I’ve done it, it’s actually happened. Admittedly this has been a long time coming so I finally challenged myself for 2017 to be the year I quit my job and travel the world and do whatever the hell I want. With Bitcoin reaching all time highs at the very start of the year, I had no excuse not to bottle it. Within a week I quit my job, cashed out, booked a flight and now I’m running around, never looking back and never knowing where I’m going next either.
I’m not done with Bitcoin or altcoins, I may have quit my job but I’m not rich but at least for now I can live a lifestyle that I’ve daydreamed about for so long. This is merely the beginning, I want to go further. I’ve decided I’m going to blog and vlog (I am in the process of setting up a YouTube channel and sorting images) about my adventures along the way and give my two cents on bitcoin and alts trading, which was actually a very hard decision for me to make. Why? Because I’m not the kind of person to do this. I’m not an extrovert and I don’t love the sound of my own voice and I really cringe at how self obsessed some bloggers are, and I don’t want to be like that. But I do want to keep a memento of what I’m doing so that when I’m old I can look back on what an idiot I was and smile. Now I was going to do this privately, despite protests from friends and family, but have decided to have it open for the world to see. Why?
Well, being trolled, obviously. Nah kidding. It’s because I know I’m not the only one who wants to live this way (and I know I’m not the only one who already is), and that at the moment there are a lot of new people coming into crypto looking at how they can achieve this. Crypto has given me this lifestyle so I want to give back and show others how they can do it too, although there’s a bit more too it than that, and to explain I need to give a very short version of my life story (I promise it’ll be short, I’m not self obsessed remember?).
I’m from London, England and turn 30 this year. For my whole life I went through the system that we were born into, and as a white middle class male I was lucky to have more opportunities than most. I went to a decent school, I got good grades, got my degree, did a bit of travelling and then settled down to get a decent graduate job. This is when I learnt how the world works. I worked long hours and my salary was ok but what the hell is that how much rent costs in London? And I owe HOW MUCH for my student loan? And my my, that’s a lot of tax and national insurance, but everyone pays that right? So here I was, living on a respectable salary but still struggling massively because of the housing market and starting my way in the world as a grown up tens of thousands of pounds in debt. I swear on Monopoly you start at 0, not -£20,000 (plenty of others are on -£40,000)?
Meanwhile, being in London, I got to see all the bankers laughing away at how much money they are making and ripping off their clients. Oh yes, they are very open about ripping off their clients. They also love bragging about how they are too rich to have to pay tax. I’d never seen people rolling around in so much money and have that money come to them so easy. I thought you had to earn money by working hard.
This was a big reality shock to me. I thought that you had to work hard to earn money. I was bought up taught that if you work hard, help people out and get good qualifications and then you’ll get a job and pay your taxes like an honest citizen and you’ll be rewarded for being a good citizen. Instead I was in massive debt, have no hope of owning a home whilst people around me are making a mockery of the system at everyone else’s expense. Furthermore, it showed that there were easier ways to make a lot of money than working hard. In fact, working hard for 8 hours a day every day seemed to be a bit of a chump way of doing things.
Now I admit to feeling quite bitter about this. Finding out how the world really works was as big as a moment as finding out Santa doesn’t exist and losing your virginity- you just never see the world in the same way again. It dawned on my that my middle class life path despite not being all that bad, really is a massively inefficient way to make a living. Many people have been complaining about these kind of things since the financial crisis, and sadly things look like they are only going to get bleaker for those not in the financial elite. However I didn’t want to be just another victim and rant about how the world’s not fair, I wanted to take control and change things. After all if other people can succeed in this world then why can’t I? I’d rather be a winner rather than a loser, but where do I begin?
That’s when Bitcoin entered my life. I began trading and I was crap at it, but three years later purely with self-learning it’s helped me escape the system and live the lifestyle I want. The thing is, I’m nothing special. I do not consider myself an amazing trader, I’m just a guy who had the balls to give it a shot and learn as much as possible. There’s no reason why anybody else couldn’t do this.
Which brings me back to why I gave this little story. The third reason why I am doing this blog is because I want to help those who feel stuck in this system but aspire to achieve something more. I was one of the lucky ones in this system and I was still struggling, there are so many others who have it worse than me and this is the chance for an escape route.
That’s the really exciting thing about 2017. Despite the traditional way of getting by in life now no longer working for the majority, if you open your eyes you’ll see opportunity around you everywhere. The internet has created opportunities that have never existed in human history. The funny thing is most people miss these opportunities completely. They may notice them, after a lot of people have heard of Bitcoin, but just shrug these opportunities off and assume they wouldn’t have the time or knowledge to act on it, and then they go and spend their weekend binge watching rather than try and learn more about the opportunities that could change their life.
However there are others who would love to take these opportunities, but where to begin? How will I find the time to try these things? How do I separate facts from the fake and the scams? When you choose to take a less trodden path, it’s hard to where to go because you have nothing to follow. It’s exciting, but it’s also scary. I still don’t know where this path is going, but I’ll gladly help others who want to get onto this path. Don’t get me wrong it’s not easy and Bitcoin is no get rich quick scheme. However with a willingness to learn and some proactivity then this is something that anybody can do if they put the effort in.
So I’m going to end this first blog post with writing written on the wall of my hotel I arrived at for my first night travelling:
The ability to rise is in all of us. This is your chance, step up and take it
Bitcoin really is your chance
Well this if my first step into blogging, hope you found my first post bearable and that we have much fun trading together in times ahead! Would be good to hear other peoples story on here in the comments- how they got into bitcoin and where it has got them or where they want it to go. This journey will be much more fun and rewarding together!