In the 1960’s the space race or sending a person to the moon and back safely was the race between the world’s superpowers Russia and the United States. At that time, all of the United States successes and failures were open to be seen by anyone. in Russia only what was reported was widely known. The Russians were first to send a rocket to where there is no gravity; they were the first to send a female into space; the United States was the first to send a person to the moon and back. The story behind the space race is one of the reasons why in the 21st Century we love technology. In 1961 how to send a person to the moon was an unknown. The story of how it was overcome is the book The Race by James Schefter published by Doubleday, NY, 1999.

There are many stories about the people and putting in the correct policies to make the event happen. President Kennedy has said to Congress he wanted a man to go to the moon and come back safety beyond 1970. He also said, We choose to go to the moon in this decade and to do the others not because they are easy, but because they are hard. Part of the hard work is the personalities of the people – attempting to keep as many people as possible working towards the same goal and agreeing how to do it. Politics plays a role because what is NASA’s role after a man comes back from space safely?

Linking to dividend paying stocks, every organization comes up with a plan for next year, but happens if you achieve it, how does everyone stay motivated to do it again? Successful companies find a way and that is why they are rare. Ideally as an investor you want very consistent reliable earnings year in year out for as long as you own the stock, to do that in the very competitive marketplace is difficult. Learn the company’s profit margins on its best-selling products and as long as they are kept high, the stock is worth keeping. If they fall, begin to look for alternatives.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.