What is the SINGLE BIGGEST FACTOR for investing success… in BOTH the stock market and in real estate?  I’m Bryan Ellis.  I’ll tell you right now in Episode 124.-------Hello, SDI Nation!  Welcome to the podcast of record for savvy self-directed investors like you!Another crazy day on Wall Street yesterday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping another nearly 500 points.  Oh, what?  You didn’t hear about that one?  These rather massive swings have really become the norm, haven’t they?I have a question for you:  Do you think that’s the sign of a healthy market?  Seriously, do you?  Neither do I.And, by extension, it’s not a healthy environment for your capital.So, a couple of days ago, I offered a free copy of my upcoming new book to the first 100 of you who asked for it.  And WOW, did you folks ever respond.  All 100 copies were snapped up on the first day.But here’s the reason I bring that up:  I’m finishing up the last bit of work on that book, when it occurred to me that I have the PERFECT way to explain to you the single biggest factor for investing success in stocks and in real estate… really, in any asset class where your success is a function of appreciation.What is that factor?I’ll explain it to you with a story.My wife and daughters love to go tubing.  That’s where you sit in large inner tube and float down a river.  Yep, that’s it.  The way it works is you go to a little business that rents tubes where you pay your money, they lend you a tube, then they drive you up river a couple miles and drop you off.  You get in the water, and the river carries you back down to the starting point.It’s just a really fun, relaxing way to hang out together.  Just perfect for laughing and goofing off and just being together.  We’ve only done it 2 or 3 times, but it’s something we really enjoy.So, recently, the 4 of us went tubing down the Chattahoochee River in North Georgia.  Just like normal, we paid our money to the guy at the tubing company and engaged in some friendly banter.  Somewhere along the way, he rather casually mentioned that the water level was a little low, but that we’d be just fine, and that there were a lot of people out there today having fun.  And truth be told, we were eager to join them.So we hop on the van that takes us to the entry point, and we jump into our tubes.And within minutes after getting in the water, I get stuck on a small rock outcropping.  It’s no big deal… I’m a pretty big guy, and my wife and daughters are still floating merrily down the river, so no problem.  Besides, this time they gave me a handy staff to use to push myself off in case I needed to do so.At this point, I caught a small current that helped me go forward a bit… but most of the time, I kept hearing a “scraping noise” that I couldn’t quite make out.I also noticed that a few people here and there had gotten out of the water and were sitting with their tubes along the riverbank.  Not many, but usually, nobody does that.A moment later I’m stuck on another rock, and then another.I’m still moving forward, because I’ve got the stick to push off with, and I’m hearing the scraping noise more and more.Then, I just stop.  I’m not stuck on a rock, and there’s water around me, but I’m not moving at all anymore.Well, it turns out that the river isn’t just a little low… it’s DESPERATELY low.  There’s literally so little water flowing that my inner tube is stuck against the riverbed.  And while there’s water in the river… there’s not much, and there’s just not enough to push me forward.And do you know what?  No matter how much I wanted it to be different, the BEST I could hope for was the occasional forward momentum in the specific parts of the river where the water was a bit deeper… and even that momentum would, necessarily, be short lived.Bottom line?  I had to get out of the river.  I wanted it to work, but it just DIDN’T… and before I finally got the message and stopped trying to force something that wasn’t going to happen, there was