Early on, I assumed that better investing meant being smarter, faster, or more informed than the average person Over time, especially after sitting through periods of volatility and uncertainty, that assumption slowly broke down. What actually seemed to matter more was patience: staying invested, not reacting to every headline, and accepting that doing nothing is often the hardest part of the process. Intelligence helps, but patience appears to compound in a different way.
I’m curious when this realization happened for others. Was it after a specific market event, a personal mistake, or simply enough years in the market to see patterns repeat?