Fear loves to see you fail over and over again.
I just heard a story about a couple that invested several thousands of dollars into one company back in the 1960's. It was most of their savings and one of the first times they ever invested that amount of money. Several weeks later the company got some bad news, then several months later the economy was in a downturn. They watched most of their life savings dissipate in just a couple months and decided to pull their money out before any more was lost. The company they invested in 40 years ago was PepsiCo. Had they left their few thousand dollars sitting where it was when they invested it, it would have been worth well over $3 million dollars today.
Surprisingly this isn't a new story at all. I've heard accounts of the same thing happening to everyone, almost on a weekly basis. Although it may be a different scenario each time one thing always stays the same. Whoever made the error in judgement always seems to have made their decision based on the fear that things would get worse.
Fear is what makes people keep their money in a bank account, under their mattress, or some other low risk alternative regardless of the fact that inflation slowly but surely takes some of their earnings out year after year.
Fear is an emotion that creates anxiety for future opportunities.
Unlike cognition or logical thinking, fear and anxiety manipulate your reasoning. If you are like most others, when you first make an investment you babysit it. You want to know everything that's going on and track it's every move. If you just purchased an investment property, you suddenly become an expert on real estate. If you've just invested in some blue chip stocks for the first time, you suddenly start giving others advice on how to invest in the market. Those feelings when things are good are generated from confidence. When things start going bad the entire world changes and you wish you start questioning yourself. All the knowledge you gained during the time you were confident in yourself turns into doubts.
You will then start to question your decision making abilities and start stashing your money away in a bank account or under your mattress instead of making future investments because of your memory of what happened before. Trust in yourself and your knowledge and don't rely on your emotions.
Here's something to really fear...
Every time I hear a story like that I think about times that I have done the same thing. I have invested and lost and wish I could go back and do things differently. What I've learned along the way is that after it's all said and done, I'm still here. I didn't die or have my limbs hacked off, I lost money.
What you should really fear is being 55 years old and working for someone else, praying every day that your body doesn't fail because you need to pay bills with your bi-weekly income and find some way to survive for the remaining 40 years of your life after you retire.
Remember This: Invest in every opportunity you get while you can afford to make mistakes. Most wealthy or super wealthy people have invested more money than they currently have. Think about it.