There is no Holy Grail for picking stocks. Talk to 50 successful stock investors and you'll likely get 50 different answers to the following question, "What makes a good stock pick?"

One strategy that has worked well for me in the past is having an "owner's mentality" when choosing stocks.

I think one problem common to many investors is thinking of a stock purchase as purchasing a piece of paper rather than a piece of a company.

If you frame the investment process as being an owner of a company (which you are when you buy stock) rather than being an owner of a piece of paper, you may make different and better investment choices.

Having an owner's mentality makes you think more closely about such important issue as:

	Do I like the industry's long-term prospects?
	How much is the government going to be poking its head in my business?
	How dependent is my business on a couple of big customers?
	Who are my main competitors and can I compete successfully against them?
	Is current management worth owning?
	How much money will I have to tie up in inventory?
	Does this business require huge capital outlays?
	How quickly will I recoup my investment?

Notice I didn't say anything about the stock's P/E ratio, its recent earnings growth, or other factors that often dominate the investment decision-making process. These things are important. Nevertheless, if you approach buying a stock as you would buying the entire company, you'll likely make more prudent and thoughtful investment choices.