You ever NOT take a step you just know you should take? Everything within you knows you need to take that step, that, while it may not be a no-brainer, it's definitely something you know that is going to pay off. Ever have that step you didn't take wake you up at night?
I'm sure we all have regrets, mistakes that we've made, dumb things that we should have never done, but there's something maddening about the step you didn't take. There's one, in particular, that still steams me whenever I think about it.
It must have been early 2002 or perhaps late 2001. The cinematic landscape was quite different than today. Today, we're getting a superhero movie every 3 months. Back then, the only superhero that was out there was Batman, and he had been effectively killed off, either by George Clooney or Joel Schumacher.
But there was a buzz going around. Spiderman was going to be released soon, and people were intrigued by what it was going to be. Would it be as ridiculous as the last Batman movie or was it going to take it up a notch?
I vaguely remember seeing previews and, in my heart, I knew it was going to be big. It was going to be massive and one of the first things I did was look and see where Marvel was trading. Things hadn't been going great for Marvel at the time, so it was going for about $2.34.
At that time, I had $40,000 to invest, and everything within me was telling me to put it all there, or at least a nice portion of it. AND I DIDN'T!
There was something else that I was looking to invest into, and I felt more comfortable with that situation because a large portion of it was under my control. Despite my near certainty that Spiderman was going to propel Marvel to another level, there was still that small part of me that considered the variables. What if there was a typhoon in Manila that caused global box office receipts to crash? What if there was another terrorist attack? (Remember, this was just months removed from 9/11.) Other thoughts ran through my head that ultimately led me to invest in the other option.
Welllllllllllllllllllll, Spiderman exploded and Marvel immediately jumped to over $37 a share. Oh my, what that $40,000 would have been. That investment went to the other project, and it did pay off, but nowhere nears the heights that would have been reached by pouring into Marvel at that time.
That step I didn't take. It doesn't wake me up at night, but whenever I think about it, I want to kick myself. Or better yet, somebody else kick me.