Investment Advice

I never pay much attention to investment advice. I've always felt that the people giving you the advice have ulterior motives and are more interested in lining their own pockets than helping anyone else out. That being said, I did read an article today the my dad sent me regarding investing that I really liked. It's pretty long, so I won't include the whole thing here, but this paragraph somewhat sums up the whole thing and at the same time, validates the way I have always felt:

We know real millionaires get rich thinking for themselves. Thomas
Stanley's "The Millionaire Mind" is a perfect model. He says: "What most
millionaires tell me [is] they learned to think differently from the crowd." So
his book was "designed around a central theme: It pays to be different." That
means thinking outside the box, going unconventional, against the herd, a
contrarian who breaks the rules of the game set by Wall Street and the quants.
Be a maverick, trust your gut instincts.

And this is something I feel applies to all aspects of life, not just finances. I see so many people that just seem to go along with the crowd and don't know why they think or act the way they do when it comes to politics, religion, fashion, entertainment, etc.... So this is just my plea to anybody who reads this, examine your motivations. Occasionally ignore the peer pressure and do what you want, not what other people expect you to do. And if you are an independent thinker, feel free to shut the hell up and keep your views to yourself because I don't care what you have to say.