Think and Act Big. The Energy Crisis, Are junior Resource Stocks Safe?

Think and Act Big

I was reading an article by Jim Carroll in his regular “Netwatch” column of April 2011. I will quote some of his comments.

“We are in the era of Big Thinking, yet a lot of people have a small outlook.”

“Pursue big math.”

”Think big in scope.”

“Align strategies to the big bets.”

Jim was discussing strategies for professional organizations. Yet his comments pertain to the world around us.

Marshall McLuhan
I have mentioned Marshall McLuhan previously (the famous Canadian futurist), and the more we think of him, the more of a futurist and a visionary we realize he was.

One of his famous saying was that “The medium is the message.” In other words, it is how we sent the message that is more important for mankind, than what the actual message is. Now we realize that the way we communicate is far more valuable than anything we communicate.

This is radically changing the world. It is bringing knowledge and freedom to the people of the world. More than anything else, it is bringing wealth to those that take the time to think about it. Today, the news reported that US President Obama has indicated he will run for re-election. Aides were quoted as saying he hoped to raise ONE BILLION DOLLARS for his campaign – by using the social media. A staggering sum.

Another of McLuhan’s sayings was “The Global Village”. In essence, he predicted the www internet before anyone thought of it.

One needs only consider the social effects of Microsoft, of Yahoo, of Facebook, of Google, of Twitter and so on. Each one of these advances changed the world, irrevocably. And the creators of these advances, usually wound up wealthier than their wildest dreams.

Thinking Big in Scope
Now I don’t expect to invent a new way to communicate. Yet it is essential for everyone to understand the lessons here.

Raise Capital of $10,000 or $100,000,000
Talk to people in the market. They will say that it is easier to raise big sums rather than small sums for many reasons.

Talk to people who visited the Hong Kong Mining and Metals Show last week. No-one there was interested in you unless you wanted $50 million or more for your project. Otherwise you were too small.

Without belaboring the point, when you are thinking about investing, or building a company, or creating something, it is easier to think bigger rather than smaller. For most of us, this is a natural inhibition and we are somewhat timid about asking for too much, thinking that the listener may dismiss us.

In fact, the opposite is the truth.

A Personal Story
A good friend, CEO of a junior mining company, had struggled for years. His stock was severely depressed and nothing he or the company did seemed to have any effect.

I realized that the properties the company had, were as good or better than those properties held by many junior miners, yet their stock prices were far higher, and their exploration dollars were far greater.

I started talking to him about thinking bigger, about raising far more funds for exploration, about trying to acquire new properties that were much larger in scope. I repeated my message every time I spoke to him. He become less timid about saying how good his properties were. He became more aggressive in asking for greater amounts of funds. And very large and good properties started appearing for him, to accompany those the company already had.

Today the stock price is far higher, the company is far better funded, and the exploration looks to have the potential of making this company a force in the marketplace.

And all because, he enlarged his scope of thinking. Think BIG.

Oil and What to Expect from Oil
We were recently at a presentation by Genoil, an international engineering technology development company based in Alberta, Canada, that develops innovative hydrocarbon, oil and water solutions.

The gigantic facts in the world are the ones that nobody sees
The CEO (David Lifschultz), as part of his presentation said “The gigantic facts in the world are the ones that nobody sees.” He said this at TSX 50 event of March 2011 when talking about what is coming in oil demand and changes to our perception of the future.

I leave the reader to decide if his company has the solution to the world’s future problems of energy and pollution, and the story is interesting.

What is more interesting is that this comment pointed out that one has to think BIG. Thinking big allows one to see large events occurring around us.

Are Junior Resource Stocks SAFE?
This is the topic of an entire blog (or two), yet suffice to say, that it is the special ones of these junior companies that explode in value into the next billion dollar valuation. The devil is in the details – seeking out value and not hype.

Finding those companies that have the potential to explode in value is the goal. If you investigate 20 companies, meet the management, examine the projects, examine the competition, look at the potential, you might chose one of them, or two, or none. It is constant search.

If one of those $0.25 stocks goes to $2.00, 6 of them can fall off the table and the investor has still made a very handsome profit. Our experience is that if you are careful enough, it is rare that any fall off the table. If one by chance ever does fall off the table, you have lost only $0.25.

In other words, the potential gain dwarfs the potential loss. We like those odds.

THINK BIG. THINK POTENTIAL GAINS.

We close today with reminding the reader that the energy crisis is not disappearing. It is changing and we must change our thinking with it. Some will choose clean energy. Some will choose natural gas.

We choose the Canadian Oil Sands companies, and those areas of known production around the world where new technology is bringing old fields back to life. These are more of a sure bet.