Hey Alan,
Your thoughts are correct as far as I am concerned. Drawdowns are inevitable no matter how good the account. If the principles however are solid and you have faith in your system along with setting sensible levels of risk then riding them out is needed when they occur.
It takes time and practice to develop this faith and experience and therefore scaling up slowly from demo, to small live to incremental increases in trading capital is a sensible path.
I also wouldn’t be confused with drawdowns occurring. All portfolios have stagnation periods.
Its up to you to decide wether it is a stagnation period or a poor system which comes with practice and time (experience)