Do you want to have a better-than-average life, with more money than most people earn in their regular jobs?  

Do you want to get away from just earning an hourly wage, or a salary?  Do you have what it takes to achieve, to be more successful than is possible by just working for someone else?  

One way to do that is to become an investor.

As an investor, you do not need to start a business; you can help others start a business, by buying shares of stock.  

You do not need to be good at marketing and sales.  You just have to learn to judge which marketing techniques are successful, and spot which businesses use those techniques.

You do not need to build a factory, or to hire people.  You just have to study and analyze which businesses are doing that successfully, or not.  

You do not need to manage employees.  You just have to learn what makes a good management team, and learn how to spot businesses that have a good executive team.

You do not need a college degree in finance, or accounting, or business, although any education and experience you have and everything you can learn in those areas will help.

Do you enjoy working on your own, for the most part, doing your own research, spending your time to learn new things, doing the necessary analysis, thinking things through, and making your own decisions?  

Do you enjoy knowing that, good or bad, the results and rewards are all yours and yours alone, with no one else to blame, and no one else to take credit?

Are you willing to learn from your mistakes, learn from your successes, and constantly apply what you learn to do better the next time, every day of every year, year after year?

Are you willing to start with a small amount of your savings, buying several stocks, making a profit on some but losing money on others, improving your investment skills, being sure to learn from your mistakes – and from your successes – and gradually increasing the percentage of your savings that is being used for your investing, until your investments are your savings?

Are you willing to simply label your losses as paying tuition at the University of Hard Knocks, to learn each lesson, adding what you learn to what you already know, so you can do better the next time?

When the economy takes a downturn, as it inevitably does every few years, will your losses scare you off, and drive you back to a steady job and a paycheck?  Or will your losses make you more determined to look for ways to make a profit, even in a declining economy?

When everyone about you showers you with investing advice, can you just nod politely, and can you ignore that advice and stick with the approach that you have learned and that works for you?

These issues are what you will face as an investor.  If you like the sound of that kind of challenge, if you possibly are even looking forward to savoring and enjoying all the parts that go into being an investor, if you look forward to a lifetime of investing with excitement, then being an investor is likely to be right up your alley.

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