It is the dream of every stock market investor to buy shares in the next Apple – and retire early. My wife’s friend’s husband’s father is one such person – he bought Apple shares in the 1980s. He is a dying breed, however. It’s much harder to make 100x returns on a stock market investment these days. This is because stock market investors increasingly miss out on the early years of a company’s life. The early years of a company’s life are when they grow the fastest. It used to be that fast-growing young companies listed on the stock market…