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(Originally written March 2020)

As a child, do you remember that story about Chicken Little?

It all starts when Chicken Little believes the sky is falling after a small acorn falls on his head.

“The sky is falling!” Chicken Little shouted, telling all of his friends along the way that the world was coming to an end. The story concludes when a Fox invites Chicken Little and all of the other animals into his lair for “protection”, and then eats them – one by one – for dinner.

The moral of the story is not to be a “Chicken” but to have courage, and also not to believe everything one is told. It’s a classic story told to many of us as children, but then seems to get lost on us later in life.

We’ve seen a lot of fear-mongering out there during the COVID-19 pandemic, and I’m taking note for my naughty list. These are the same people who proclaim “the sky is falling” after each bump in the road. It’s as if they feel empowered during times of unrest. 

Imagine not ever being scared, and thus as a result; making better decisions, and bolder bets.

Sometimes that just means making a decision, and then doing nothing.

In 1931, Grace Groner, from Lake Forest, Illinois, was hired as a secretary at Abbott Laboratories, where she worked for more than four decades.

As you can imagine, Grace’s salary was low and so she lived a very modest life.

In 1935, a few years after she started her job at Abbott Labs, Grace bought three shares of the company’s stock for about $60 per share. Her total investment was $180.

Grace never sold. She held onto those Abbott Labs shares through splits, and dividend payouts. Grace reinvested all of those dividends like clockwork.

In January 2010, Grace Groner passed away.  It was then revealed that her estate was worth a surprising $7 million USD, thanks to the current value of her Abbott Labs shares.

I really like this story. Compounding is magic. It’s true though, Grace Groner is an anomaly. There’s a lot of companies that don’t make it that long, and most people don’t hold on even to the good companies through booms and busts in the stock market.

But still – I want to be more like Grace, and less like that guy who shares photos of his trading room with 6 computer monitors installed on the wall.

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