Own shares in a company

“I worked 2 years in the states in the mid 2000s, I'm not from the US but ended up having 2 years of 401k which wasn't really going to amount to much in the overall scheme of my retirement as all my other pension funds were in Europe. I thought what the hell, might as well have some fun and try investing. I used the max percentage I was allowed to in a self directed account and bought about $14k Amazon shares in mid 07 which I couldn't take out or spend in any other way anyway. I bought them because I'd been very wary of putting my bank card details on line up to that point and Amazon had a product that was compelling enough for me to type in those card numbers. I figured I wasn't going to be the only one. The other thing was that in those days (and these days I guess) a lot of tech companies basically lost money year after year and didn't have revenue streams except advertising. Amazon sold physical products and brought in real revenue, straight from my bank account among others. Amazon didn't make profits but that's because Jeff didn't want to pay tax, he'd keep prices as low as possible and invest any extra cash in developments and new tech for the future.”

“Purchased HON and signed up for their dividend re-investment plan in the mid 1990s after a work colleague would talk incessantly about them during lunch. I started contributing $100/month then move to $500/quarter and occasionally would add bonus money. Today, it is my largest individual holding at mid 6-figures. I only sold 100 shares 2 years ago to re-do our kitchen.”