Sometimes conditions exist for a “perfect storm”. That is when all the significant things that can possibly happen converge at the same time creating a disaster. For example, British Petroleum (BP) has a leaking oil pipe one mile under the Gulf of Mexico. The financial problems are beginning to pile up including clean up and legal problems. The oil keeps coming with no immediate solution. It is a pretty bad. Guess what? Today, June 1 marks the beginning of the hurricane season. BP hasn’t seen anything yet. Wait until a120 mph wind blows all the oil floating in the Gulf and hurls it all over Louisianna, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida coastal areas. BP stock prices were around $57 per share before the oil disaster. I owned my typical one share of BP. I sold my one share at $52 per share figuring I should minimize my losses. My financial guru where I trade stock said that BP wouldn’t go below $52. That was 45-50 days ago. BP was trading at $38 per share this morning and there is nothing positive to say about it. Just think I’d have lost an additional $14 if I had held on.
You can have a perfect storm of a positive nature. Son-in-law Tom was in town last Friday doing some business. He stopped by the house. While we were talking in the kitchen, your Mom came into the room to stuff more things into a kitchen drawer. As she pushed more “stuff” into the drawer, the slides that hold the drawer broke. The whole drawer fell downward and inward to the cabinet. Tom, who did carpentry work in a previous life, jumped to assist your Mom. Tom figured out that the slides were poorly designed and the only answer was to replace the slides. Your Mom and Tom headed for Menards to buy new drawer slides. I went off to take my afternoon nap (I don’t have any carpentry skills anyway). When I arose from my nap, the drawer was fixed and Tom was on his way home. What are the odds that a drawer breaks requiring carpentry work and that an accomplished carpenter will be sitting there to fix it. I guess the last piece of the puzzle was that Tom was willing “to help out”. Now that is the “positive perfect storm”. A sincere thank you to Tom.
I experienced two “perfect storms” and I was able to avoid two disasters. I sold my BP stock before it became a disaster and I got my kitchen drawer fixed because a carpenter was “available”. Beware of perfect storms, they are dangerous.
Love,
Dad