Whenever we think about success in investments, the immediate association or measure is mostly often the financial gains, how much money has been made from the investment, the ROI or even the size of the portfolio, but we often forget to look at a more nuanced perspective of measuring an investor's success, a quality that is extended far beyond mere monetary outcomes, which happens to be the wealth of knowledge and breadth of experience which the investor has achieved throughout their journey.
The evidence of having such experience and learning a lot on your business or investment or even any walk of life is the productivity you were able to show for it.
There is a saying that the end justified the means. Most wise people failed to put their wisdom into action and have something to show for it, these kind of people cannot prove that they're of great mental value since there's no result. Both of us would be more available to listen to someone with results which would validate the wisdom he's sharing.
There's a saying that money comes from the problem you could solve with your knowledge and such wealth and portfolio such people were able to gather was as a product of their knowledge, experiences and action mindedness and relentless commitment to their course to financial freedom and thus, their experiences stand validated by their end results.