WEEKLY BUSINESS THOUGHT FROM KI TETZEI

Ki Tetzei La’Milchamah - When you go out to war against your enemies… and you happened to capture enemy captives .. (21:10)

What can we learn here for this week's business? Well then, that you also have to "capture captives" when you go out to war against your enemies. Today this could mean things like: Business ideas, initiatives, disciplines, techniques, keeping your production secrets to yourself, applying proper risk managements, stopping losses, consistency, increasing the size of profits and decreasing the size of losses…

Anything negative in a person or in the world can be exploited for the good in it. We should learn how to derive a lesson from it; whether it be in the service of the Creator or in business.

- Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov and Rabbi Zusha of Anipoli said in that regard, that we could learn seven things from the thief:

1. What he does, he keeps to himself.
2. He is willing to take risks to attain his goal.
3. He does not distinguish between 'major' and 'minor' things, but takes equally exacting care of each and every detail.

4. He invests great effort in what he does.
5. He is swift.
6. He is always optimistic.
7. If at first he fails, he is back time and again for another try.

I) If I apply this to my business learning with the stock market in mind. We must always study and keep learning, adapting ideas to develop our trading strategies; and our most productive and secret strategies that we develop by adapting ideas and other people’s strategies, we must keep for ourselves to keep them productive.

II) We cannot be productive or derive benefits from the market, unless we take risks; however, in order to grow our wealth while winning and losing; we must learn to increase our gains and benefits that we obtain from the risks we are taking. How? By learning proper risk management techniques, and be disciplined and steadfast in applying them. Because it has been proven in the lives of the wealthy and successful traders that the discipline of consistently applying the techniques of proper risks management lead to growth and increase the wealth.

III) We must learn how to not distinguish between 'major' and 'minor' profits, but takes equally exacting care of each and every detail to keep our profits; whether they be smalls or big ones, they will all add up to increase our wealth.

IV) We must continue to invest great efforts in what we are doing when they prove to be beneficial. Keep working and applying the techniques and strategies that increase our wealth.

V) We have to learn to be swift at every step in our journey: swift at taking our profits, at stopping our losses, swift at managing our risks, swift at learning and applying what works and swift at growing our wealth.

VI) We must learn to be and remain always optimistic. Despite our challenges and our losses. This is something that could be very challenging, especially when our emotions could be surging up in the middle of the seemingly negative impacts of our wars.

VII) Last but not least, we must learn that losses are not bad; I personally understand that I need to rewire my brain to grasp this one concept. I need to view my losses as a stepping ground to the next growth; therefore at every failure or loss, I must launch myself back time and again for the next trade with the same disciplines that keep me successful in the market, applying the proper risk managements that I have learned and continue to learn, adapting the new and developing my secret techniques, keeping the essentials to myself in order to keep them generating profits that increase the size of my gains and at the same time diminish the size of my losses.