People who bought stocks early when they were still risky, unpopular, or getting hated on, what made you buy?

I’m talking about stocks before the hype, before everyone started calling them “obvious winners.” Like when the company still had real risks, bad sentiment, weak price action, or people were saying it was overvalued/dead money. How did you know it was worth buying back then? Was it actually conviction from research, or was it more of a calculated bet/gamble? What signs did you look for that made you think the market was wrong? And maybe more importantly, what made you hold through big drops or months where nothing happened? Did you have a specific thesis, price target, earnings metric, or were you just patient? Trying to understand how people separate a real early opportunity from just catching a falling knife or gambling on hype. Please share your story :)