The more I think about it, the more I realise that in my almost 8 years in crypto, I’ve gained more life experience than almost anywhere else. Yes, I also work a corporate job. I’m pretty high up in the hierarchy, and through the different roles I’ve had at different companies, I’ve learned a lot about human psychology and how people behave. I’ve also washed dishes while taking out a student loan, just to earn enough money to get to where I am today. But to get to the point of what I actually wanted to say. In the last 8 years here on CT and in crypto, I’ve learned so many things that have pushed my inner anger more than anything else. And one of the biggest lessons is that humans are, by nature, liars. Most of the people you meet here are trying to be someone they are not. They constantly show you the best version of themselves, telling you, “Oh, I’m doing this, I’m building that, I’m going to achieve this.” But in reality, many of them have never accomplished anything close to what they’re selling you. And what am I talking about? All these projects that are trying to sell you a dream, convincing you that you’re going to become rich by investing in them. But the sad reality is that neither you nor they will become rich. Because 99% of the time, these projects are doomed to fail before they even begin. Let’s look at the numbers. We know that only a small percentage of startups succeed. Let’s say 1 out of 100. And in crypto, I would argue it’s maybe 2 out of 1,000. And I’m not even counting meme coins, because then we might be talking about 1 out of 100,000. Most of the time, people are trying to sell you their knowledge, which often isn’t even consistent. But I don’t blame only them. I also blame the investors. And who are the investors? Most of us are just here to make a quick buck. Then we hear the same story again and again. “We need to support builders.” “We need to support people who are actually building.” “We need to invest in innovation.” But let’s put that on paper. In my experience, supporting builders often means losing money. What do you actually get from investing $1K, $2K, or $3K into a project when the intentions behind it aren’t always what they seem? And many of the people investing don’t really understand what they’re putting their money into. They think they’ve discovered some golden formula. Maybe now they’re even consulting AI bots, thinking they have finally figured everything out. But most of the time, they’re just wrong. And being wrong in crypto is expensive. Very expensive for the people putting their hard-earned money into these projects. Sometimes I wonder why I don’t just sit down and start making videos about all the failures I’ve experienced over the years. I don’t want to go into specific projects right now, but looking back, I could probably rant about 50 to 100 projects that sold people nothing but dreams. Just look at Cardano, where so much money went into projects that never delivered what they promised, while the chain itself struggled to deliver on its ambitions. Or Polkadot, which sold us a huge vision of the future. And yet, after all these years, Ethereum is still the daddy of everything. And that brings me to my conclusion. Yes, I love the degen side of myself. Yes, I love investing in people and supporting projects I believe in. But I’ve become much more selective. I don’t just throw money into everything anymore because I know how badly that can hurt you in the long run. Looking back at 2023, I invested quite a bit into NEAR Protocol and several projects that later performed extremely well after touching their bottoms. But why did I invest? Because I looked at the people behind them. The same goes for Zcash. While people were telling me it was fake, that it would never achieve anything, or even coming up with conspiracy theories about Mossad and the CIA, I was looking at the people behind the technology. And I thought, okay, this actually has potential. Because there is a difference. If you have people who have already accomplished something meaningful, built successful products, and proven themselves over the years, there is a better chance they can do it again. But if you have people who have never accomplished anything and are just showing you fake results and selling you dreams, you’re probably going to lose money with them. I know this is a long text, and if you’ve made it this far, thank you. I think a lot of this comes from an inner anger I’ve developed over the years. Not necessarily towards other people, but towards myself. Because looking back, I’ve made so many bad decisions. Decisions I could have handled much better. But in the end, I got what I deserved. And what I deserved were life lessons. Very expensive ones, but also incredibly valuable ones. Maybe that’s the biggest thing crypto has taught me. You can make money, lose money, and make it back again, but the experience you gain from all of it stays with you. And I’m still learning. I would genuinely love to hear from you: In one sentence, what has been your biggest life lesson in crypto?