Trade Like an O'Neil Disciple: How We Made 18,000% in the Stock Market

8.5. THE THIRD COMMANDMENT

O'Neil deals with detractors and critics by turning their negativity into a positive. When it came to naysayers and backbiters, O'Neil simply invoked what we have labeled O'Neil's Third Commandment, and that is that "You learn more from your enemies than you do from your friends." In typical O'Neil fashion, a negative is turned into a positive, and criticism from third parties is seen as little more than a potential learning experience. In fact, this rule embodies a certain level of truth in that it is your enemies who scour you and your activities, looking for any little flaw they can blow out of proportion to serve their ends, which is to bring you down. In the process, however, they can help to reveal areas where you may have a weakness or flaw; a "deficiency" as O'Neil loved to say. Meanwhile, you can always depend on your friends to only see the best in you, which for those seeking self-improvement is not very useful. As a critic, O'Neil loved to play the role of the benevolent detractor, ignoring your successes and instead focusing on picking apart and revealing your mistakes. As is standard in the proprietary money management business, we were each paid a percentage of the gross profits on the account we managed for O'Neil, so that if you were managing, say $2 million and ran it up to $30 million, you would get a percentage of the gross profits of $28 million. In 1999, managing money for Bill O'Neil was the place to be when it came to compensation, ...