The bottom line imo is that you need an edge in this game to begin with, or else it's futile, no matter how much money you start with. And it has to be a decent edge, not just 51/49, to even begin breaking into the black beyond commissions and slippage.
Once you've found an edge, you've only just begun. What else is there? To quote Socrates: Know Thyself. Mastering self-discipline is a much more arduous, lengthy, and costly task, but it's only after you've learned what your own weaknesses are -- letting losses run, overtrading, emotional/reckless trading, the list goes on -- and how to best remedy them -- only then can you begin to depend on trading for a living. You can have the greatest edge in the world, but without the discipline to admit when you are wrong, blowing out is only a matter of time.
Don't try to be a hero your first few months or even a year after you start out. Imo, everyone must learn how to fail before you can even begin to know how to succeed. It's an extremely long and hard road ahead, but once you've gotten past the turning point, you'll know it instantly, cuz that's the point when you realize that no matter how little you have in your account, you'll be able to earn a living.
A properly applied edge balanced with ironclad discipline will yield geometric gains.
