“Luck is where opportunity meets preparation”

My mother was born in Bogota, Colombia- the 4^th out of 12. When she was 6, my abuelita gave her away because she couldn’t take care of all her kids. She didn’t get back to her family until she was 18. None of the “older” siblings could go to college because they had to take care of the younger ones. My mum used to say that in Bogota, there is no racism. Everyone is the same color: poor.

In 1981, when she was 21, she decided she was going to come to the US so she could work to send money home to buy a house for her family. Even then, sneaking across the border was an arduous task that took meticulous planning. She says it was like an Underground Railroad; a network of routes to get to freedom. When she finally crossed into the US, it was in a tree trunk- on the back of a pickup truck. The journey took her about two months total from when she flew to Panama to when she made it to LA.

When she got here she immediately enrolled in CC to learn English and began to work. Her original plan to stay just until she sent enough $ back to buy a family home changed when she met my dad in school, and Reagan passed the Reform and Control Act in 86. The Act granted all undocumented immigrants- including both my mother and father- legal status under the requirement that they had entered the US prior to ‘82. So, thanks Reagan for freeing me of anchor-baby status.

Everyone says their mum is the best. I’m no exception. Because of her estranged childhood from her family, my mum has literally devoted everything to my brother and me. She is the most selfless person I have ever met and has sacrificed everything to give us a better life than she had(s).

So how does this relate why I joined Tackle Trading?

About a year and half ago, I read a book called “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki. It changed my life. Kiyosaki compares his poor dad to the masses who buy into what our education system has taught us: how to work for money. Kiyosaki says we are rarely able to satisfy our dreams of financial freedom because of one glaring lack: financial literacy. By contrast, his rich dad represents the independently wealthy core of society. They deliberately take advantage of the power of corporations, tax and accounting knowledge (or that of their financial advisers) to manipulate the system to their benefit. After reading the book, I desperately wanted to sign up for his program. Who wouldn’t? I didn’t have the funds to pay for it though. Without my even asking, my mum depleted her entire 401K savings for my enrollment.

To heighten the stakes, about a month later, I found out my father had been living a double life. My mum had known for months. She didn’t tell my brother and me though because she didn’t want to taint our dad’s image. He had proposed to someone else while he was living at our house.  He changed all of our asset’s titles to his family’s names so that we wouldn’t have any access. To add insult to injury, my dad’s departure left a financial void- my mum couldn’t/can’t afford to live independently. She sacrificed her career when she devoted her life to ours.

Although that was one of the worst things that happened to me/us- it was also the best. My mother has always instilled in us that we don’t deserve anything. Nothing is a privilege. We were never expected to be the best but the most determined, motivated people in any given room. I have always lived my life that way. My dad’s hiatus fueled the fire to fully take advantage of the Tackle Trading program and work with the mentors to create a new mindset and portfolio for my family. I was introduced to new ways of thinking from Napoleon Hill, to George Samuel Clason, to Tony Robbins, to Warren Buffet. I learned that every man is superior in some way.  In that, I learn from him. And in contrast to what Malcolm Gladwell leads us to believe, you don’t need 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to be “world-class” in any field. Why? Because I not only use all the brains that I have, but all that I can borrow. I borrowed everybody brains.

My biggest setback, also a quality from my mother, is how risk-averse I am. They say that women usually make the best traders because they hedge their risks by taking their profits early.

My issue was I was desperately afraid of switching my trading account from paper to live. I was petrified of failing. Petrified of losing any money in fear of not being able to help my mum. Who cares about being the motivated person in the room if you lose enough to take you out of the game?

When I finally expressed my fear to one of my mentors, he laughed at me. “You will fail. Why are you afraid of something that is inevitable in the short term?” That mindset changed everything for me. So here I am, to borrow your brains and make life better for my mum.

Diana Rojas

Diana joined the Tackle community in 2016. She believes that the financial markets are a gateway to both achieve financial goals and escape the burdens of corporate america.