Thread by @borrowed_ideas

1/ Thread: The trick to own a stock for the long term

One of the most common mistakes in investing is to sell too soon.

I believe most of us will own the future 10 or 100-baggers at some point, but very few of us will actually realize the full return.

2/ Given that we all know almost every one of us will make this mistake, how can we prepare ourselves better?

One of my answers to this challenge is to deeply care about the business, its mission, and the success of its mission.

3/ If I don't deeply care about the business, I am convinced these are the stocks I am most likely to sell too soon.

4/ One of the stocks I own that truly tested this philosophy is $FB.

Following 2016 election saga, almost everyone in my circle was convinced $FB is source of all evil.

It really took me back to drawing board and I asked myself whether I deeply care about $FB's mission.

5/ "Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission — to make the world more open and connected."

These were the first two sentences Mark Zuckerberg wrote in his letter to shareholders when $FB filed for S-1.

6/ The more I thought about it, the more it was clear to me that $FB indeed stayed true to its mission.

7/ It maybe difficult to believe, but my parents, who still live in a small city in Bangladesh, cannot google.

Guess what, they do have Facebook. They can post updates, upload images, and call me whenever they want.

8/ If I came to America just 30 years ago, it would cost my parents an arm and a leg to talk to me for half an hour. Video call was out of the question.

Now it's free.

9/ Facebook invested to make sure even my google-illiterate parents know how to use Facebook.

Most companies simply don't care. Facebook does because it's their mission.

10/ My sister-in-law (also living in Bangladesh) opened a business page on Facebook to launch her online shop.

A few months later, someone from Facebook Singapore contacted her to suggest her some best practices on advertising on Facebook.

11/ When I heard about it, I realized how Facebook is trying to minimize friction and transfer knowledge from the developed world to even the bottom of the barrel.

12/ After a few quiet nights, I came to the conclusion that Facebook's mission is incredibly important and I do want to live in a more connected world.

I felt I deeply care about the mission myself.

13/ Without question, Facebook faces incredibly difficult challenge.

Making the world more open and connected itself is a herculean task, and to do it without the unintended consequences is perhaps an impossible task.

End/ I don't ignore Facebook's fallibility or shortcomings. I acknowledge and understand Facebook needs to do better.

But I consciously decided to endure the pain of owning $FB as I believed (and I still do) that the mission is indeed too important.