Self-discipline is the path to crypto mastery.
Getting involved in crypto is pretty easy.
Staying involved long enough to make life-changing money is not.
Anyone who has ever gotten into the digital asset industry has done so with a boatload of optimism & high hopes of getting rich.
However, as soon as the reality of manipulated data, fake news & criminal gurus set in, that optimism quickly turned from the chance of a lifetime… into a shitstorm of emotional fear, uncertainty, & doubt.
Those that choose to ride the chaos & rise above the noise, grow tremendously; in wealth & knowledge.
They develop an incredible sense of social psychology, distributed ledger technology, & financial markets.
They are the few.
If you are ready, willing, & able to claim your throne, let us begin the journey:
*Disclaimer
The wisdom below is equally applicable to traders, investors & builders alike. These are not just quotes about crypto, nor are they are not just quotes from people in crypto. This is a collection of timeless practical wisdom, from finance & self-improvement to innovation & beyond!
- Learn. And then Think for Yourself.
— CZ
Originally, Malcolm X said “learn to See, Listen & Think For yourself” in his world-famous speech at the Ford Auditorium. However, this version of it I first heard from Binance’s CEO, Changpeng Zhao (CZ) in one of his Twitter posts.
- Assume that everything in life is unfair & act regardless.
— Unknown
Maybe your idea is better. Maybe markets are manipulated. Maybe governments will continue to be slow & stupid. Maybe bad people will win occasionally. Doesn’t matter. Keep moving!
Investors: Sometimes you might recommend something to a friend that will listen & make fantastic money. While you, yourself, did not act accordingly, & some of your investments might go to 0. Keep moving.
Traders: Sometimes you might go on a losing streak for days, weeks, or even months… the longer you wallow, the longer you spend not making it back. Keep moving.
Builders: Maybe your idea is better than others, but they seem to raise money while you can’t find a single interested party. Maybe you toiled endlessly to raise money in a depression & only found $1m, while some vaporware crapshoot raised $18m in a bull market. Keep moving.
- Only Fools Rush In.
— Elvis Presley
This is actually from an old classic love song by the eternal Elvis Presley called “Can’t Help Falling In Love”. But the application of this wisdom to crypto is to always invest your time doing some research before blindly throwing money into something.
- “If you don’t believe it or don’t get it, I don’t have the time to try to convince you, sorry.”
— Satoshi Nakamoto
Words from the all-father of digital monies himself. Once you find alpha, shut up, & take advantage of it. Don’t waste your valuable time trying to convince non-believers.
- “Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.”
― Mark Twain
This is such an important lesson that is best portrayed through the story of the Donkey, the Tiger & the Lion:
A donkey told the tiger, “This grass is blue.” The tiger scoffs and replies. “No, the grass is green!” Their discussion became very heated, with both sides arguing and getting nowhere. The tiger finally suggested they submit their issue to the Lion, King of the Jungle, for arbitration.
As they approach the lion on his throne, the donkey started screaming “Your Highness! Isn’t it true the grass is blue?” The lion replied, “If you believe it’s true, then the grass is blue.” The donkey continued, “The tiger disagrees with me, contradicts me, annoys me…please punish him!”
So, the lion declared that the tiger would be punished with three days of silence. Well, naturally, the donkey was overjoyed and jumped around, taunting in triumph, “The grass is blue! The grass is blue!”
The tiger was upset and asked the Lion, “Why did you punish me? You know the grass is green.”
The lion replied, “You’ve known and seen that the grass is green. You know it. The punishment isn’t for whether the grass is blue or green, the punishment is because it’s degrading for a brave, intelligent creature like you to waste your time arguing with an ass, and on top of that, you came and bothered me with that question just to validate something you already knew to be true.”
The biggest waste of time is arguing with a fool and fanatic who doesn’t care about the truth of reality, but only the victory of his beliefs and illusions. Don’t waste time on discussions that make no sense. There are people who, for all the evidence presented, do not have the ability to understand. Others are blinded by ego, hatred, or resentment, and the only thing they want is to be right, even if they aren’t. When ignorance screams, intelligence moves on.
- “Expect change. Analyze the landscape. Take the opportunities. Stop being the chess piece; become the player. It’s your move.”
— Tony Robbins
Don’t get attached to your convictions.
Don’t be a victim of your own delusions.
Stop letting other people make decisions for you.
Become responsible for everything that happens… & over time, wonderful things will happen.
- “Be like water.”
—Bruce Lee
I immediately start to think differently every single time I read this.
Water has no shape, it can fill any space & it cannot be destroyed.
Crypto ebbs & flows at the speed of information & being right is not as important as being profitable. Political bullshit will always be trying to superimpose itself into the industry; new regulations will get in the way; projects will fail & scams will not stop.
Regardless of it all, you must calmly continue.
- “Teachers Open The Doors, But You Must Enter By Yourself.”
— Chinese Proverb
Teachers are not just the people that know what to do. Teachers are also the people that have made mistakes & know what not to do. The fastest way to learn is from the experiences of others.
The hardest part of this wisdom is being able to find the right teachers for the right lessons.
However, as soon as you do find them & learn their lesson(s), do not delay; act as soon as possible.
- “Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow.”
— Swedish proverb
Cryptocurrency is ridden with bad actors & degens that push their own agendas. Most of these agendas fall into the category of FUD. Don’t fall for it.
It’s normal to feel worried; after all, money is on the line. As a rule of thumb, as soon as you might feel the worry, stop for a few minutes & consider if those thoughts are rooted in validity or if it is just an emotional spike.
- “If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.”
— Milton Berle
Stop waiting for something to change & start acting. If you want to make good trades, you should start doing research & looking for possibilities. If you want to build an amazing product you should start drawing out plans & organizing the tools you will need.
If you want somebody to just tell you what to do, go get a regular 9–5; crypto might not be for you.
11) Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
— Seneca
Finding the trade that can 10x your portfolio will not happen if you buy everything the Uber driver tells you (NFA); you will end up wasting your dry powder on random tips, & when the time really comes, you will have no money to deploy into the real opportunity.
- Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
The outcome of your efforts will dictate where you end up in life & lady luck will reward you in proportion to your willingness to put yourself out there. The harder you work, the luckier you get. If you sit on your hands doing nothing, nothing will happen (if you are lucky).
- “The task is…not so much to see what no one has yet seen; but to think what nobody has yet thought, about that which everybody sees.”
― Erwin Schrödinger
Perspective is everything. Where the majority will panic at the sight of a bear market, few others will see opportunities to ride the short. If you think you missed the boat, you did. If you think you have a chance for profit, you do.
- “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
— Maya Angelou,
Start somewhere, do something & don’t look for perfection. Expect to make mistakes, expect that others will talk sh*t, and expect to get better over time. As you get better, you must improve the actions you take.
If you feel as though you are trying so hard but are not feeling any notable improvements… relax friend, this is a good sign… evolution is right around the corner…your time is coming!
- “Often it isn’t the mountains ahead that wear you out, it’s the little pebble in your shoe.”
― Muhammad Ali
This quote is complimented by “Where attention goes, energy flows.”
When in crypto, it is easy to get distracted by nonsense. That nonsense then sticks in the back of your mind & weighs on your emotional state. This creates an atrophy in thoughts that lead to poor decision-making.
Remember, that one of the most prolific forms of energy for us humans is money. If you focus on the wrong things, you will attract the wrong things. Scared money don’t make no money. Every human has a limited amount of time & energy every single day. Allocate yours with great care.
- “The ability to observe without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence”
― Jiddu Krishnamurti
Easy to say, but applying this in crypto seems nearly impossible given the constant onslaught of information that is thrown out constantly.
The infinite value of this is that learning to do so will show mastery over your own emotions. If you are able to observe without having your emotions skew the interpretation of what you see, then you will see the truth.
Don’t jump to conclusions.
- “We learn from failure, not from success.”
– Bram Stoker
The faster you fail, the faster you learn how to succeed. If you succeed all of the time & are suddenly confronted with failure, you will not know what to do.
Shifting your perspective from expectations of grand success to the eternal desire to learn will put you into a state of constant growth.
Embrace failure as the mother of growth & watch as you start to soar.
- “Doubt … is an illness that comes from knowledge and leads to madness.”
— Gustave Flaubert
As soon as you begin to doubt yourself, your decisions, or the industry at large, you will begin to spiral out of control. Once you get on the train of doubt, that shit will creep into all other areas of your life & disrupt your serenity.
If you ever feel that crypto is going to 0…Relax, Bitcoin has died >475 times & it’s still here. (NFA)
- “We are drowning in information, but starving for knowledge.”
– John Naisbitt
One of the most directly indirect references to crypto.
The difference between knowledge and information is that information is neutral, it is not right or wrong. It is not true or false. Information is just information. Knowledge, on the other hand, is the fundamental truth.
Many of us are always trying to find some kind of alpha to make a trade on. Then we see a meme about some sh*tcoin going to replace Bitcoin. That meme is information. We do not know if it will or will not replace Bitcoin. But knowledge of what Bitcoin is will give us confidence in making the decision to ignore that meme’s information.
- “Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.
— Confucius
Another spin on the famous original quote by the philosopher Plato “All that I know is that I know nothing.” This is the Achilles heel for so many crypto traders & founders; they form a hypothesis and then get attached to it so deeply that when they hear statements that counter/oppose their thesis they take it personally.
Some even get so desperate to prove the other party wrong that they go & throw more money into their position; only to get absolutely rekt.
I would love to finish this off with one final personal piece of advice:
Don’t just listen to successful people.
Do what successful people Do.
Action will set you free.
For anybody that is building their network or would just like to connect:
Let’s find each other → https://linktr.ee/andreydidovskiy
Also published here