People are DMing me how they've lost it all, are about to lose it all, or fear the cycle is over and they haven't made it They ask: "Halloween, how do you deal with these feelings?" Saddle up and come ride with me as I tell you how I fumbled a $100M+ bag and still made it 🎃

The first time I bought BTC was in 2013 honestly, this was very late for me, as I'd known about it since 2010. I remember telling friends in 2011 it was a bubble 💀 I got RUTHLESSLY teased by all the libertarian middle aged goldbugs on bitcointalk, as I was their exit liquidity

I was just so fascinated with Bitcoin: the culture, the concept, the people, and of course, THE CHART The mania as it soared to $1,000 is something that I can't put into words...my best way to describe it would be that it was totally normal to walk away from your computer and the price of BTC had doubled This would happen daily 📈

I was young and had no idea what I was doing in 2013...over the next two years, I managed to spend, sell, and lose more BTC than any of you will ever have in your lives I also was working full time in IT during the early days of DOGE and the ETH ICO, and even though I was a broke college student I was able to meaningfully participate in both...and paperhanded virtually everything from that era 😎 You gotta understand, ETH went from freaking $1 to $1,000 between my junior and senior years! Would YOU have been able to hold that as a college kid? You don't even wanna KNOW what DOGE did during that time, but even if I'd had a bigger bag, I know I woulda sold it 😂

I wasn't TOTALLY irresponsible: I still had a bag, and BTC went from just under $1,000 at the start of the second semester of my junior year of college, and it was $20k by the end of the first semester of my senior year I remember bragging to my girlfriend how I'd never have to work...only for BTC to crash to $6k by my graduation and force me to take a job as an office administrator for $38k/yr 😭 Oh, in true BTC fashion, it just kept going down and was $3k by the 2018 midterms 😂

How did I get through that? Simple: I didn't allow it to affect the story I told myself Whenever we're reacting to something, it's because of how it affects the "story we tell ourselves". Instead of thinking "this is XYZ", I think "the story I tell myself is that this is XYZ" What did I do in 2018? I told myself "I am so happy and grateful to be working where I am. I'm so thankful that I'm around crypto and I have the chance to go create a beautiful life"! look up the video of a 14 year old boy who thinks he's getting a Sonic burger for his birthday. He is PSYCHED! he is SO EXCITED! and then it turns out...he's getting a cell phone! he goes ballistic with joy! but notice how he would have been so happy with the burger? it's because the story he tells himself is one that a burger is an amazing gift

I didn't make the story I told myself: "I HAD it, I LOST it, and I'll NEVER GET IT BACK! I'm a LOSER who makes NO MONEY and will NEVER find a woman!" That would have been easy, and I see people here do it all the time. Once you do, you destroy your ability to make it, as you guarantee you won't be a confident chad nor a correctly calculating trader...rather, you'll be emotionally driven exit liquidity for the sharks of our industry But I have to admit, I can't simply tell you to change the story you tell yourself. It's not easy to do, and sometimes we simply can't...so I'm gonna give you the Truth about how I've dealt with this stuff

The more you spend your time doing other things, the less you will think about crypto, and the easier it will be. But we can't be occupied 100% of the time, and there will be many moments where it comes down to you and the story you're telling yourself, and that story may not always be rosy The hard truth is that I have suffered a LOT in the past 12 years. I mean, A LOT...being in crypto is HARD! I've been in my whole life, and my networth is down 40% the past 6 weeks, and it's REALLY HARD ON ME! The thing is, I am simply able to endure it. I can change the story I tell myself, and it helps, but I still have many moments of despair. There is no cure for these other than being able to handle the cortisol and get through them That's basically what I've learned: those who survive in crypto have a combination of financial and mental conditions that allow them to withstand their bag going from $1,000 to $97. It's not about what you do to fix the suffering, it's about if you can withstand it until conditions reverse

Today, I am grateful to say that I've made it (though my networth declining ~40% the past 6 weeks makes me wonder if making it here is really the move...) To this day, if I wanted to, the story I tell myself could be one of immense pain and failure. I am not worth anything close to $100M, and whenever I think one day I will be, it's a top signal 😎 (you should have heard me in Singapore this year 😂) Instead, I tell myself the following story, and I'll share it publicly in case it helps anyone: