When I was in college, I used to volunteer at a local church that ran an afternoon basketball camp for at-risk youth.
It was actually a lot of fun, and a lot of those kids, though considered “at-risk”, were really just good kids growing up in a bad environment. So keeping them in a gym instead of on a street corner was certainly worthwhile.
Of course, it was also quite challenging.
At 20 years old, I had never been in a situation where I had to instruct and discipline kids. But it didn’t take long to figure it out…
To give you an example, we had one kid, Wayne, who always used to complain that he didn’t get to play enough.
He wasn’t a full-time bench-warmer, as we always wanted to make sure everyone had a chance to play…
But he also wasn’t very good, and he had no interest in improving.
One afternoon, he told me it wasn’t fair that he only got to play a few minutes every game while most of his teammates played nearly the whole time.
Of course, Wayne always showed up late and never wanted practice. He wanted the reward of playing, but he wasn’t willing to put in the work to get that reward.
Well, that’s not how life works. And I made that perfectly clear to him.
If he wanted to play — and actually progress as a player — he would have to put in the time and be willing to be an active member of the team. That meant showing up on time, practicing more, and acting more as a contributor to the team and less as a casual observer.
Thankfully, Wayne got it together. And while he never became the best player on the team, he excelled because he was willing to put in the work.
I still keep in touch with a few of those kids, including Wayne.
Today, Wayne is a proud soldier, serving in the U.S. Navy. This is not a career suited to casual observers!
Now, I’m not saying Wayne’s success is tied to the success he had on the basketball court that one season in the early 90s…
But at some point, Wayne figured out that you’ll get a lot further in life if you take responsibility for your own actions instead of playing the “it’s not fair” card.
Now if we could just get the U.S. government to learn this very basic lesson as well…
China can’t touch this one!
Last week, the U.S. announced it was probing allegations that China has been assisting its domestic solar producers with protectionist policies.
The United Steelworkers Union is claiming that China’s solar support enables the country to charge less than U.S. companies, thereby giving them an unfair advantage that undermines U.S. job growth.
Now there’s no doubt that this news has shaken up the solar sector… But I can assure you, we’re not losing sleep over it.
The U.S. can kick and scream all it wants, but the Chinese will not relent. They are driven to run the solar game, and neither the Steelworkers Union nor the Obama Administration will change that…
The sobering truth is that no one in Washington has the cojones to support a real, economically sustainable energy plan — especially during an election.
So for the time being, the solar market in the U.S. will remain a small fraction of the global market.
That won’t always be the case. But it is for now.
So to assume that a protectionist pissing contest between the U.S. and China is going to somehow derail the Chinese solar machine is pretty naïve.
I would also add that if this thing progresses, it’ll take years before any kind of decision is made. In that time, the Chinese will continue to ramp up production and flood the market with cheap solar cells and panels.
I don’t say this to take a side either way; I’m just pointing out a reality that few want to face during these times of cowardice and second-guessing.
Now here’s the good news: If this solar spat continues, you’re going to be able to load up on some solid Chinese solar stocks at pretty attractive discounts.
And here’s the best news…
Now that investors are scrambling — trying to figure out how to play this volatility — the sleuths on Wall Street are lifting rocks, looking for domestic solar opportunities that have fallen below the radar during this past solar run.
You see, while the Chinese do run the solar manufacturing game, they’ve got nothing on our technological might.
Pretty much every solar technology manufactured in China today was invented here. And today, the most ground-breaking technological solar advancements continue to be developed in the United States.
So it’s no surprise that clean energy analysts are now back on the hunt for publicly-traded tech firms that have their hands in new solar technology.
I can tell you, we’ve had a few of these little tech darlings on the back burner this year, just waiting for the opportunity we see before us today.
And last week, we pounced on the first one.
It’s a tiny tech firm that’s developed a new technology that:
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Doubles the power density output of traditional solar;
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Enables huge cost reductions in both manufacturing and installation;
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Can generate electricity from very little light, so you don’t need to live in Arizona to get the best bang for your solar buck!
This is the kind of disruptive solar technology that Wall Street’s looking for right now.
So we’ve staked our claim early. Because at this point, it’s only a matter of time before some hot-shot analyst in New York discovers this thing, puts out a buy, and sends it to the moon…
That’s when we’ll be cashing out with a fat profit!
You can check out some video coverage of this technology in action here.
To a new way of life, and a new generation of wealth…
Jeff
