You may be wondering if it is some particular stocks or property but this investment yields far greater returns than either of those.

You might be thinking that it is a system for using the higher leveraged investment vehicles such as options or futures but again this investment far outstrips those for profit potential.

The investment I am talking about is your own success education.

If you spend the time, energy and money to increase your own knowledge, skills and experience then the benefits that you have gained remain with you and can be collected on over and over and over again.

Let's look at some of the areas that this education should cover. Here are 10 essential ingredients in a success education

People Skills

Good people skills can be applied to profit making in joint ventures, negotiation, networking and business operation.

They are used extensively by successful property investors in finding and structuring highly profitable ventures.

Specific Knowledge

If a doctor was going to operate on you for a serious, life threatening condition you would be highly motivated to ensure that the doctor really knew his stuff.

It always amazes me however, just how many investors are happy to put their financial health at risk by entering the investment world with the bare minimum of knowledge.

Whatever the vehicle you plan to invest in you should make sure that you know that vehicle inside out.

Time Management

A good time manager can produce ten times more in a day than a poor time manager. If you haven't studied time management as part of your success education then you can't be expected to be taken seriously.

Self Discipline

Learn to discipline yourself or sooner or later you will fall under the discipline of others. The person who controls himself controls his destiny.

Risk Management

Broke people either avoid risk or ignore risk. Successful investors learn to manage risk. The better you manage risk the more often you will collect profits.

Seeing and Structuring Opportunities

Seeing opportunities is a skill that must be learned. Once you learn it you find it difficult to believe just how blind most people are to the flood of opportunities that surround them every day.

But seeing an opportunity is only half the skill. You then have to know the best way to turn that opportunity into a capital growth machine or a cash-cow.

Raising Capital

Raising capital is a specific financial skill that needs to be combined with many of the other skills presented in this article. If you expect someone to risk their money on you then you better make sure that you really know your stuff and that you really know how to sell yourself and your project.

Clarity of Thought

Most people's minds are a jumble of thoughts, many of which are garbage. The successful investor is a person of clear mind who can see the important issues, solve the appropriate problem and focus on what needs to be focused on at any particular point in time.

Goal Setting

Most of what is taught about goal setting is regurgitated nonsense. Successful investors need to learn techniques for goals setting that empower them and ensure their success.

Converting Goals into Action Steps

Unless you learn how to convert goals into practical, results producing, action steps you may as well not bother to set the goal at all. All successful investors are good action takers. They know when to enter an investment and when to collect profits or cut losses and they put that knowledge into action.

So let me state again that the most profitable investment that any serious investor can make is in their own success education. If you do that well and put that education to work, making money becomes a pleasant routine.