It helps to be in the right place in the right time. For my online venture, I decided technology was the right place to be, because I think it has a great long-term future, I'm interested in what the companies do, and keeping up with them is enjoyable for me. By happy coincidence, the rest of the world seemed to want into techs at the same time. A rising tide lifts all boats. I heard that a lot on CNBC, and it's another way of saying that the tech-stock frenzy of 1999 lifted many individual stocks in my portfolio.
Tides go out, too.
It's important to remember that. When the market sank for a while last summer, so did my account. It turned out to be the right move. A better move might have been to sell them at their highs and buy them back when they were cheaper, but that's much easier said than done. Don't believe everything you hear.