Today, I was re-reading Joseph Campbell’s “The Power of Myths”. It struck me that traders are unsung heroes; and like the unsung heroes of myth, they embark on a journey that entails an adventure of great risk; and they so embark, more often than not, ill-prepared.

So today I start a series of blogs that look back on my own adventure. With the benefit of hindsight, I hope to provide a map of what is needed to succeed. In this way, perhaps I can help forewarn and equip another generation of heroes.

I started my journey with some plusses. My father was someone who started as an accountant in an office with offices in Hong Kong and Manila. By the time he died, he was its Managing Director.

Dad was charismatic and hard-working. He left me with a belief in myself and with four essential values:

Honesty - in Randian terms - to never consciously fake reality. Bad news is bad news. If I accept bad news head-on, and as soon as I perceive it, I’ll usually be able to mitigate its worst effects. By the same token, good news is good news and I should take credit for whatever I do well.

Integrity - I was taught to always keep my promises to others and to myself.

Commitment - I learnt to commit myself to my dreams and goals. This was the most difficult value for me to learn - especially in high school. I took a dose of reality when I had to repeat Form 4 in St Joseph’s College, HK. I had believed till then that I failed arithmetic, geometry, algebra, physics etc only because I chose not to study. But in that final year in HK, I did study and I still failed.

I learned that commitment to fundamental skills was necessary from the onset - that made success easier.

Perseverance - I had learnt early to persevere until I attained my goals. In my younger days (11 years old?), I played badminton. I was unable to beat one particular opponent - Eugene Ma. It took me a year or two but through dint of constant practice, I eventually beat him at will.

Forgiveness - Dad taught me to accept errors that I had made, to learn from their lessons and to move on.

These qualities served me in good stead.

I started trading with the idea that it was a snack profession; I was also addicted to the concept that success meant being right. With ideas like that it’s no wonder that my wife, Chrisy, had to support me after I had blown funds from the sale of my legal practice in a year.That first trading year marked the beginning a 7-year drought in my quest for success.

But through it all, I never lost my self-belief, my willingness to acknowledge that I was a net loser, and my determination to make it. Only the other day, Chrisy repeated a comment she often has made: “What I admired most about you in those hard times was your ability to pick up the phone - no matter how low you felt”.

Nowadays, the literature acknowledges that the six values are necessary for traders to succeed.

More tomorrow.

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