Yeah, I think it is important to check the team and their credibility before investing in the project.
Very important, obviously. I believe by now, anyone who wants to invest in this community should have been able to get used to the fact that this is a community where things will always be decentralized until probably we start seeing some form of regulation which would even be cleaning the space a whole lot and more of the reason why one should always be very careful of what is being held.
As long as you are holding a credible project with product backing it up which would tend to be useful and also legally operating, then there should be no issue.
If you aren`t careful when you invest money, most likely you will lose your investment. Couple times like that burns your wallet, if you are lucky you don`t have a lot of damage, if you tried to risk all you have you will suffer a lot from your newbie mistake. After few burns people learn that`s better to be careful, it can save a lot of money and nerves.
After initial investment anyone can choose to hold for long period of time or to wait first rise and take the profit. What is better to do depends from many factors, in one thing I'm sure if you can have cash and crypto and to use them smart, in dips to buy bitcoins on tops to sell you will be able to make profit and risk just a little.