Retail investors everywhere are the same: in capital markets, retail investors are fundamentally no different from inexperienced entrepreneurs.
What happens to retail investors when they lose money? They hesitate to cut their losses, they hold onto sinking ships, get trapped, silently bleeding away—while burning through time as well.
The same applies to entrepreneurship. You open a bubble tea shop, no customers, slog for two or three years, and finally can't keep it going—so you close. You pivot to a BBQ joint, same story: no traffic, another couple of years of grinding, then you shut down again.
It looks like the upfront investment is small, but the tuition is expensive. One attempt might cost only a hundred thousand or so, but what about months of zero business? The loss on subletting the storefront? The wages you paid employees? The time you wasted?
A single bleed isn't fatal—but doing it every time is.