The most important rule in investing is not to lose your initial capital. Making money comes later. If you lose 50% of your principal, the loss rate is 50%, but to recover that principal, you need a 100% return. This is because the baseline of your return—the principal—has already been halved. Many people tend to think that if they’ve lost 50%, they only need a 50% return to break even. However, this is a misunderstanding of the starting point. In investing, the baseline is always the original principal. The principal after a loss is no longer the same; it’s already in the past. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”
In September 1999, NASA’s unmanned Mars climate probe “MCO” exploded in Mars’ orbit. Manufacturer Lockheed Martin set up the data unit as a “yard,” but NASA mistook it as a “meter.” The MCO entered the atmosphere of Mars 100 km below the original orbit and exploded in friction. Communication error had blown away $ 125 million. With this opportunity, NASA decided that the units used in space development were “meters”. A slip of the tongue in business doesn’t end just a mistake accidentally. It must undoubtedly damage the “cash flow”. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”