the bigger the risks, the smaller the chance of success. but when it does work, it should pay out well. continuing, imagine there is a company that nobody thinks will succeed. The value of shares in that company will drop massively. As i said, investors like to take risks. My advice:buy shares in that company whilst the prices are at an all time low, because if it recovers, you will make a lot of money. It wont always work out, so always leave some emergency money if things go wrong. I left about 25,000 at first so at least i had something to work with