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Posted by on Jun 15, 2021 in Blog, Personal | 1 comment

An Unconventional Convention: Missing the Boat

 

 

AN UNCONVENTIONAL CONVENTION: #160

Time for a new question. This one should be lots of fun and trigger some great stories. At least, I hope so.

WHAT’S THE BIGGEST INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY YOU MISSED?

 

This one is easy to understand. We’ve all had chances to invest in something or be part of a project or an idea that made it really big. It might not even be money-related. Missing an opportunity can be something creative, a new discovery, or even romance. We’ve all missed opportunities, right?

Sometimes, these mistakes and misses can be fun to look back on share a few laughs. I’ve got three major “missed opportunities,” which I estimate cost me about $1.3 million. Here’s one:

I’ve known Greg “Fossilman” Raymer since the mid-1990s. That was ten years before he won $5 million and the 2004 world poker championship. Greg started playing tournaments part-time in the early ’00s (he was still an attorney then). He sought investors in big events he entered. I put in money a few times. Greg sent emails to his investors and days before the 2004 World Series of Poker Main Event, he forwarded a note to me asking if I wanted in for $500, which would have been a 10 percent stake (there was no mark up). Since I’d done this on prior occasions and knew Greg to be a terrific player who was under the public radar, this would have been an automatic–yes. Unfortunately, I was SLAMMED because I was working the WSOP that year and several days passed where I had no time to check my private email. Cards were in the air and I saw Greg had entered. But it never occurred to me to check the emails. Well, that was a $250,000 error. For those unfamiliar with poker history, Greg beat out 2,575 other entrants and won the world championship which paid $5 million for first place.

[Note: Greg has always paid when we’ve gone to dinner since then, so we might be getting closer to even.]

Now, it’s your turn. Please share. Tell us a story. And please–no generic clutter about not buying Apple stock 20 years ago or some crypto-tulip that’s supposedly worth a shitload of money. Lots of people missed those express trains on investment.

I’m talking about ACTUAL opportunities in something that could have been LIFE-CHANGING, but wasn’t.

This is the ONE-HUNDRED AND SIXTIETH edition of A.U.C. Thanks to everyone for participating and sharing.

JOIN THE DISCUSSION ON FACEBOOK HERE

1 Comment

  1. 1 – selling 3 houses because tenant were not paying on time, prices quadrupled. 2 air force classmate went to work for Sun, I went to work for NCR, its gone, he used Sun stock that to start company he sold for 1.5 billion.

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