In 1775, the 13 American colonies went to war with the UK. To fund the war, American Congress started printing “Continental Currency.” But they overprinted it. To the tune of $241 million! The currency flooded the market and became all but worthless. No one would accept it. When the war veterans started coming back, American colonies paid them in the worthless Continental currency. And the veterans found themselves destitute.
To help the veterans out, leaders like John Hancock asked people to start buying the currency. And they themselves bought a little bit too. But almost no one else did. No one else except our Dexter.
Timothy Dexter not only spent all his money buying the Continental currency, but spent his wife’s fortune too. Why? Because a great person like John Hancock supported it.
The currency remained worthless. But in 1788, after ratifying the US constitution, the Congress declared that they would buy back these old Continental Currency at 1% of their value. Dexter, who had bought it at a much much cheaper rate, suddenly found he was rich beyond his wildest dreams!
He bought 2 shipping vessels with his profits and bought a mansion and moved to a place where rich folks lived.
Figuring out that Dexter would do anything to gain his peers’ acceptance, one of his rich neighbours recommended that Dexter should ship warming pans in the West Indies and sell them there. West Indies is hot and humid. Why would anyone need pans that were used to warm beds in the winter? But yet they did! The West Indians found that these pans made great tools to stir molasses. The sugar plantation owners bought all the pans for 79% higher price!
The same trick was tried again, and this time Dexter shipped winter woolen gloves to equatorial Polynesian islands. And again luck helped him out. When Dexter’s ship landed in hot Polynesia, they were just in time to sell all their gloves to a Portuguese ship sailing to Siberia!
Someone else tried to take advantage of Dexter’s naivety again. And told him he should sell coal to Newcastle. Unknown to Dexter, Newcastle was one of the leading producers of coal in the world at that time! But luckily for Dexter, when his ships landed there, there was a strike at the coal mines! Newcastle factories bought his coal at a premium!
The story goes on and on - and Dexter get richer and richer...
Action Summary:
Do things that no one else does. Because your goal is to be correct when no one else is.
1. Buying all the worthless Continental Currency
2. Shipping warming pans to one of the hottest regions.
3. Lets try that again!
4. Shipping coal to the leading producers of coal in the world