Lessons from a "Minnow"
One of my favorite TV shows growing up was a silly tale of seven castaways shipwrecked on a lush tropical island in the Pacific. It was called "Gilligans' Island," and for those of you not old enough to remember great quality entertainment, the show was addictive. One of the more memorable episodes was when the castaways came across a Japanese soldier who had been left behind on the island by the Imperial forces in 1943, and being unaware that the war had been over for more than twenty years, was still fighting as he took all the castaways captive. This poor patriotic fellow was a victim of bad communication.
When I think of how people impart information to one another, it's really quite amazing at how far we've come. Think about it, when the British forces surrendered to the American revolutionary forces, the folks back home in England didn't even know about it for weeks. How long did it take for Columbus to let his benefactors know that he had, in fact, discovered a New World? How many men died in battle after Grant surrendered to Lee in Appomattox because they didn't know the war was over?
In 1858 the first transatlantic cable was laid between North America and Europe, and for the first time messages could be sent across an ocean in minutes. In 1876 the telephone was invented, making instant communication available to the common man (it was necessary to learn Morse code before the telephone, and messages had to be slowly tapped out by hand. Today, in one of the greatest leaps in technology ever, we have collectively decided that "text messaging" is the way to go! Alexander Graham Bell must be turning over in his grave.), and after that technology began to take off. Today, information is shared instantaneously worldwide, and even communication across galaxies is now possible!
Has your stockbroker communicated with you recently?