I remember when I first got excited about trading in 2006 and Phil's 15 minute breakout strategy was the first organised approach to trading that I stumbled upon, until then i was literally guessing, not using a stop loss and had no idea about position size.
Did I make money from that system? No. Did I expect to? Not really.
But it certainly sent me down the right path. Got me thinking in new ways. It opened new doors and lead to me eventually developing my own systems, one of which I have now been trading for over 3 years.
Its what you take from it that counts! I guess its the difference between those who are able to think on their feet, and those who expect to be spoon fed pips!