Follow the Trail of Success

Do you ever get the feeling you're going to miss out on the next Microsoft (NYSE:MSFT) or Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT)? Do you feel you're always late to the party and you're never going to be able to retire early or get to live in the lap of luxury? This isn't the part of the article where I try to sell you some get-rich scheme. But I am going to tell you that you can still find market-crushing returns by following the trail of success.

A wildly successful company is never self-sufficient and will always need some type of supply or service. And companies that provide products and services to successful companies stand to benefit, making them an excellent place to look for investments.

A good name for this approach would be synergistic investing -- cooperative interaction where both companies profit. The ideal case would be to find a company that is on its way to becoming ubiquitous, yet the market has failed to recognize the sustainable benefits other companies inherit from this success.

For example, did you fail to notice that everyone in your office is willing to pay a premium for a cup of coffee with a green circle surrounding a picture of a siren on it? If you did, then you probably didn't buy any shares of Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX), a 10-bagger over the last 10 years. If your family eats all its meals at home, then you may have overlooked PaneraBread (NASDAQ:PNRA), a 10-bagger over the last five years.

But don't feel bad if you missed out; I did, too. Instead, consider the fact that the two companies plan to open a combined total of nearly 2,000 new locations in 2006. That means there is probably going to be a lot more people drinking the products Jones Soda (NASDAQ:JSDA) has to offer. Jones Soda supplies premium soda to both chains and should continue to benefit from their expansion.

Are you a technophobe who didn't realize how trendy Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPod was going to be? In just three years, Apple has been a 10-bagger -- another one that I missed. But there's no need to get upset about it, because even if iPod sales slow down, users will still be looking for new material to download. One content provider who stands to benefit from this trend is Audible (NASDAQ:ADBL). Its core business is delivering audiobooks to its subscriber base, which has been growing at an impressive clip. If Audible finds success monetizing the burgeoning podcasting market, it could find a second source of significant revenues.

Synergies are a great way to look for new investment ideas that the market may not have caught on to. But don't just jump in because you found something interesting. You may end up teaching yourself a difficult lesson about the preservation of capital. That's what makes Jones Soda and Audible such attractive investments. If something goes wrong, shareholders have a reason not to jump ship because there is a good chance the companies will live to fight on -- something investors should look for in all their investments.

Starbucks is a Motley Fool Stock Advisor pick, and Microsoft is an Inside Value selection. The Fool has a newsletter for almost every style of investing.

Fool contributor John Bluis owns shares of Audible but has no financial interest in any other company mentioned in this article. The Motley Fool is investors writing for investors.