“Sometimes True Growth Means Moving Backwards”

Akil Stokes
2 min readOct 14, 2019

Over the years I have truly embraced the concept of having a growth mindset vs. a fixed one. When I started my entrepreneurial journey back in 2008 I adopted a philosophy called “Kaizen” which means “continuous improvement” in Japanese. I did so because it was at this point in my life when I realized that getting rich quick didn’t really exist and that true success was a result of a slow consistent grind. What I didn’t know at the time was that even though my goal was to end each day a little bit better than the previous, better sometimes meant taking a step back.

Trading is a great example of this because when I first started trading I was trying to do way too much at once and I ended up becoming overwhelmed, which had a drastic effect on my results. As I continued to develop I actually had to eliminate most of what I was doing and focus on a few core principles. Simplifying my trading was a blessing in disguise as not only did it allow me to focus on and master a few set strategies, but it also provided me a handful of lessons on patience and discipline since I was only allowed to do so much.

Fast forward 10+ years later and my trading looks almost completely different. Sure I still trade those same base strategies, but I’ve been able to add many new ones, along with many new tactics in order to trade the old ones. Needless to say that I’ve seen growth in my trading. However, that growth all began with the decision to simplify the process and form a solid foundation in which to build off of.

For more on this subject of growth and development as a trader, make sure you check out this episode from The Trading Coach Podcast.

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Akil Stokes

Trader — Trading Coach — Host of The Trading Coach Podcast — Author for Entrepreneur & FX Trader Magazine — Proud Husband & Father — Sports Nerd & Coffee Addict