Confronting your inner self

Standing alone is uncomfortable because it makes people do one thing that most feel uneasy
about, which is taking responsibility for one’s actions. Most people like to delegate

responsibility, blame others and make excuses when they don’t succeed.

Most people simply

cannot face the simple truth that they are responsible totally for the consequences of their
actions. A person can go for a job interview and convince himself that he did not get the job
due to a personality clash with the interviewer. A lawyer can drink too much before an
important case and convince himself he lost because the Jury was biased, a salesman can
convince himself that it was his product that was not up to scratch and not his presentation.

The trader, however, has nowhere to hide when interacting with the market.

He is really

competing against himself, and the market will judge every day how well he is doing. This
confrontation with our own personality, our strengths and weaknesses graphically exposes, is
something most people would rather avoid.