The! Biggest! News! of! the! Day! - Not Employment Report, P&G, Take-Two, or Housing Woes

Here are some of the contenders for today's biggest...news...of...the...day...

• The monthly employment report which showed that "Employers added fewer jobs to payrolls in July while the unemployment rate rose unexpectedly"...
• Earnings and a buyback from Procter & Gamble (PG)...
• A warning from Take-Two Interactive Software (TTWO) that has the shares down 16% in pre-open action...
• The shut down of American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. (AHM)...
• A cover story about the woes in the housing sector...
• An argument for oil to keep rising...
• Another take on housing that says "The outlook for the housing market looks bleaker than ever"...
• A push by Amazon.com into groceries?
• A look into hedge fund performance...

While those are all stories worth watching, I think it is obviously clear that the biggest story is this - Bid to break kazoo record fails...according to the article, "Members of a 1980s funk and disco group hit a sour note in their attempt to break the world record for the largest kazoo ensemble, falling short of the some 2,600 impromptu musicians needed"...

It would be easy to mock this but I want to be explicitly clear about something so you understand my point...Working with the stock market, and especially options, has taught me that "failure" is something that shouldn't be accompanied with shame. It is quite common to fail before finding true success at something. Each attempt gives us an opportunity to learn and this helps us improve. Learning to productively deal with set-backs is one of the keys to long-term success. It doesn't mean you are stupid!