The Dividend Daily

It was a somewhat sluggish start to the new week as the markets try and maintain their 2013 weekly winning streak. For anyone who likes to make money on the short side of the market, the overbought nature of stocks has not been a good enough reason to keep drawing lines in the sand. As much as we could use a healthy pullback, betting against new highs has gotten many a short-term trader knocked out of commission over the years.

Getting into some stock-specific news, Apple (AAPL) shares were higher on new product speculation and more commentary on what the company may end up doing with their enormous cash hoard. Wall Street analyst upgrades helped keep the selling from getting too serious, with names like Nike (NKE), Wells Fargo (WFC), and U.S, Bancorp (USB) higher following analyst commentary. Gold-mining stocks have resumed their recent downtrend, with shares of Newmont Mining (NEM), Goldcorp (GG), and Agnico-Eagle Mines (AEM) trading in the red.

Not the Best “On Paper”? That’s OK

Sometimes in sports, we will see teams put together some impressive runs as far as championships go, when technically they may not have the best talent from a numbers or roster standpoint. Looking at baseball for example, we have seen the San Francisco Giants win the World Series in two out of the last three seasons. Now the Giants do possess some of the better-quality pitching talent in baseball, but the offense is probably one of the least intimidating you can find. What the team does possess is an amazing amount of team chemistry. It’s often overlooked, but team chemistry can often mask some of the obvious weaknesses anyone on the outside could point to.

Looking at our own lives, I’ve known people that have achieved tremendous financial success despite never having gone to college. Some of these individuals took their skills and became valuable assets in specific trades, which can be quite lucrative if you have a solid work ethic. Other pooled their skills and resources together to build family businesses, and eventually put their money into other investment endeavors (primarily real estate ventures that included multi-family or commercial properties that got their capital working for them). The stock market may not have been a factor for most of them, but those who did diversify into the markets did really well for the most part.

The point is, these individuals, on paper, may not have been given the best odds to become super-successful. Without a college degree, the odds seem to be stacked against you in life. But what these folks may have lacked in higher education, they more than made up for with their relentless drive to succeed. This trait inspired some of the newer generations to keep their family’s reputation of working hard alive, and some used their education to even start working smarter as well. As great as it would be to have a family roster full of MBA’s and PHD’s, it’s an achievement that a good many families may not be able to count on. But what they can count on is success just the same if they embrace working hard, saving money, investing in quality income-producing assets, and repeating the process over and over again.

Like the San Francisco Giants and their supposed weaknesses, there is an ability to overcome shortcomings if there is team chemistry. Whether it’s by examining your family structure or the company/people you work with, the sky’s the limit if everyone can buy into a system of beliefs that is easy to understand and put forth. And with this process, plenty of egos will have to be left at the door.

Be sure to visit our complete recommended list of the Best Dividend Stocks, as well as a detailed explanation of our ratings system here.