The column is now published on Toyo Keizai Online: Horse riding and investing are the same.

Good morning, this is Matsushita.

The other day, during the Makoto Investment School class,

one student told me,

“I’m enjoying horseback riding.”

Hearing that,

I said to him,

“Investing is the same as horseback riding.”

The student asked, “Is that true?”

and, learning what’s important in horseback riding,

told me several things.

In horseback riding, the rider must

give clear instructions to the horse with

a definite will.

If you don’t sit in the correct position and

place your feet in the right place,

the horse will never move.

When horse and rider move as one, the feeling is

incredibly wonderful, regardless of the results.

That person spoke about it with a smile.

In investing, unless the investor has a clear

will to enter and exit, profits won’t come.

In price movements, you need to be in the correct position

and ride the trend.

When price movement and trading are unified,

profits naturally increase, but

there is a satisfaction and sense of achievement beyond words.

Having explained up to here,

that student

said with a smile, “It’s true, I hadn’t realized.”

Last week, I used surfing as an example,

and today I used horseback riding.

Both sports are the same as investing.

Even if this changes to golf,

or to playing piano, ballet, flower arrangement, or tea ceremony,

it’s probably the same.

Please don’t think of investing as something special.

The essence of investing and your favorite hobby

are the same.

In your favorite hobby, you should already know what’s important.

The same is true in investing.

Please devote yourself to investing as you do to your beloved hobby,

master it, and come to love it.

When that happens, investing will become something very close to you.