This is brutal, page-31

Loaner,
I agree that there are stars out there and can give you many examples of 10, 20 baggers, with hind sight. However, there are also the likes of RAMS, ABC Learning Centre etc. where people buy into the growth story and ended up with nothing. I was one of them. I found out years ago that picking stocks and more importantly, timing the markets is not a skill I possess. Like I bought CSL at $19 and sold at $50 thinking I had made the killing of the century. I still have some duds in my bottom drawer like LYC, RMS, OZL and APG. I laugh every time I look at the unbelievable loss percentage. I can still laugh thanks to the $15k a year dividends from TLS.

Like everything else in life, companies have cycles because they are run by people and people get lucky and people make mistakes. The stars today will turn into duds someday in the future and vice versa. I just invest in the companies that will still be there many years from now and buy when they are duds because one day, they will become stars - as long as they keep providing me with a good lifestyle while I wait.