Many people fail in investing, and the root cause is actually very simple — they start off wrong.

What is the most common fatal mistake for beginners? It’s not lack of money, not bad luck, but jumping straight into the most dangerous arena. Wanting to run before learning to walk, rushing to the hardest boss without mastering basic operations — that’s not bravery, that’s throwing yourself into the fire.

The correct approach should be like leveling up in a game — step by step. Start from the safest places — low-risk products like government bonds and money market funds, to accumulate a sense of success and build confidence and basic understanding of investing. Then gradually move towards higher difficulty areas. This is the so-called 7-level investment ladder; each level must be truly mastered before moving on to the next.

For small-capital players, there’s actually an advantage. You can afford to lose. Because the stakes are small and the cost of mistakes is low, you can be more aggressive in climbing the ladder. Use time to gain experience, learn business logic and market rules through practical trading, and find low-risk arbitrage opportunities — this is the biggest weapon for small-capital users.

But for the middle class, it’s completely different. Don’t gamble, really. Earning one or two times is enough to change your life, but what if you lose? One bad move can drop you from middle class to ordinary or even poverty, and your family can collapse instantly. The middle class is actually the most vulnerable to loss. So what you should do is maintain steady cash flow, preserve your principal, and avoid leverage dreams — the risk of falling back into poverty overnight might be closer than you think.