I believe the most important lesson to learn from all of this is...

I believe the most important lesson to learn from all of this is : do not blindly believe what the CEO of a listed company is telling you. You need to study the financials with scepticism, try and identify what doesn't look right and contradicts the dialogue, make your own decisions on the company and ignore any company management dialogue.

The CEO needs to market their company in a positive manner which makes it easier for them to raise funds from the market, to enable them to survive when things are not going well. By doing this, it can be argued they are acting in the best interest of shareholders. The facts are in the financials. Nothing else.

Unfortunately reading Hot Copper posts, Listening to Crux Interviews or reading * articles is not research.