The Third Axiom tells you not to wait around when trouble shows itself. It tells you to get away promptly. Don’t hope, don’t pray. Hope and prayer are nice, no doubt, but they are not useful as tools of a speculative operation. Nobody pretends it is easy to carry out the teaching of this hard, unsentimental Axiom. We’ve looked at three obstacles to its implementation: fear of regret, unwillingness to abandon part of an investment, and difficulty of admitting a mistake. One or more of these problems may afflict you, perhaps severely. Somehow or other, you have to overcome them.
