What Waylon Jennings can Teach You About Investing

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Waylon Jennings can teach you a lot about being a successful investor. The most important part of Jennings’ success was his go-it-alone, do-it-yourself strategy. Jennings didn’t attempt to sound like anyone else. He charted a musical course that was unique to him. He avoided the herd by making his own decisions. That’s how I want you to invest. In 1995, I wrote of Waylon and his success:

“Well, I Nearly Got Caught at a Burger King.”

“And a couple of times on a plane./I thought I was safe from detection with all of the weight I had gained./But walking around in a jumpsuit—that didn’t work worth a dang./So I bought me some Levi’s and grew me a beard, and you’ll never guess who I am./Nobody knows I’m Elvis: Nobody knows this is me./After all of my tries, I’ve got the perfect disguise, and I’m who I want to be.”

Waylon Jennings, who penned the above song, “Nobody Knows,” is one of the only people on the face of the earth who can actually preface a story with “One night, me, Buddy, Elvis and Roy Orbison were sittin’ in a restaurant in Lubbock” and be telling you the truth.

As producer Don Was noted (in Jennings’ powerful new CD—“Waymore’s Blues, Part 2” RCA 66409-2), in an era when record companies kept their artists on a tight creative leash, Waylon was the only one allowed to produce his own records, and in so doing, created a formidable string of distinctive hits that few artists can ever rival.

Doing it himself and bringing his own powerful creativity to bear has made Waylon Jennings successful in music. And I promise, these traits can make you successful in investing far beyond your wildest dreams. You simply need to pledge to do your own thinking, your own homework—which I’m here to help you with—and make your own decision. Most investors, especially institutional investors, run with the herd, traveling en masse from one investment idea to another. The herd game is not for you. Bring on individuality.

When you develop an investment plan that is geared to your specific needs, you buck the herd mentality.

You must chart your own unique investment course. At my family-run investment counsel firm, Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., no client is part of the “herd.” Each client has his own needs and circumstances addressed Read more about how we help clients by signing up for our monthly client letter, written by my son Matt, the firm’s President and CEO. The letter is free, even for non-clients, My hope is that it will help you chart your own course.