A lesson worth $14k is too expensive but in the end it teaches you a lesson and hopefully you will apply it in the future. But what you are saying is only true for your portfolio filled with altcoins, those altcoins will go up again or never will. If it is bitcoin it will be different, investing in BTC you will not lose anything.
When a newbie focus more on bitcoin, his/her risk factor reduces drastically, but the same can not be said with altcoins, and from what ops posted, his portfolio does not contain bitcoin.
His portfolio is made up of 100% altcoin which most are just shit coins, so when he failed to take part in the pump period of the shitcoins he feels his greed has led him not to take advantage of the pumping period of those coins.