My first job paid about $4 per hour, bagging groceries at a local super market. Back then, it seemed like a lot of money to me. I could pay for my own snacks, sodas, and save up for my own electronics too.
Fast forward a few years, and I was making a "lucrative" $11 per hour at an Internet call center. I told my college roommate that some customers were stressing me out, and his advice was "just close your eyes and think of the money."
At $11 per hour I could cover my share of the rent, and my groceries as well. At that point, going back to $4 per hour was unthinkable. My eyes were already set on the network operations job that paid $22.
Strong Recency Bias
Similar to our hourly wages, we also tend to get used to the price of an asset fairly quickly. Recall that Bitcoin was only priced at $0.06 merely fifteen years ago. People actually thought it was overvalued when it peaked around $30 back in 2011.
In the past month, the price of Bitcoin dipped below $80,000 a couple of times, and traders were almost having a heart attack. They need to unclench their chests, and zoom out a bit. Because only a year or two ago, the market would have been ecstatic with $80k Bitcoin.
Relative Net Worth
Some X users are claiming to have lost millions of dollars in crypto over the past few days. Some were likely irresponsibly long, while others had probably put everything into memecoins. In their own mind, they had lost everything in this crash. However, chances are they still have 10s of thousands of dollars worth of crypto in their wallets.
To someone who was just awash in millions of dollars of digital assets, 10-100k is not that much money. However, there are plenty of rookie crypto investors who only have a few thousand (or hundred) dollars to their name, and increasing the value of their portfolio to what the ex-millionaire now has would be a dream come true for them.
Growth And Happiness
As your net worth reaches new heights, you will more than likely experience a temporary high. For a few weeks, or perhaps a few months, you'll feel as though you're on Cloud 9 with your new found wealth. But sooner or later, you'll get used to having $X dollars worth of crypto, and you'll no longer be content with that boring amount you secured.
This kind of dissatisfaction is just part of being human. It's in our DNA to constantly surpass our prior achievements, and there will always be obstacles in our way that prevent us from doing so. These hurdles can cause us a lot of suffering, if we allow them to.
So what's the solution? Some would suggest that you pack your bags and go live as a monk in the Thai rainforest, surviving off alms. But would that not be denying our duty as humans to push the limits and evolve, for future generations?
The mistake is to focus intently on the supposed "lack" and underachievement, which leads to suffering. Instead, you should recall the risks you've already taken, and the successes you've already had, while committing to keep pushing yourself forward.
New Hope
Each cycle there are new winners.
At first, it was only Bitcoin before Ethereum stole the spotlight. Now Solana is encroaching on Ethereum's user base. It makes you wonder, what other digital assets remain hidden and undervalued today?
You still have time to locate these "diamonds in the rough" before the masses do, and invest in them. 100x-1000x gains are not unheard of in the crypto space, and they could more than make up for your current losses.
Zooming out even further, what will global finance and economics look like 5 to 10 years from now? Will we still be using the USD to price cryptocurrencies, or will gold or some BRICS currency be the new base of the financial system? You never know, maybe we'll be pricing commodities directly in cryptocurrencies by that time.
Until next time...
We tend to take for granted our current salary and net worth. A rise in either only leads to a temporary high, and eventually we end up wanting more.
The solution isn't to give up. We need to constantly push ourselves forward and evolve, while keeping top of mind the risks we have taken, and successes we have achieved.
Our reaction to the most recent crash of Bitcoin to $80k highlights our recency bias, and also gives us an opportunity to discover hidden gems that will be more valuable in the future.
If you learned something new from this article, be sure to check out my other posts on crypto and finance here on the Hive blockchain. You can also follow me on InLeo for more frequent updates.
Further Reading
- How To Remember Your Accomplishments While Improving Yourself
- Using The Bear Market To Reevaluate Crypto Projects