I lived through Hurricane Andrew in 1992. It was only the third Category 5 storm to make landfall in the United States, and it was a doozy. I remember waiting for the deafening gusts to subside before venturing out to see the savage destruction that the killer storm had caused. When it comes to windstorms, Category 5 is as intense as they get. When it comes to investing, growth stocks would be the market's equivalent.

Growth stocks are powerful, which can sometimes be a good thing. Find the right stock on the cusp of blowing apart the landscape, and you can go from being a modest investor to a rich one in the blink of a hurricane's eye. Think Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) just as it was about to roll out the BlackBerry. Delve into Callaway Golf (NYSE:ELY) as it was birthing its Big Bertha oversized drivers or LeapFrog (NYSE:LF) as it was introducing its line of electronic educational playthings.

By the same token, growth stocks are volatile. I saw it when I stepped outside of my home in 1992. You can see it, too, in a portfolio ravaged by the wrong growth stocks. Planet Hollywood? 3DO? They both blew my portfolio to pieces way back when.

Bracing for the big one
Snapping up the right growth stocks is the aim of the Motley Fool Rule Breakers newsletter service. Every month, David Gardner leads a team of analysts unearthing the ultimate growth stock ideas. When he's right, Category 5 investing can be a thing of beauty. Four of the 24 recommendations from last year have gone on to more than double. Three have more than tripled in value! When he's wrong, the damage can be brutal. Seven of this year's picks are sporting double-digit losses.

The key to aggressive growth stock investing is to let your winners run. If you land that 10-bagger, it means that nine other similar investments can go to zero and you'll still have broken even.

Taking chances has led the service to single out some pretty eclectic -- if not outright eccentric -- companies. InterMune (NASDAQ:ITMN) scored major gains earlier this month when Roche Holdings validated the young biotech's work by partnering with InterMune for a potential hepatitis C treatment. XM Satellite Radio (NASDAQ:XMSR) is looking to convince stingy consumers that radio is a premium service worth paying for (and it has more than 7 million subscribers to prove it).

Buying into new technology is risky. That's OK. Disruptive technology may not disrupt overnight, but when it does, the upticks can come in a hurry.

I am fortunate enough to have been with The Motley Fool in the mid-1990s, when David was recommending companies like America Online, PayPal, and Amazon. They seemed like radical investments at the time. AOL was battling it out in the cutthroat realm of dial-up online services. PayPal was fighting financial services titans in the field of online micropayments. Amazon was trying to turn retail distribution upside-down by shipping book orders placed online directly to the end user. AOL, PayPal, and online shopping took off, and so did David's real-money Rule Breakers portfolio.

Andrew, 14 years later
The storms keep coming. I still live in Miami, so I've had my share of windstorms come by in recent years. Last year, Katrina and Wilma came for a visit, and the alphabet is still going in 2006.

Storms continue, but so do investing ideas. Over the summer, I looked at investing styles and labeled them as hurricane categories.

Wrapping things up with the most powerful -- and sometimes dangerous -- basket of stocks makes sense. I'm part of the Rule Breakers team of analysts. I buy stocks in all shapes and flavors, though I'm always smitten by a good young growth stock with a great story to tell.

And oh, they do tell stories. It was easy to snuggle up to Steiner Leisure (NASDAQ:STNR) -- an active Rule Breakers recommendation that has more than doubled since being singled out two years ago -- the pioneer of running high-end spas on all of the leading cruise lines has done nothing but blow past analyst profit targets over the past few years.

I'll probably continue taking chances in my portfolio in the coming weeks. I don't mind the exotic. I don't fear Category 5 investing.

Are you a Category 5 investor? Want to learn more to see if you are one? Give Rule Breakers a spin with a free 30-day pass to see if growth investing is right for you.

This article was originally published on July 21, 2006. It has been updated.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz believes in taking chances to earn superior returns. He does not own shares of any company mentioned. Amazon is a Motley Fool Stock Advisor pick. The Fool has adisclosure policy.