Episode 12: The True Nature of Impatience — The Shadow of FOMO

The News and a Sense of Anxiety

A winter morning. Outside the window, people exhaling white breaths walked past, moving noticeably faster than usual. Inside the room, it was comfortably warm from the heater, but in sharp contrast to the cozy air, a cloud of uneasy emotions was swirling inside Yuto's chest.

On the desk, his smartphone buzzed continuously with notifications from news apps and social media feeds.

• "Company XX Stock Skyrockets!"
• "Bitcoin Breaks New All-Time High!"
• "Gold Hits Consecutive Record Highs!"

The more he scrolled, the more restless his heart became. Even though Yuto had already been building his assets systematically for a year, he felt his carefully maintained **discipline** starting to waver.

Gold was hitting new highs day after day. It looked resilient against global noise like inflation, tariffs, and geopolitical conflicts. He had been highly interested in it for a long time anyway. Deciding it was time, he thought, "Alright, let's buy a little!"

He went ahead and impulsively bought into a gold fund.

Even though Hikappa's pot was sitting well within his line of sight, Yuto didn't even have the mental capacity to notice it. Clutching his phone tightly, he let out a sigh of temporary relief.

The Reality of FOMO and Its Lesson

A week later, news broke that gold prices had sharply corrected and plunged. Yuto fell into a panic. "Should I have sold out early too...? I've completely messed up 😿." His mind went blank. Trying to cool his heated chest, he cast his eyes toward the **sketchbook** resting on the adjacent desk. The pages were open to a set of notes he had written down previously.

FOMO: Fear Of Missing Out

• When people hear that something is "going up," they become driven to act out of **impatience** rather than sound judgment.
• This is the **mental shadow** that triggers impulse trading and buying at market peaks.

Yuto flipped his phone face down and fell completely silent. Then, he gently lifted Hikappa's pot.

He questioned his choices. At that moment, another note he had written regarding plant growth flashed across his memory.

Yuto exhaled a long, deep breath.

Investing as a Process of Nurturing

Yuto set Hikappa back down in its original spot and looked straight at it.

The moment the words left his mouth, Hikappa released a soft, gentle pulse of pale light, swaying slightly as if comforting Yuto's feelings.

Leaving his phone face down, Yuto leaned back deeply into his chair.

As the air in the room settled into a quiet warmth, a steady, calm light of clarity finally kindled inside Yuto's heart.