6 lessons learned building a portfolio to six figures

1. Be patient. It takes time. Focus on growing your income, managing expenses, and automatically sweeping a set amount from checking to your investment account every month. Trying to move too quickly will likely force errors likely in the form of margin, leverage, or options (except for covered calls, more on that later).
2. Invest in companies you know, understand, and believe in. Get to know a companies products. Read its annual statements. Pour over its balance sheet and income statement. Compare it to its competitors. And above all, consider whether it's a company you support, believe in, and want to see grow. Otherwise, when things get volatile, you're more likely to have paper hands.
3. Build your position over time. Come up with a price you would be willing to buy the stock at. There are tons of great resources on YouTube, Reddit, Twitter, and more, where people do detailed discounted cash flow models and examine what a company might be worth. Find them and consume them. Come up with a number of your own, for what you think a company is worth and a share should cost, and set up limit orders accordingly. Don't rush this. Do this over time. It may take 2-3 years to build a position to where you want it to be % wise in your portfolio.
4. Sizing matters. Put all your investments into a portfolio visualizer (I use Google Finance) and look at it in list form. Does it go from “highest to least conviction”? View it as a chart. “Does it look right?” If not, use cash to buy more or, and this is the only time I would sell, sell one position to buy another and reorder them. I often use the HIFO method (highest in, first out) when selling to buy for tax purposes.
5. Otherwise, never sell. If you thought about it and did your own DD and nothing has materially changed to make you doubt that, don't sell. Remember, you're in it for the long run and if there's one advantage individual investors have over institutions, is that they don't have to answer to anyone but themselves or put up quarterly numbers. You can take the short and medium term risks they can't.
6. Be aware of your overall asset mix. One of the biggest impacts on your long term returns is your overall asset mix. Cash. Stocks. Real estate. Bonds. The percentages you hold of each. And for accredited investors, private equity. Keep a spreadsheet with everything in one place. Assign it a beta value. Pay attention to your overall exposure to assets classes and expected volatility. Is it right for you? This can help you size up your risk.

Built to six figures. 17.1% rate or return over ten years. Probably got lucky.

Enjoy the ride!