Actions and Beliefs

Joe has mortgaged his home. Within a few days, he hopes to have a check in hand. Joe has a modest house and a few thousand in savings. When everything settles, he will have roughly $100,000.

Joe is going to take every penny he can muster and invest it.

As the story goes, in the early 1800s, an explorer was roaming around the jungles of Africa. He discovered an area that had vast amounts of gold. He went back to England to obtain the men and equipment to harvest the gold, but the ship sank during a tremendous storm, and all was lost.

Joe has read that this explorer’s descendants have discovered copies of the man’s maps in a chest, in the attic. The family has purchased the land marked on the map. They are now seeking investors for the mining operation. They offer shares at one dollar each and speculate that the shares’ value will skyrocket to one hundred dollars after the discovery of gold.

Joe firmly believes his life savings, totaling one-hundred-thousand dollars, will be worth ten million within the next few months.

Joe, wanting his family to share in the wealth, takes the story to his brother Tom.

Tom does not believe a word of it. Tom will not invest a penny and does everything he can to convince Joe not to do something so foolish. Joe, on the other hand, is so convinced he risks everything he has ever worked for to obtain the riches that await him.

The preceding story is fictional, but here is the point I am trying to make – there is truth, and there is perceived truth, and people base their actions on what they believe to be true.

It could be that neither Joe nor Tom are

Continued on Page 5

‘Preacher’s Point’

By Tim Johnson