I remember the first time I thought I understood growth stocks. It was the intoxicating phase—the headlines, the charts that only seemed to move in one direction, the feeling that I had discovered something before everyone else did. Revenue growth was exploding, margins didn’t matter, and every dip looked like a gift wrapped in opportunity. It felt less like investing and more like surfing a wave that refused to break. But then something changed. Not overnight. Not in some dramatic collapse that forces you to confront reality all at once. No—what I experienced was subtler, more psychological, and far more dangerous if you didn’t recognize it for what it was. I had entered the second stage of growth stocks. And I didn’t even realize it at first. The Illusion of Infinite Growth In the early stage, growth stocks feel almost mythological. The narrative is simple: the company is disrupting something, expanding rapidly, and the market is rewarding it accordingly. Revenue growth is the north ...