing at our attentions, it more important now than ever to prioritize the important over the urgent and actions that are more timeless than timely.
Action #2: Use marketplaces to amplify your reach.
The old adage “if you can’t beat them, join them” is especially true as the network effects of the past decade mature into behemoth ecosystems of connectivity, commerce and interaction. I’ll be the first to admit that building your (digital) house on platforms you don’t own can be scary. Who know what Google is really doing with our data?!?
Nevertheless, investing is a matter of surveying a proper landscape and making data based decisions. Marketplaces give both the content creator and the reader a broader reach than either could accomplish on their own platform or curating information from a variety of sources, respectively.
Action #3: Identify ways to enable others.
Thinking back to the Gold Rush heyday of the late 1800/early 1900 there were lots of proprietors but very few who struck gold (pun intended). Instead, most of the people who made money were the ones who sold supplies and services to those searching for gold. Selling shovels so to speak.
Lots of people are hurting from 2020 and that trend will likely continue into 2021. With that said, where is there an opportunity to sell a “shovel” or otherwise help those who are seeking a resolution to their problems. Don’t get me wrong, I think there’s still plenty of gold to dig in 2021 but selling shovels will also likely be a profitable move for anyone who genuinely wants to help those seeking information, guidance or any other relevant “shovel.
Action #4: Test, iterate and make decisions based on data.
Being in a global pandemic can throw even the most level-headed person into a tailspin. With so much change, it’s hard to know what (if anything) we can rely on for stability. Times like these call for a refocus back on the fundamentals. Fundamental analysis with testing, feedback and iterative implementation will be the best way for investors to get real time feedback on what’s working, what’s not and what strategic moves need to be made.
Action #5: Find your people — niche down.
The year 2020 will go down in the record books as a year that exposed and created niche subcultures that many everyday citizens either didn’t know existed or found them relatively easy to ignore. In the past 10 months we have each witnessed how groups of niche interest that align on a single vision can challenge social norms, long-standing institutions and even the stability of our republic.
Regardless of your political affiliations, it’s clear that niche marketing and messaging is here to stay. Each subculture gives rise to micro-opportunities that investors apprised in the lexicon can uniquely leverage to their advantage.
Action #6: Eliminate excess variables.
The “new normal” taught me a lot. Even while working remotely with relatively little outside interaction, I noticed my body still got nuisance bouts of sickness and lethargy. I learned about the rhythms of my body without variables like travel, meetings and working long hours. This was valuable information because now I can proactively structure my schedule for productivity.
2021, much like 2020 presents an extremely rare opportunity to analyze the conditions that support accelerated progress and eliminate all else.
Wrapping it up:
I don’t know what 2021 has in store for us (I stopped trying to predict the future…), but I’m certain that investors who focus on these 6 actions will fare far better than those who don’t.
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