What Happens When Purpose Is Assumed, Not Discovered

A few months ago, I read - What I Learned Losing A Million Dollars - by Jim Paul and Brendan Moynihan. In the book, Brendan recounts how Jim, from humble beginnings, rose to become a retail broker in the futures industry, achieving early successes that led him to serve on the board of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange at a very young age. And how he lost it all in the span of a few months.

The book is a cautionary tale for everyone involved in high-risk ventures. Over the past year, I have observed the patterns described in the book. It was not in the futures market but in the Startup world. It is amazing how these patterns of loss are common to any loss. In this article, I try to summarise what I saw and draw parallels to Jim Paul’s process.

The context (How did ...