Accepting loss: or, how I failed to explain Forex to a teenager

“Loss is a part of life. Is that too cliché? Yeah, it is.
“Let me start over.
“Loss… is inevitable. Even when things are going good. No way to escape it. Figure that one out and you’ll make millions off the self-help suckers.”
My teenage cousin stares blankly back at me. Doesn’t blink. Doesn’t like my joke. Beneath the table, he’s texting on his Smartphone. Never breaks eye contact. “What’s that got to do with Fortex?” he asks. Though there’s an inflection in his voice, I can tell his question is defensive, rather than curious. Indifferent, at the very least.
“ForEX,” I correct. “It’s like this – no one ever JUST profits in the market. Think of the most successful person you know. Even they’ve failed before. Lost everything. Started over. But – and this is a big BUT – the second time around, they took what they learned from that first failure and applied it. Refused to make the same mistakes.”
My cousin snickers: “Wish you had told me that last week.”
“Why, what happened last week?” I can tell he hadn’t intended the thought to escape his mouth.
He hangs his heads. “Girlfriend broke up with me. Second one in… six months?” This question he poses to his memory.
“And were things going good?”
“For a while, yeah. But then at three months it’s like something happens. They flick a switch. Or I do. I don’t know. One or the other."
"It’s called the ‘honeymoon’ stage. Every couple goes through it.”
“And it lasts three months?”
“Depends.”
He sarcastically snorts: “Depends” as if he were expecting me to give him a definitive answer.
“No one ever knows,” I say. “Just all of a sudden – the little quirks you once found cute drive you crazy. The grating sound her teeth make against her fork when she eats. How she demands that toothpaste be squeezed from the bottom. Things change. Good to bad. Just like that. Sometimes it’s inexplicable. Other times not. You have to fight to keep the things you want in life. For the most part – the world is out to take them away from you.”
My cousin pockets his Smartphone. For the first time, I have his undivided attention. No texts. No tweets. Not even a beep. His eyes bear into mine. “She said the same things my last girlfriend did. I’m too distant. Not a good listener. 'We never do what I wanna do...'” He sighs. “What can you do?”  
“Appreciate good things while they’re going. Eventually, you dance with the devil, and you’re gonna get burned.”
OK – one last  cliché.