29. Act Now

29. Act Now

Hear, know, understand, believe, execute, conviction, endure, faith.

On the road of investing, those who know the right answer are countless; those who actually act on it are very few. Why? Not because the method is complex — the method is extremely simple. Because of human nature. Up 10% and want to sell, because afraid the profit flies away; price keeps rising and afraid to buy, because subconsciously “expensive”; know you should switch instruments yet can’t step forward, because changing the status quo demands overcoming inertia and fear. These psychological barriers can’t be erased by rational persuasion — they must be dissolved by lived experience, especially the experience of going through one complete market cycle.

Eight Stages of the Investor’s Inner Journey

Hear → know → understand → believe → execute → conviction → endure → faith. The first four stay in cognition. Finish this book and you have done the first four — but those four won’t make you rich. The real turn is at step five:

• Execute — open the brokerage account, type in QQQ / 00662 / NASDAQ-100, press “buy.” This is the moment the train starts.
• Conviction — after you buy, the market drops 20%; paper loss appears; the people around you say “see, told you it dropped.” Here you need to be convicted you are right, even when surface evidence points the opposite.
• Endure — market down 40% from peak, months of grinding decline, every time you open the phone a smaller number. This agony is something the inexperienced can’t imagine — but as long as you don’t sell, eventually it pays you back.
• Faith — having gone through a full cycle (peak → trough → new high), “believe” elevates into near-religious “faith.” At this level, no swing moves you — you aren’t enduring volatility; you are genuinely numb to it. §16 “Don’t Listen to Experts” used the eight stages as a “lighthouse” once. The entire 30 chapters of this book exist, in the end, to push you from “hear” to the “faith” end.

If You Walked Past, Don’t Walk Away

Many have lived through 2000 dot-com bust, 2008 financial crisis, 2020’s three circuit breakers, 2022’s drop — walked through these historic moments, walked past countless low-price buying windows — and still missed in the end. Why? Because they learned nothing from it. Ignorance once, foolishness twice, the third time on the same mistake is incurable. Every dramatic swing is a free real-combat class — tuition you’ve already paid with fear, anxiety, sleepless nights; not learning from that tuition is the real waste.

My Real State After 20+ Years Retired

I retired in 2004 — no work for over 20 years, no salary income, living on asset growth and pledge-borrowing. Life hasn’t gotten worse — it has gotten better, more at ease. I don’t worry about market rises and falls, don’t care about rate hikes, don’t care who is president.

Every day: read, think, record videos, freely answer student questions — none of these has brought me a cent of income, but they have brought endless happiness and a sense of accomplishment. This is the real face of financial freedom — it is not a number, it is a state. The moment you no longer need to sell time for money, you are free. The road to that freedom is fully laid out in the first 28 chapters of this book.

Now, the One Thing Missing Is Your Action

Don’t wait until tomorrow. Don’t wait until next month. Don’t wait for a pullback. Don’t wait to “fully understand” — that day never arrives. Start today, even if just $100. The first step is always more important than perfection. This book ends here, but your investing life is just beginning. Close this book; open the brokerage account. Today is the youngest day of the rest of your life.

Key Points

One, the biggest enemy of personal financial wealth-building is not market risk; it is procrastination. The distance from “know” to “do” is longer than the distance from ignorance to knowing. Knowledge does not make you rich; action does. Two, eight inner-journey stages: hear → know → understand → believe (cognition) → execute → conviction → endure → faith (behavior). The first half is reachable by reading; the second half must be forged by real market cycles. Every major swing is a catalyst from one stage to the next. Three, start today. Start small, learn while doing, let time and compounding do the rest — the future you will thank the now you.

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