Sneak Preview: Know What You Don't Know

I also never think I can get an edge in commodities, even though so many people want me to tell them what I think of the direction of wheat or corn or soybeans -- yes, I actually get asked that.

I just accept the fact that I don't know it, that it is too hard for me to learn, and I take a pass. Too many people feel embarrassed to take a pass. Not me. I am always willing to say, "Nope, I don't get it, I don't understand it, and I don't want to trade it."

Don't think that everything has to be traded or owned. Some things are genuinely too hard for you to know. In Magnum Force, Clint Eastwood summed it up well: "A man's got to know his own limitations." I know mine.

Do you know yours?

Editor's note: This is a special sneak preview of Jim Cramer's just-released book, Jim Cramer's Stay Mad for Life: Get Rich, Stay Rich (Make Your Kids Even Richer). Look for more sneak previews every day, and get your free copy with your annual subscription to Action Alerts PLUS; click here for details. Catch Cramer in person to get it signed: Wednesday, Dec. 12, at 7 p.m. in Bridgewater, N.J.'s Borders; and Saturday, Jan. 12, at 1 p.m. in Westbury, Long Island's Costco.

Missed the first sneak previews? Read the book intro and the rules of getting and staying rich: Rule 1, Rule 2, Rule 3, Rule 4 and Rule 5. Know what pros do right and amateurs do wrong: Part 1 and Part 2.

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