I got my start investing in the stock market in 2002 with the corporate Enron/Tyco scandals, I invested in Harley Davidson.  I did some research and the 100 year anniversary of Harley Davidson was coming up so I knew they would have a good year.  All this research was conducted through Google, the Harley Davidson website and quarterly/annual reports.  This investment did turn me a 30 – 40% gain if I remember correctly in a year or 2 period.  At this time the power of the Internet and specifically Google was not widely known.  Getting information that was powerful, reliable and pertinent was hard to come by before Google’s link popularity algorithm was developed.  Altavista, Excite, Yahoo and Netscape just did not reliably categorize there listings that well and this allowed an opening in Google.  You can garner this story in a few ways but the most important way is, brands or companies that you usually use can be very good to invest in if they go public.  It happened that in 2004 |Google went public and it returned 1000% in a 10 year period.  I did allocate $10,000 US to this investment but I thought the $30 billion valuation was a bit to expensive, a mistake I regret.   Though I had much success with my money at that time so it all evened out.  Now because I invest a lot more actively in public companies I run a blog where I try to help people at www.thevalueswan.com .  Back to the story you can also garner that superior brands make for good investments.  Warren Buffett who had lots of council from his partner Charlie Munger who gave him this idea once said “I prefer to invest in great brands at reasonable prices rather than good brands at great prices.”  This investment technique did return Charlie Munger (a billionaire) a 19.7% return over the life of his investment partnership before he met Warren Buffett.  Warren Buffett is now sporting a 20%ish yearly lifetime record over his investment career.  I do not only invest in public companies, I like to find brands and especially people to make them into solid businesses.

The Internet has allowed me to do this because of the flattening of the geographic curve I would like to say.  I started investing in people and brands in 2003 and has led me to great success even though it can be a disheartening experience at times.  Finding people on forums or through mutual interests or acquaintances can be a liberating experience that can bring forth fruitful returns.  Ive done it many times its just a matter of how you structure your arrangement.  Always get contracts that do not have to be so detailed but that prove ownership and have a track record.  For a time I did not do it for saddening results but Karma is a bitch and it always comes back.  Ive worked with people from various parts of the world and its exciting especially if you are in a 1st world county and can invest in a 2nd or 3rd world country.  Your money can go a lot farther but it can be risky and it can still be done even today in 2015.

That sums up a little adventure into the workings of what can be accomplished with the power of the Internet.  If you ever want to read some good investment tidbits, or rather ideas that can accomplish fruitful returns you can go to my blog at www.thevalueswan.com