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3 Charts that Show the Power of Investing in Revolutionary Ideas

Investing in revolutionary ideas doesn’t have to be complicated. Even if you were late on these 3 stocks, you still made a lot of money.

Nearly 16 years ago, in June 2007, Apple (AAPL) released its first iPhone, one of several revolutionary ideas from the mind of the late Steve Jobs. It has sold more than 2 billion iPhones since. Here’s what Apple stock has done during those 16 years.

Apple's 16-year chart shows the power of investing in revolutionary ideas.

That’s an average annual return of more than 31%. If you had invested $10,000 in AAPL stock the day the company unveiled the iPhone, today you’d have $594,392.13.

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In June 2012, Tesla (TSLA), almost two years to the date after going public on the Nasdaq, debuted the Model S electric car. If you had invested $10,000 in Tesla stock that day, you’d have $1,797,213.42 today, an average annual return of better than 69%.

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In fact, our Tim Lutts got in on TSLA even earlier, recommending the stock to his Cabot Stock of the Week subscribers in December 2011. Readers who bought on his recommendation then and have held on through thick, thin and Elon Musk’s tweets are sitting on a profit of 16,602% today.

On February 1, 2013, Netflix (NFLX), already a very well-known streaming video company that had essentially put Blockbuster out of business, launched its first original TV series, “House of Cards”. Many more original hits soon followed that, including “Orange is the New Black” later that year. But “House of Cards” was the first of its kind, and revolutionized the way we watch TV today, when many people have ditched cable altogether in favor of streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Apple TV+ and Disney Plus.

If you saw that revolution coming after “House of Cards” debuted, and invested $10,000 in Netflix stock seven years ago, today you’d be sitting on $146,538.82 today, despite recent weakness in the stock.

Netflix's chart shows the power of investing in revolutionary ideas.

Why am I bringing up these potentially missed opportunities in growth stocks that are rather obvious now? Because revolutionary ideas matter.

None of these three companies were complete unknowns when they introduced the aforementioned revolutionary products. Tesla was not as well known as the other two when it started to take off, but it was known enough for Tim to recommend it to his readers before the first Model S delivery was made. And all of these game-changing products were unveiled in the last 16 years - two of them in the last decade.

Where to Find the Next Revolutionary Ideas

Now imagine investing in the next revolutionary idea, from a public company you already know well. I’m not asking you to guess which company is most likely to come up with something truly groundbreaking. But when an idea comes along that feels like a game-changer or an industry-upsetter like the iPhone, the Model S or a streaming service creating its own programming, you should pounce.

And you don’t need $10,000 to do it. Say you had invested just $1,000 in each of those three stocks around the time they rolled out their revolutionary products. You would have still turned $3,000 into roughly $253,000 in 16 years, even if you didn’t own any other stocks.

Granted, identifying three portfolio-changing winners like that at the exact right time isn’t very realistic. But simply uncovering one or two stocks like that every few years can transform your portfolio completely, and build considerable wealth.

Now, if you want help digging up the next AAPL, NFLX or TSLA at just the right time, I suggest you subscribe to our Cabot Growth Investor advisory. Our flagship newsletter since our inception 52 years ago, Cabot Growth Investor (formerly Cabot Market Letter) has been uncovering the market’s best growth stocks for more than five decades by identifying revolutionary ideas, like the ones mentioned above, very early. Helmed by market timing guru and growth investing expert Mike Cintolo, Cabot Growth Investor has produced massive winners such as +559% in Qualcomm (QCOM), +443% in Summit Technology, +415% in First Solar (FSLR), and +746% in Apple stock.

To learn what potential revolutionary growth stocks Mike is recommending today, click here.

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*This post has been updated from an original version.

Chris Preston is Cabot Wealth Network’s Vice President of Content and Chief Analyst of Cabot Stock of the Week and Cabot Value Investor .