RE: Ever wondered why you are not one of those guys who hold thousands of BTC/ETH?

Interesting take :) Though you may not agree, I believe when being wise, one only invest in something (token, asset, company) when the project/company/token show forms of successes. Sure, we have angel investors, those who throw in money at concept phase of a project or company. Very risky endeavour. But, this could turn out to be very profitable. But could also turn bad.

My own story, in summary, is like this: In 2013 I ditched my office job to enjoy a large amount of free time. That's when I started digging into bitcoin. I came across the idea of mining and played around with that thought for some time. Those days, simple laptop GPU mining didn't cut it, so I should've invested in hardware (ASICs) and all. After two months of digging around, I decided: "Mining is not for me".

Then I took a step back from crypto and BTC. The main reason for this was the enormous pump end of 2013 and the massive dump not too long afterwards. To me, BTC hadn't proven its existence yet!

In 2016, Autumn timeframe, I was informed about Steemit and it took me till the end of 2016 (in a moment of boredom) to get myself an account. The main reason: I was not a believer in free money for blogging (maybe am still not a believer... the market shows us: free money and blogging are not the best performing projects out in the crypto universe).

Since 2016/7 I came a long way, but am somehow still sceptical about the crypto universe. I believe, for good reasons. Many projects are not professional enough in my opinion. We had to deal with too many scams in this space. I see too little drive to connect crypto projects with the real fiat-based economies (sure, some projects are creating these bridges, and I love them for that).

Was I Stupid back in 2013? Was I Ignorant? Was I Wise?

You tell me. I still don't know, but I think I tend to be more to the Wise side of things, then to the Stupid side of things.

I rarely think: I should've done things differently. Questions like: "I should've bought lots of BTC when it was still around 50 dollars, doesn't cross my mind. And when it does, I bin it within a split second. I didn't invest back then. For good reasons, in my opinion, BTC didn't prove itself that it can cross the chasm (Jeffrey Moore model). The history we can't change, therefore no point in thinking of the past in terms of "I should've done this or that" :)

In the fiat world, when I invest in equity, I tend to invest in people. Obviously, these people must have a cool concept, a concept that can make it business-wise. Just people is not enough. But just investing in a cool concept, a concept that can make it, is definitely not sufficient.

Some of these investments I did in startups, and some to support the growth phase of a young company. All the investments I did in growth companies are in the positive! All the investments I did in startup companies are struggling to stay alive.

One exception to my rule: Investment in a concept, but in this case, I knew the founder personally, for a longer period of time, so I knew what I was getting into. An almost pure investment play into the person. The true belief, this guy is the right person to make any business flourish, no matter what; Knowing if the concept would not work, he will change it to something else. A true business guy; A true entrepreneur! Obviously, the concept for the company was something unique and something that will work (my own analyses and opinion). Some of the concept I didn't like and suggested changes. All of them accepted by the founder and implemented when the business was buying setup and build. The results are super positive! The company is expanding! :) With the upcoming expansion, the company will show it can enter its growth phase. Today still nationally, but when this next step is successful, it'll go international and expansion will be accelerated big time. That's the plan at least (but plans can be adjusted, and I know the founder and director, will adjust when needed).

My take is: Look for proofs in one or the other way. A project, company or token must show signs that it can become successful and only then decide to invest. Sure, some of the early gains will not be monetised, but you'll also lose less money. In the fiat world, 80% to 90% of the startup companies go belly up. That's 9 out of 10. To the side, one can play the angel investor role, invest some (small) amounts into concepts and first-day startups. But keep in mind: 9 out of 10 investments will trend to zero. That requires that 1 project out of 10 to make up for all the other losses.

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