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For years, I tried to control every outcome by doing more —
holding twenty stocks, timing the market, keeping searching better stocks. I believed the harder I worked, the more I could make.

But the result was a 50% loss.

So from 2023, I surrendered.
I stopped trying to control every move, didn’t check my account for a whole year,
and shifted 99.9% of my energy to learning, training, and creating.
By doing less — I gained more.

In this video, I’ll share why less is more in investing —
how surrendering control leads to better compounding, clearer judgment, and a calmer mind.

Less Friction, More Compounding

The rule of compounding: don’t break it. A 50% loss requires a 100% gain just to recover.

In the past, I envied others with higher returns — but now I understand the hidden cost behind their numbers.

Consider two investors:

After 10 years:
Investor A: +134%
Investor B: +211%

A had big ups and downs; B compounded steadily at 12% and finished ahead.
Because losses and gains aren’t symmetrical.

This chart show how many you need to gain after the loss just to recover:

As losses deepen, the recovery gap accelerates exponentially — proving that the first rule of compounding,

“Don’t lose money,” is not just mathematical — it’s psychological.

My 50% loss became an unforgettable lesson — Taleb’s Skin in the Game. When you feel real pain, you never forget.

That’s why I now hold 30% in bonds. I don’t chase extremes. I protect the compounding.

Less holding, More conviction

The Central Limit Theorem (CLT) says that when you take the average of many independent samples, their averages tend to form a normal (bell-shaped) distribution centered around the true average of the whole population. By holding more independent stocks, your results drift toward the market average — that’s the Central Limit Theorem in action. Each stock you add reduces risk, but the benefit fades quickly.

There are three kinds of risk — company-specific, judgment risk, and market-wide — and diversification across stocks only helps with the first two. Bond holdings help protect against the third.

1. How many holdings are most efficient

Most of the diversification benefit appears by eight holdings.
At four, diversification starts to protect you. Beyond fifteen, volatility barely changes — but conviction weakens.

Less Action, More Clarity

The more you subtract unnecessary thoughts, opinions, control, and comparisons, the clearer you see reality.

When your mind is quiet, you act less — but each action carries more precision and power.

Charlie Munger called it “sit-on-your-ass investing” — the discipline to do nothing until the odds are clearly in your favor. It looks like stillness from the outside, but it’s actually patience in motion — clarity choosing timing over activity.

You don’t need to search for great investments every day. True opportunities — the kind that change your trajectory — emerge from randomness, not prediction.

Instead of obsessing over control, work on your clarity, patience, and readiness — because when randomness meets awareness, luck becomes destiny.

Buffett and Munger waited years before buying Apple — one quiet decision after a decade of silence. And Li Lu has held BYD for more than fifteen years — one decision that multiplied thirty-fold without another move. That’s what patience looks like in practice.

Less Thinking, More Energy

When you think about investing, the mind often shifts into prediction, control, and fear of loss. This activates the analytical and defensive systems — the same ones designed for threat detection.

Even if you’re logical, this kind of thinking drains energy. Because underneath logic, there’s still uncertainty — and the need for control. It’s the fight-or-flight state disguised as analysis.

You can’t control the market. You can’t time it perfectly. So focus on what you can control.

After I surrendered, I could learn new things, train my body, and create. If you can surrender, imagine how much energy you’ll free — to do the things that truly matter.

Investing is simple: you’re buying a piece of a business and sharing its future profits. But businesses need time to create cash flow. The real secret is time.

Surrender gives you more time in the market — and more peace within yourself. Surrender what you can’t control — and just hold.

End

Even with the right strategy and surrender mindset, I’m still challenged every day — because markets, like life, constantly test your calm.

So I keep reminding myself: “Less is more.”

At its deepest level, investing isn’t about money. It’s about mastering yourself — your patience, your temperament, and your surrender.

“It takes character to sit with all that cash and do nothing. I didn’t get to where I am by going after mediocre opportunities.” — Charlie Munger

Investing is one of the greatest fields to test your character — to see whether you can stay still in chaos.

It’s also one of the best places to train your inner strength — a dojo to practice patience, surrender, and peace.

In my next video, I’ll share how surrendering in life brings even more abundance.