I was encouraged to put my story on here, though I don't think the story is that dramatic. I think my story is similar to many other men and women out there who lucked into discovering Bitcoin somewhat early, but not early days early.Be Me: 35 year old New York resident. Unemployed. Drawing a US$450 per week benefits check from the NYC government. Trying to pay the rent. Making just enough to pay the rent, buy some booze, and buy apple sauce and pork chops and cottage cheese for dinner three nights a week, the rest is pizza slices and, when I land a freelance gig, which I don't report to the government, a full week's worth of groceries. I also sometimes rent out my apartment on Airbnb, and in one case got really lucky with a Japanese girl who stayed with me for a week. But that's another story. Maybe for another sub.Well, anyway. I hear about bitcoin in 2013 when I am doing a story for Fast Company magazine. Some founder of a company tells me about it, tells me that some guys in San Francisco were actually giving away bitcoins, and didn't I think that was weird? Who wants money you can likely only use in video games? I don't play video games? Funny money.Weeks go by. Months go by. Things get really dicey financially, I end up deeper in debt. I think we are around 23k in the hole at this point. Look, I'll stop right here to say, you are right, poor financial decisions. My parents did not teach me finance. I didn't take finance in high school, even though it was required, because I moved the year before we had to take it in the city where I grew up. I just bought things, because I wanted to keep up with the Jones's and because in New York, if you want to get laid, you have to buy people drinks, buy them dinner. Wear nice clothes. I didn't consider myself the bohemian hipster sort, who thrived on being poor. I was poor, but I didn't think I deserved to be poor.So one day, someone hooks me up with a great job, and they move me out to Silicon Valley to work on a startup. And it's there that I start hearing more about the context of bitcoin -- decentralised, or something like it; algorithms that do the work, unhackable security. It starts to sound cool.It's 2015 by now, so I'm still in debt, because I have to buy furniture for the new place. I have to buy a car. So, on top of my credit card debt, I have to also pay a lease, which I count as debt, which puts me at around 27k. I get into a relationship, she starts paying my bills. I start buying bitcoin, a little at a time, until at one point I have like 24 bitcoins. Unfortunately, we broke up, and she demanded I pay her back for all the debt she paid for me. That, and she wanted me to pay her back for a couple of vacations we took together. I didn't want to, but a voice inside of me told me I should, so, just as I was ready to buy more bitcoin, I had to sell some, and used some of the earnings to pay off her demands.Did it suck? Oh, that was horrible. I hated her for it. I had to do it, though, because what happens next is where it gets interesting.So, I'm still in debt, I quit my job, and take a new job at an even bigger company, even better salary, but I have to move again to a new city. Fine. I sell the car back to the dealer, just as the lease got paid full. I don't get anything back, maybe a check for like US$450 or something, which I blow on gas for rental cars and my deposit for the new apartment. Still in debt.I start to buy more bitcoin, and then, I get fired. So, now I have about 12 bitcoin left, then seven. And I am taking unemployment again, and I start drinking again, sleeping with hookers, smoking weed. I start really hating myself.Now, I don't think money brings you happiness. I think spiritual things do. I think prayer and meditation and knowing yourself does. But, I am a recovered addict, and a drinker. I turned to things like sex and booze to comfort me. To medicate me. But I told myself. Don't sell the bitcoin.This was 2016. I kept feeling like, maybe they are right, maybe this thing is going to moon. I am starting to hit bottom though.I call my dad up and invite him to an NFL playoff game. He says yes, but then doesn't take the flight to see me. I wait at the airport. I bought him the ticket for the game. I scalped the tickets. He never even explained why he didn't come. I didn't bother to ask.so, at this point, I drink some more. I fuck some more.I wake up one morning at three a.m. and decide, "I'm done with this American life. I'm moving." I bought a ticket for Asia. I flew there a month later. I work for nothing for an old friend. She gives me a room to sleep in on the grounds of a university campus, illegally. I'm basically squatting. My monthly freelance checks at this point can help me buy some sandwiches in the morning, and some pizza and some asian takeaway at night. Plenty of coffee.But, I keep working. I can't get any alcohol because the professor who put me up tells me if they find it around the room they will throw me out. I somehow get clearheaded.I start looking for work online through Facebook posts and twitter. I find this team doing a token ICO, and I beg them, charm them, convince them to let me be a market advisor. Everyone is doing it. They give me a ton of coins. They moon, suddenly, all of my bills go away. I use it to buy more Bitcoin.Bitcoin starts mooning like crazy. I didn't sell right away, but I sold about half of what I had and then suddenly I have enough to pay off my credit cards and all of my debt, including, as it turns out, an old bill from tuition that I never paid at my university, which finds me through an email and just won't stop hassling me.at this point, I am starting to see the light. I start praying, I start asking God, or whatever it is, to hel me figure out how to make this work. I go to Bali one weekend, because I can now afford a plane ticket, and I need a break. While I'm there, I meet this girl, who tells me that I'm the perfect person to work with this company she knows, and I should call the guy. I call him. He hires me in a week.I'm suddenly making six figures again. I meet a girl a few months later, I cash out of my bitcoin. I think this is around 2018, but I keep like 2 bitcoin.The profits paid for:My credit card bills -- I am now zero debt for the past two yearsA redecorated and refurbished apartment -- it's owned by her father, who gave it to us becauseWe got married, and I paid for the weddingSo, what's the moral of the story?Bitcoin doesn't get you clean from drugs or alcohol, only a higher power or your own will power can do that. I am still an addict. I can pick up a drug or drink at any time, and it can all go away tomorrow.But Bitcoin did show me something that I don't think is related to finance or money. It showed me that something new can still be created in a world that seems like it's the same old thing, the same old trap, day after day.Bitcoin gave me hope. I think the hope is what helped me focus enough to make the money and manage the money the way that I do today.What do I do these days? Things I didn't feel capable of doing before. I buy vacations for my in laws and my wife and I. I pay the bills every month. I buy the groceries.Folks, this is really simple shit. But five years ago, I was literally on the floor of my NYC apartment, scratching itches caused by bedbugs, rolled up in a fetal position asking God why I am poor, why I am not successful.Truthfully, it had nothing to do with the money. It was the mindset. Bitcoin gave me a few months of light, so that I could see clearly, and the rest is my history. I wish the same and better for all of you.
Submitted November 06, 2020 at 09:14AM
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