The more you need specific elements of a plan to be true, the more fragile your financial life becomes. Room for error or margin of safety is one of the most underappreciated forces in finance. The idea that something can gain over the long-term while being a basket case in the short-term is not intuitive. But there are so many things that work that way in life.
Getting rich and staying rich are two different skills. They are often conflicting skills, so many people focus on one or the other.
But you need both to do well over time.
This episode tells a 100-year-old story of two investors, neither of whom knew each other, but whose fates converged during the same week in the 1920s.
It shows why a barbell personality of optimistic on one hand, and paranoid on the other, is vital to success.