I’ve discussed greatness several times in the past.

What makes Tiger Woods different from the rest of the golfers? Is it simply that he wins?

Is greatness born or made?

Michael Jordan didn’t show greatness in high school, when he was cut from the team. Phil Mickelson was considered a prodigy, even in grade school, and he hasn’t won as many major championships as Tiger Woods (who was also considered a prodigy.)

And then there are those athletes like Sergio Garcia.

I’ve argued several times that he’ll never be “great” because he didn’t look within himself for improvement. In the last several years, it was always someone else’s fault when he didn’t win.

Or, frankly, he just said that Tiger was unbeatable- which doesn’t sound like the talk of a champion to me.

Well- there was Sergio Garcia again in the thick of things at the PGA Championship over the weekend.

But a strange thing happened. In the words of golf commentator, and Masters Champion, Nick Faldo- this was a “new Sergio.”

Can someone learn to be great?

Sergio has really worked on his game- especially the mental aspect. This weekend, the choker didn’t show up. This weekend, Sergio putted well. This weekend, he didn’t panic as the pressure got more intense.

Sergio is 30 years old. Is this the beginning of him finally realizing his greatness?

It would have been a better story had Sergio actually WON the tournament. He did not. He lost in the last two holes- not by collapsing- but just by being beat by someone who was playing even better.

And he said so in the interview afterwards. He gave no excuses about why he didn’t win. He said simply that he played well but Padrig Harrington played better.

But you could see his attitude had changed. It appears that Mr. Garcia no longer believes that majors are out of his reach- even if Tiger Woods wasn’t in the field (due to injury.)

Is this merely “the secret”? The belief that positive energy begats more positive energy?

Maybe.

Or maybe Sergio is just learning how to be great.

Greatness can be learned. Greatness comes to many who overcome adversity. It’s really about persistence. The great ones continue to try to succeed even when the odds are against them.

Sergio might have turned the corner. Or has he?

Stay tuned.

Let’s talk about some good economic news, shall we? Despite all the gloom and doom out there right now, there are plenty of American companies that are kicking some a*s.

As many of you know, I spend a considerable amount of time in Southwest Michigan (between Holland and Kalamazoo- mainly) because I have family in Allegan.

Allegan is the county seat of Allegan County and has a population of about 5,000 (as of the 2000 census.) The entire county has a population of about 100,000 residents.

Allegan is also the home of growing generic drug and over-the-counter manufacturer, Perrigo Company (PRGO).

Perrigo makes, for instance, the Walgreens or Wal-Mart brand pain reliever you buy in the drugstore when you don’t want to buy the more expensive Tylenol brand. The company was founded in Allegan in 1887 by Luther Perrigo and now employs over 6,000 people around world.

While Allegan remains the corporate headquarters, the company has facilities in Israel, Mexico, the UK, Germany and China.

Perrigo To Expand Their Headquarters

Perrigo just announced that it is going to expand its headquarters and add up to 400 new jobs.

In a town of 5,000, that’s a big deal. And these aren’t just run of the mill Wal-Mart jobs. These pay decent wages. From MSNBC:

A 30,000-square foot expansion of its headquarters will be coupled with a 20,000-square foot employee training center expansion. Perrigo is expected to receive an $8.4 million tax break from the Michigan Economic Growth Authority.

Many of the 400 new jobs are expected to be skilled, technical positions that will pay an average of $881 per week.

Other news sources said the jobs would include engineering, accounting and other “professional” type jobs in addition to the technical positions.

Perrigo Gets Tax Breaks

The city of Allegan also is giving Perrigo tax breaks to the tune of $1.4 million but from a jobs perspective- and what the extra 400 positions could mean for the city- that seems like a solid investment.

The tax credits seem to have helped Perrigo decide to stay in the area. Perrigo employs 2,569 people in Michigan. It would have been a huge loss to see some of them leave the state. From the Western Michigan Business Review:

Perrigo “very seriously” considered New York and New Jersey for expanding its offices, said Arthur Shannon, Perrigo’s vice president of investor relations and communications.

The MEGA tax credits contributed to the decision to expand in Michigan.

“The state of Michigan wanted to keep us here,” Shannon said. “Doing what we’re doing shows we are committed to this area.”

Southwest Michigan has historically had quite a few pharmaceutical jobs. Pfizer has been laying off employees at its facilities in Kalamazoo. According to the Western Michigan Business Review, Perrigo will look to hire some of those trained employees:

“We’ve hired aggressively after other layoffs,” Shannon said. “We’re always looking for quality people.”

Is this a success for Southwest Michigan? It sounds like it.

Perrigo has been growing steadily in recent years as the market for generic drugs picks up as over-the-counter medications come off of patent protection.

Perrigo: another American success story.

(By the way- do you know anyone who is a longtime shareholder of Perrigo? 20 or 30 years? Please have them contact me! I’m interested in their buy and hold story. Thanks!)

Every investor wants to hear a guru tell them he (or she) can make them money.

We all want to hear it’s easy. We all want to be told that there’s some method that can make us 20% a year.

And we’re willing to pay big bucks to get any information that might lead us to the holy grail of investing: year after year of blockbuster returns.

This is why we’re willing to buy the books, go the seminars, and pay thousands of dollars for newsletter subscriptions that are supposed to give us the answers.

But they never do.

Beware of those who tell you they can make you rich if you just listen to them.

Jim Cramer might come to mind- but I actually like Mr. Mad Money. He tells you you’ll have to work at it to get rich. And he doesn’t say he has all the answers. He makes investing fun. I’ve bought his books. They’re good reads.

But then there are others, like Lenny Dykstra.

Lenny who?

If you’re a baseball fan, you’ll recognize the name because Lenny Dykstra used to play outfield for the Philadelphia Phillies in the 1980-1990s. He’s retired now, but he’s reinvented himself as an investment guru, complete with his own column on TheStreet.com and now, apparently a $1000 a year newsletter.

What does Lenny Dykstra know about investing?

I have no idea.

But hey- he can make you rich, right?

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a great story to have a former athlete re-invent himself and actually be “good” at some other profession. Only, apparently, Lenny isn’t all that he seems.

But first- let’s look at the gushing. The New Yorker did a feature story on him in March 2008:

Improbably, he has since become a successful day trader, and he let me know that he owns both a Maybach (“the best car”) and a Gulfstream (“the best jet”).

Lesson #1: Stay away from an investment guru who tells you what kind of car he drives.

The man didn’t even use a computer until after 2003, but apparently he’s a stock picking genius:

“My approach in investing is much the same as my approach to hitting,” he wrote. “I would rather take a walk or single and reach first than shoot for a home run and strike out swinging.” According to The Street’s “Stat Book Scorecard,” Dykstra’s picks earned $183,650 on a hundred and three trades in an eight-month period last year.

“He had an Amgen trade,” Cramer said, referring to the biotech company. “It was like hitting the ball between the shortstop and the third baseman in a way that made me feel proud.”

He went on, “I have yet to meet anyone other than Lenny from the world of sports who was able to make the transfer so that they have something to say that has value added. Many sports figures have been successful salesmen, but I would most likely have hired Lenny at my hedge fund, back when I was doing that.”

Dykstra is now working on a book about investing, with the literary agent David Vigliano, whom he calls “the No. 1 book agent in the country.”

Lesson #2: Never invest in hedge funds that hire investment gurus.

But it gets better. Apparently Lenny wasn’t picking the stocks after all (at least not from the entire world of stocks.) According to a recent article in Forbes Magazine, Lenny was allegedly getting assistance from another stock analyst who had his own newsletter who provided Lenny with a list of stocks every morning.

Granted, Lenny still had to pick from those stocks for his own picks. But it doesn’t take an investment genius to do that.

From Forbes:

“At Dykstra’s insistence, Doubledown began negotiations to pay Richard Suttmeier, a stock analyst, to provide Dykstra with research assistance for the Dykstra Report and who, upon information and belief learned subsequently, provided Dykstra lists of recommended stocks daily.”

Who is Richard Suttmeier? A market strategist for financial Web site RightSide Advisors and formerly a contributor to RealMoney.com, a subscription Web site owned by TheStreet.com.

Suttmeier, 64, says he got his Wall Street start trading Treasurys in the 1970s. He later bounced around second-tier investment banks and landed at RightSide in 2006.

Suttmeier says that after he did a television appearance several years ago he received a call from Dykstra. “He wanted to learn how to read a [stock] chart,” Suttmeier says. “I taught him.”

The two men have kept in touch ever since. Suttmeier says Dykstra calls from time to time asking where to add to positions. Suttmeier also e-mails Dykstra a spreadsheet of stocks each morning but denies that he picks stocks for the former ballplayer.

“I am not his brain,” Suttmeier says. “Dykstra makes his own trading decisions.”

Lenny was going to charge $995 a year for his newsletter. Suttmeier charges $300 a year.

Lesson #3: Never pay $1000 a year for investment advice- especially from a guru.

What are you really getting anyway?

Hopes. Dreams. The lure of the holy grail.

Resist!

Save your money. The only “guru” you should know is Warren Buffett. You can get his advice for free every few months in interviews.

What will become of Lenny Dykstra, investment guru?

Stay tuned.

Did you cry this weekend over Tim Russert’s death?

I did. Several times.

It makes no sense, I know. I didn’t know the man. I never even glimpsed him on a Washington street (and having lived in Washington DC for numerous years-believe me- it’s not a big town. Ted Koppel, former host of Nightline, used to get his lunchtime sandwich where I got mine.)

So why am I so emotional about his passing?

I believe it goes to something we have discussed on this blog before: it’s about passion and greatness.

Who do you know that is passionate about something they do? Not about their children or their family- but about going to work every single day?

And who do you know that is also great at what they do- along with having that passion?

With Tim Russert, you could see the passion oozing from his very pores. Passion is attractive. People want to be around someone who is passionate. They want to hear what they have to say and watch what they do.

Why?

Because we rarely see it.

Just a few weeks ago, Mr. Russert’s passion was on full view on the night of the Indiana and North Carolina primaries when he said that Senator Obama would be the democratic nominee. This was well after midnight east coast time. Actually, if I remember correctly, it might have been after 1 am.

Yet, Mr. Russert didn’t look tired. His face still glowed.

Only a few hours later, literally, he was on the Today Show talking about the same thing with Matt Lauer. Did the man even sleep that night?

You got the feeling he was running on pure adrenalin- but he loved it! He loved every minute of it.

And therefore- so did we. You couldn’t help but get sucked in by his enthusiasm.

Who can say that every single day of their lives they are doing something they love?

That’s why I cried over his death. I loved watching the passion. Because it’s rare. And it’s rarely on display every single week (even if I only get it passively- by watching tv.)

Passionate people are many times “great” people- because they love what they do they’re usually pretty darn good at what they do. Funny how it works that way.

We’ve talked about greatness before.

Tim Russert was passion and greatness in his profession.

I celebrate his gifts and wait for the day when passion again returns to the news room.

Thank you, Tim Russert.