Who is Max?

Max is someone who had a fairly easy life. He was quite smart in school; not the smartest of the lot, his academics were above average, had above average looks and was quite confident with himself. Things naturally went in his favor most of the time.

After university, he had a good office job. Again, not the brightest but bright enough to stand out. Coupled with his confidence, he did quite well for himself.

After 10 years of 9-to-5 grinding in a few multinational companies he was lucky enough to get into, Max started to feel stuck. While he was already quite established, he was secretly jealous of people who climbed faster than him and performed better than him. He always gave his best to win accolades and to gain personal satisfaction, but there was always someone better than him.

He was starting to put a lot of thoughts into what other things he could do to carve out a new path for himself. Since he had an ok level of saving, he decided to quit his job and try something new.

He tried a few things but none gave him real satisfactory results. For example, he tried providing corporate training, being an agent to an artist, even selling homemade tea blend....all of it was so so. He was getting by doing a bit of this and a bit of that. He gets by because of the network he established and the knowledge he gathered, but nothing was really outstanding, and it was all hard work. After another 10 years, he got quite bored but still doing the small businesses he had started earlier, to make a living and build his retirement funds.

He never personally did investment because he was conditioned to think that it was too speculative and irrational (some of his friends talk of investing like gambling, and that turned him off). The only investment he was doing was unit trust since that does not require any work (his POV).

One day, a good friend Iof his who never talked about stocks suddenly talked enthusiastically about stocks. Apparently, she discovered an app that has so many features where she can not only trade, but also learn and network. and participate in various campaigns. He got curious and started to investigate, and he was intrigued.

He thought this looked easy and fun, so he jumped in with RM100K.

With a blend of naivete, tunnelled-vision, and over-confident attitude (since nothing had gone wrong in any big way in his life so far), he jumped in without testing the water. He did not do enough due diligence nor learned up enough knowledge before filling up his portfolio. He just thought any reputable company would be a safe bet.

Oh, how wrong was he. He was about to receive a rude awakening....

So, this is the starting point of Max's journey.