A $10,000 investment is worth more than $4.5 million today

Take Wal-Mart for example. Not long after Sam Walton figured out how to bring powerful consumer access to suburban and rural America, some forward-thinking investors grabbed up shares. The really smart ones held on tight...

Now to billions of people around the world, Wal-Mart is the place you go to buy tootsie rolls, a ping pong table, motor oil, diapers, a microwave, ice skates -- you name it, all at great prices.

What has Wal-Mart's stock done since 1980 (a full decade after it went public) through all kinds of up and down markets... all kinds of inflation... deflation... rising dollar... falling dollar... and a couple of wars?

With shares trading around $51 today, Wal-Mart has risen 467 times in value over the past 28 years. That's 25% annual growth -- every year for over a quarter century!

Let's face it, getting in on a blockbuster investment like Wal-Mart in 1980 was a life-changing event for early investors.

The same can be said for getting into Nike in 1987, just as that stock went on a historic run, making over 5,000% for its early investors.

And Starbucks went from zero to full-blown global phenomenon practically in the blink of an eye - another bonanza for early investors!