The Sunshine Coast Daily reports…
“When Pat Mesiti speaks in front of a crowd, there are two words that come to mind: pocket rocket.
Short in stature but big in personality, “the 49-year-old commands the stage and talks at a million miles an hour.
“People say to me, ‘But I can’t afford it’,” he told the 100-strong audience at the Maroochy Baptist Centre at Wises Road on Friday.
“You can afford what you want to afford!”
Mr Mesiti was opening speaker for the two-day Kick Start 09: The Small Business Boot Camp.
His philosophy for successful business was simple – your mind is the most valuable asset you have.
“You cannot function without your mind in the right place,” Mr Mesiti said.
“You’ll never prosper in something you don’t love.”
He tapped his head.
“Shift this,” he said.
He put his hand over his heart.
“Touch this,” he said.
Ms Mesiti rubbed his fingers together to indicate cash.
“Get this,” he said.
“In all you do, you should invest in your mind.”
He told the audience now was the best time to buy shares and real estate; investors just needed to be brave enough to take the leap amidst the talk of recession.
Mr Mesiti even put his own cash on the line to illustrate his point.
He asked an audience member to come to the stage and give him $50.
“You won’t get it back,” he told Anne from Palmwoods.
Anne was told to tightly clutch her $50.
Mr Mesiti explained that while she clutched her $50 there was no room in her hand to grab any other notes.
But if she laid her money on the line and invested in her business, she would be able to reap the returns, as he showed by placing several $50 notes in her palm.
“Now who wants to give me $50?” he asked the crowd.
The room of people put up their hands.
“See? If you knew the return you wouldn’t struggle to invest.”
Speakers included Peter Miller, Amanda Stevens, Jennie Armato, We Buy Houses CEO Rick Otton, Declan Barnett and Daniel Kertcher.”
From http://www.thedaily.com.au/news/2009/feb/25/be-brave-and-invest/
“He told the audience now was the best time to buy shares and real estate; investors just needed to be brave enough to take the leap amidst the talk of recession.”
Gosh – actual investment advice. Well fools rush in…
Its just too outrageously irresponsible a statement not to comment further…
Real investors research and have a plan. Idiots ‘leap’ off cliffs.
Whether Mesiti’s ‘investment advice’ is coming from a qualified position is open to muuuuch debate. But, traditionally, now is a good time to excercise the main commandment of capitalism: buy low, sell high. Serious investors know the cycle is always boom and bust.
Have you read Harry S Dent’s book, ‘The Great Depression Ahead’? Have you read highly respected commentators such as Robert Gottliebson and Alan Kohler? All these people are advocating great caution at the moment, since the ‘boom’ has just ended, and we are entering the ‘bust’. What we have seen so far may well be just the appetiser. Buying low now may look like buying high in 6 months. I hope not.
what I am saying is that Pat Mesiti sounds like he is giving advice in an area that he knows little about, which is irresponsible and dangerous, given his influence. Following his advice could be very harmful to people, and there is no recourse to him.
Anyone who has read about the recent debacles such as Storm Financial will have heard the horror stories of how people suffer when they take advice from people who don’t really know what they are doing. Some people have lost everything. Pat may not be advising the use of leverage, but his flippant advice could harm people; this is not a light matter – real people suffer real consequences.
Serious investors do indeed know boom from bust, and it is telling that most are not prepared yet to ring the bell saying that this is the bottom of the market. I hope it is, but the commentators above, who know a lot more about it than Pat Mesiti or myself, are not confident.
If people were to buy now, they’d have to have the nerve and capital to sit out potential big declines. Most people don’t have that – they get depressed, or take huge losses.
We are entering a global downturn which no one knows the magnitude of. It is a time for caution. To advise people to buy now and ‘leap in’ is irresponsible, and lacks wisdom. To advise them to put their fear aside is also irresponsible. On the other hand, to advise people to do their research, to make a plan suitable for the times we are in, and learn how to pick stocks carefully and understand what they are doing – is good. This is different from ‘leaping in’. Warren Buffett does not ‘leap in’. He does his research and buys what he understands.
True RP. Meisiti is in no way qualified to make that call. His $50 note deal would be a small ‘investment’ to make in himself knowing if he ‘gives away’ a few 50’s then the rest of the crowd will buy in. I think the buy low sell high rule applies now though, although it well could go lower. Buying now is certainly buying lower than 6 months ago. I have shares that have dropped faster than I can remember of late but I know they’ll bounce back in time. They always do. It’s the day traders and get rich quick mum and dad investors that are going to suffer here. Share trading is always a long term proposition in my books.
I think that if you are willing to sit there for the long term, and you are not geared or staking your house/business or on it, then you can take that approach.
I have a rule now, not to hold shares that are not in an uptrend. There are currently shares in an uptrend, even in this current market.
I have some shares that will probably never bounce back (look up PEM), but I am keeping them as a reminder that ‘anything can happen’ – and to have either defined exit strategies, or the capacity to hold long term as described above.
I may be harping on here, but we have never seen so many previously good companies fall over as we have seen in the past year, due to the credit crunch, not because they are bad companies. Anything can and will happen.
So even buying low (if now is low – and we will find out once this reporting season is done) needs to be done in the context of good money management, which includes understanding and accepting the risk. People need to not be wiped out to a catastrophic level, especially retirees.
It sounds like you are not stressed about it, therefore I would think that you are within your risk tolerance and are OK doing whatever you are doing. For a first time entrant to the market though, not knowing what they are doing, now could be a time where things could be very foolhardy. Many people don’t have exit strategies and get caught like a rabbit in the headlights. Even seasoned investors at times.
I know someone who borrowed to buy bank shares last year when they looked ‘cheap’ – they have now fallen another 30%, and this is very stressful for the person involved.
Absolutely. There’s a lot of work needs to be done in terms of regulating the lending industry. Australians have approximately 35 billion dollars worth of credit card debt alone at the moment. Most cards are around the 18% to 22% mark. Then factor in all those people who go in for the buy now pay in 2 years deals who don’t realise that they’re paying 30% interest if they don’t pay it off in the time frame and you’re staring at a very stressful situation for anyone involved. So who’s to blame? Is it the banks for being greedy? The retailers for doing any kind of deal to get the customer through the door, especially considering they get their money regardless on those finance deals. Is it the government for allowing the banks pretty much free reign or is it me, the consumer, who should be blamed for wanting everything now??? Whoever it is there’s a hell of a mess coming. Borrowing to buy shares is a risky move in any market. I would never do it but I know people in your friend’s situation. Not pretty but they have no one to blame but themselves on that one.
“So who’s to blame?…”
That’s the question everyone seems to be asking. All the groups you mention take advantage of peoples’ naiveity. There are those amongst them genuinely trying to assist people to do well, but there are many just out to sell whatever product they can – after all, that’s how their business keeps going. Naive people are great fodder.
I don’t see much difference between those businesses and some of these church megaspeakers – except that the former are subject to regulation (and still frequently run amok – hence the need to tighten regs) and the latter will not admit to trying to profit from those they ’serve’.
Of course as individuals we need to take responsibility for our decisions, but people do not know what they don’t know until they are burnt, often. And there are those who seek to take advantage of that. I really don’t think that as Christians we should have that attitude, or tolerate it in those who claim ‘leadership’.
I just want to find him and give him $50!
Is Mesiti licensed to give financial advice? I’ve heard a few Hillsong pastors give investment advice even in church sermons
Not sure. Do you need one?
Yes anyone giving financial advice needs an Australian Financial Services License. It’s illegal to give investment advice without one
And financial seminar presenters all have to put a statement up at the beginning of the talk saying that their advice is general in nature and not specific to anyone’s individual circumstances, and if you take it, you do so at your own risk.
And they will probably be reregulated soon, as ‘advisor’ is really a synonym for ’salesman’. With all the moral hazard that entails.
I wonder if similar regs should be applied to some ‘motivational’ speakers?