This article's swaggering headline smacks of exaggeration -- but it's true.

How it happened
Picture it: New Jersey, 1995. Although not then a Motley Fool employee, I was, perhaps like you, an avid reader of Fool.com. Founding Fools David and Tom Gardner occasionally recommended stocks, and one of their recommendations was an online service provider, America Online.

I was still quite new to investing, and I didn't know enough to do much of my own research. But I did have one thing going for me: I was an AOL customer. I used the service every day, and I liked what I saw of its user-friendliness, utility, and potential. So I bought. I snapped up $3,000 worth of shares and hung on.

Over the next several years, the stock went up and down, sometimes significantly -- but I held on. It mostly went up, and it split and split. I remember checking my portfolio regularly -- several times a day! -- to see how rich I was becoming. Near the stock's peak, I had a 70-bagger! My $3,000 investment had turned into $210,000. If it doubled in value only twice more, I'd be (almost) a millionaire! All from a measly $3,000 investment.

Did I sell shares along the ride up? No. (Some of us don't know when to cut our losses.) Did I sell at least somenear the top, when my mom told me to? Nope. (That strange thudding sound you hear is me banging my head on my desk. The silence is my mom, biting her tongue.) I held on.

AOL merged with Time Warner in 2001, and for years after that, the stock struggled. I remember when shares were priced in the $70s (that would be north of $200 now, after a recent 1-for-3 reverse stock split), but it's a fuzzy memory. They spent years below $20 ($60, split-adjusted) until relatively recently, and even more recently they drifted much lower. I did sell a big chunk of my shares a few years ago, when I needed money for a down payment on my house. And I finally got smart -- I sold more shares to diversify into other stocks instead of holding a big chunk of my net worth in a company in which I no longer had faith.

I continue to hold a few shares, though, and despite my inclination to curse my stupidity for not selling earlier, I'm still sitting on a handsome profit, even at current levels. My cost basis is ridiculously low, and this has stillbeen one of my best investments ever. I shouldn't complain.

How you can do it
If any part of this story appeals to you, you have a chance to make it yours -- perhaps with a happier ending -- if you make a few decisions differently. (You might end up as an accidental billionaire!)

Buy what you know
First, pay attention to products and services you know, use, and love -- especially if you see more and more people using them. There may be a great stock behind them, and knowing their products or services will go a long way toward understanding the business. Plenty of well-known companies have done phenomenally well over the past decade or two -- let's look at a few.

Have you taken any online courses with Apollo Group 's (Nasdaq: APOL) University of Phoenix? Do you fill your prescriptions at CVS Caremark's (NYSE: CVS) CVS stores ? Do you regularly quaff Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX) Frappucinos? Do you have a Research In Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM) BlackBerry in your pocket?

Apollo stock has averaged 22.8% annual growth over the past decade, while CVS stock averaged 6.2%, which still handily trounces the market. Starbucks stock has averaged more than 12% annually over the past decade, while Research In Motion has averaged more than 30%! (The S&P 500 during the period averaged an annual loss of less than 1%.) These companies have performed rather well, right under our noses.

Beware what you don't
Along those same lines, be wary of what you don't understand. If you don't understand how a business makes money, you probably won't be able to tell when business is going badly.

Biotechnology companies present a good example, as do new-technology companies. Think of EMC (NYSE: EMC) -- if you're invested in it, do you have a good grasp of electronic storage technology, and of the strengths and weaknesses of various disaster-recovery services? Similarly, financial institutions can be tricky. If you're not comfortable with your grasp of Capital One Financial 's (NYSE: COF) financial condition and risks, with its return on assets and its provisions for loan losses, consider steering clear.

Hang on for the ride
If you buy into a company hoping that it will be a multibagger for you, buy to hold as long as you continue to understand the business, strategy, and leadership. If you have faith in the company's future, it's often best to just hang on, despite any inevitable hiccups. If you still have long-term confidence, don't let naysayers in the media get you out of a stock because of short-term concerns.

Consider Ford (NYSE: F). It earned solid returns for many early investors, and some still have high expectations for the company's future performance, but it has delivered a net loss to investors over the past decade. Continued...