Regret
I am unsure when I first heard of bitcoin but as a teen I was fascinated by the concept of the darkweb and the silkroad marketplace where people could buy and sell drugs. As a teen I vividly remember thinking, wow if only I had 1,000 of these things I could be a millionaire if I they hit $1,000.
And my biggest regret was not getting in on bitcoin earlier. However, in late 2015 I bought my first bitcoin and used it as a payment method for getting a website set up. In May/June of 2016 I decided to buy 4 BTC and attempted to buy another 4.5 BTC after the Bitfinex hack. However, being on holiday at the time, I had a very poor phone signal and trying to verify the bank transfer to the local bitcoins guy proved tricky and the bank froze my account. Bastard Banks!
Turning my Initial BTC Investment into 10
Over the Autumn and winter, I decided to invest 2 out of my 4 bitcoin into alt coins that I thought would do well over the long run. I would have never suspected such as large increase in market cap of the altcoins in such a short period of time. I have been slowly selling my altcoins on the highs and I am happy to say that to date I have attained my 10BTC goal that I had set myself early on.
My journey was not without mistakes. My biggest was buying into Lisk at a very high price. This occurred when I was new to crypto. Although I have since gotten rid of some of these Lisk for a profit, at the time it was a costly mistake. However, it made me learn from my mistakes and not to fall for FOMO. After that, I never bought a coin on a high and looked at the overall chart to see where the market cycle was at before making a decision.
I have not sold most of my altcoins for BTC and I am holding the next next best thing to BTC. Which is of course the closest thing to BTC - Litecoin (even if the market doesn't seem to think so). However, the market is not rational like I am. Most of the crypto prices are based on who can shout the loudest.
<21 BTC My Next Goal
Now that I have attained my goal of 10 BTC I will be planning my next move to get 20+ BTC. But for now I am patiently waiting for something to upset the markets. For the new people to BTC and cryptos (I would even consider myself as new) they haven't been through a major event such as the Ethereum DAO hack, Bitfinex hack or even seasonality in crypto.
When it happens however, I will be there picking up those dumped coins and laughing my way to my personal BTC bank.
Some Parting Helpful Words
When you are new you do not have much knowledge of cryptos and it is too easy to read people's opinions and then take action on them. It is important that you make your own mistakes and learn from them. Try to avoid taking advice from people if you can. They will always have their best interests in mind or they might just be wrong.
You will learn a lot more when your are wrong than from when they are wrong.
Never speculate with more than you are willing to lose.
Avoid ICOs, the next shiny coin etc....
You might see ICOs offered on popular BTC websites. It is best to stay away from these. Other than spending your BTC on these ICOs the product may never see the light of day and even if it does it might not be successful. In the event that it does see some semblance of success it may take years for this to happen.
I got in on on ETC at $7-$15. I never invested in it from the start and I wasn't in the crypto scene at the start of ETH. I still made substantial gains from Ethereum and was able to reduce much of the risk of investing early.
Don't see premature $$$$ signs in ICOs.
BTC is King
Will all the crypto rage going on it is important to remember that BTC is the best. From its cap of 21 million coins to the fact that there is no face or company attached to the coin are some of its greatest strengths.
I would also like to add that Bitcoin is not too expensive to buy. You do not have to buy 1 BTC at a time you can slowly accumulate BTC on dips and build your way up to 1 BTC and eventually more.
I wish everyone much BTC success.