n Part One of the Investment U interview, Jim discusses the primary influences for his recent book, the signals of a potential bubble in the commodities markets, and why the twenty-first century belongs to China…

Garrett Baldwin: The book is A Gift to My Children: A Father’s Lessons for Life and Investing. Where did you find the time to write such a reflective piece on life and investing?

Jim Rogers: It was really just put together over a life, having made many mistakes and having a periodic few successes in my life. It took a lifetime to make all those mistakes and figure out how things work.

The book started when a Japanese reporter once asked me, “What are you teaching your daughter?” And she wrote an article explaining what I was teaching my daughter. She did that again and again.

The next thing you know, she had a dozen columns or so about things I had said. After reading those columns and reflecting on them, I started making it into a book. It was first published in Japan. The American version is much more extensive.

Garrett Baldwin: You start with the message: “Swim your own races.” How has that lesson helped you, both as an investor and, as you put it in the book, “a citizen of the world?”

Jim Rogers: Well, I, probably like many other people, always assumed that [everybody] else knew more than I did, and so I would try to copy or mimic other people, or at least think about how other people were doing things.

But eventually I realized when I listened to someone who I thought knew what he’s talking about, but I disagreed with him, it turned out that I was right and he was wrong. After that happens enough times, you start to realize, “Maybe I should listen to myself instead of [everyone else].” That gave me the insight and the confidence to swim my own race.

Garrett Baldwin: You state that the more ridiculous the investment idea, the better it is for the contrarian investor. So what seems ridiculous but also high potential on your radar?

For Remainder of Interview read more HERE