Cool Investments

I remember way back when, in high school, there was a kid who never seemed particularly smart to me.  She wasn’t all that popular either.  And she certainly wasn’t a looker.  But boy oh boy did she rake that money in.  For a 12 year old, she was probably making more $$$s than her parents!  Well, that might be a little exaggerated, but it was pretty awesome given that the said girl didn’t seem to be much of anything. 

So what was it about her?  She had the head for getting into other kids’ heads.  She knew what they wanted. It was the simplest thing.  But simple or not, it was she, who had the idea.  One day she came to school, and during recess you could see about 10 or 15 kids gathered around her.  Curious as to what the fuss was about, I took a look.  She was selling plastic colored bangles:  pink, orange or black for $1.50 a piece. I had never seen them before but by the time we were packing our backpacks to leave for the day, at least half the class had one or more proudly around their wrists.

That was just the beginning for this girl who I’m sure by now is at the top of some investing firm, advising it on what to buy and what to give a miss.  Over the 3 years I was in the same school as her, it was amazing she had time for lessons.  She must have sold thousands of these bangles.  She brought in a couple of more colors, but the basics of her idea remained.  She just happened to get into the head of the kids at the time.  She was in the right place at the right time and she got off her backside and did something.  Now that’s what I call a cool invention and a great investment; get the head for working out what’s going to be popular.