"Most of this book came to me from sitting still and keeping a journal over the years with notes from the classes I've taught and insights I've accumulated about myself. I am not afraid of who I am or what I sound like. Best of all, I don't care what others think about me. I am immune to peer pressure. In that regard, I am fearless, I have surrendered to the fact that I am an emotional being and that my emotions run my system. I have cut the throats of all the pink elephants that lived off the fat of my land over the years. I have my feelings as friends and allies, and I speak about them frequently. In speaking with me, people think I have candor. I just think it's emotional integrity."
- The Inner Voice of Trading, Michael Martin, p.22
I come to identify over the years, that fear, insecurity, emptiness, desire, and other basic human emotions manipulate people to behave in certain ways. Behavior often with bad consequences. We all know people who "can't get out of their own way." That is, they can't save themselves from self-destructive patterns of actions; can't put together a successful and happy life. But why is this so? Why do certain people seem to be consistently attracted to failure? Bad relationships of all types: difficulty with siblings and parents, rebellion against rules and laws that are legitimate and necessary, turmoil in romantic relationships, and clashing with others in the workplace?
I submit to you that it is the inability to know themselves and accept themselves... the inability to understand their emotional makeup.
So, how can one fix a problem when he or she does not know the cause? He or she cannot.
I believe that a happy successful life is derived from being able to accept our short-comings. Accepting our short-comings can only occur by admitting we have them. And admitting we have them is the hardest fear to overcome.
There is no doubt in my mind now, after all the study I've done, that my successful life will come from throwing off the shackles of fear. I am 47 years old and weary of not realizing my full potential as a mate, a friend, a neighbor, a citizen, and yes- a trader.
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I am no longer looking to the charts for my transformation from blue collar guy to a career trading for a living, I am looking inside myself.
To find something, one has to search in the right place.
