At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Britain's Men's Eight Rowing team, for the first time achieved something no British team had done since 1912:

They won gold.

It wasn’t easy for them… How did they do it?

British rowers surprising win during the 2000 Sydney Olympics

You see, after a depressing 3rd place finish in Cologne in 1998, the British team asked themselves how they could improve?

During each training, whenever they had to make a decision, they asked one question:

This is one of the most powerful questions you can ask. Even in investing.

I learnt a painful lesson once like this

Years ago, I bought shares in Brighthouse Financial, which was spun-off from Metlife. Metlife was one of the world's largest US life insurers.

Now, a spin-off happens when a parent company, like Metlife, takes one of its businesses and separates it by forming an entirely independent company, called Brighthouse Financial.

When Brighthouse Financial spun-off, it was also restructuring its entire business. But it didn't work out.

Yet, I stubbornly held on while its shares kept falling.

Brighthouse Financial forced me to lock bad money up

I could have sold its shares and quickly invested into shares of stronger businesses. Yet I didn’t.

Holding on to Brighthouse Financial was a huge opportunity cost. I held its shares for ~1.5 years before selling at a painful 23.4% loss (ouch). It took another seven years for Brighthouse Financial shares to trade back to its IPO price.

Here’s the problem. I told myself:

After months, I admit. I was wrong. Finally, I sold off its shares.

Just like the British rowers, the "boat" is your portfolio and your stocks are the army of rowers in your portfolio. Along the way, you'll realize some of the stocks you picked will go wrong. There will be some stocks that won’t be driving your “boat” forward.

This is normal.

How to grow our money faster

But if we don't pay attention to the "boat" we are working on, and constantly asking ourselves how to make our money work faster, we're finished from the start.

To grow our money faster, sometimes you need to overcome the voices in our heads:

"It's okay, It'll bounce back up soon."

"As long as I don't sell it, I'm not losing any money."

And cut the stocks that are pulling your portfolio back.

If you want to make your portfolio grow faster, ask this question on each stock you own:

Will this make my portfolio go faster?

If the answer is no, cut it and move on.

Willie Keng, CFA

Founder, dividendtitan.com

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