Steps to Starting An Investment Club

STEP 1  Begin With the Right People

A couple of years ago, the Chicks all got together and worked through blood, sweat and gnats (or knats, as Chick Karin posted) to build a house for Habitat for Humanity. It was by far the coolest thing I’ve ever done. Of course, I really don’t think any of us ever realized what it would take to get through this project. You understand you’re going to build a house but in the back of your mind you’re thinking, "It’s not like I’m gonna be on the roof or anything...” And there we were, on top of the roof.

The whole scenario got me thinking about the Chicks and how far we had come. It was that same shared enthusiasm coupled with our complete lack of concrete knowledge that got our club up and running. We had no idea where it would take us, but we were excited about the possibilities.

When Karin first talked to me about an investment club, I thought it was a great idea. What better way to learn about your finances and hang around with ten really funny, intelligent women? But ten women all trying to agree on one thing… when we all come from such different places and hold such different ideas? I hadn’t met more than four of them, and two only briefly. This could have been a recipe for disaster. Now, a year later, here’s what I have discovered:

• Some women get manicures and pedicures all the time. And no, they’re not snobs and their feet look phenomenal!!

• A person who has a lot of money, doesn’t need to act like Alexis Carrington.

• WOMEN can run all-male Olympic sporting events.

• Some women vaccinate their kids and some don’t but they are ALL terrific parents.

• Women who are physically fit and strong in appearance can still be terrified of storms.

• The quietest person in the bunch can have the loudest voice.

• Dick’s has the best Bloody Marys.

So what the heck does all this have to do with anything? Well, I learned two biggies: Don’t make assumptions and sometimes it’s our differences that make our group strong.

The Chicks only gather a couple of times a year. We are still the same people now that we were back then. As a group, however, we’ve only gotten better. I was building a house with a woman who had the most gorgeous painted toenails I’ve ever seen. But those well-manicured tootsies never stopped her from digging in her heels. I hammered in nails on a rooftop with a 60-something woman who outworked the entire crew (and will probably outlive us all, too!). I hung siding with a woman who weaned herself from nursing and left her two babies at home just to make the trip… and yet she was motivating us. And I ended my workdays with sore abs and a perma-grin from the hilarious humor of one Chick who doesn’t even think she’s funny. Here we were, ten different Chicks from ten different places all working toward the same goal -- and kicking butt!!

See, we managed to find the perfect ingredients to make up the winning recipe. The ideal equation includes strong women, but they must be flexible women. Let me give you an example of why flexibility is crucial. When the Chicks are getting ready to invest in a new company, we all have the responsibility of researching and then selling that company to each other. We can get pretty attached to these companies; we become passionate about them, almost fierce. Sometimes it's like doing battle.

The key is knowing when to raise the white flag. Last month Chick Cheryl was completely gung-ho about Yahoo!. This was her second round trying to get us to buy it and it had come in a close second the last time we bought. So when it came down to two companies (Yahoo! and Amgen), those sitting on the fence fell onto the side of Yahoo! Chick Jana, who was also pretty intense about her company, Amgen, was completely fine with the outcome. And that's what you need in a successful investment club: Chicks who can have their feathers ruffled without pecking anyone's eyes out.

Chick Karin wanted fun, smart women. But her criterion also had to include the ability to be open-minded. Somehow she did it. There are certain things that all ten of us cannot agree on, but we’ve created a strong bond. We know that working toward the same goal means that even if we can’t always take the exact path we’d have chosen for ourselves, we have to have faith that in the end we’ll still end up with a pot of gold-en eggs.