I didn’t expect an article this long to reach millions in today’s 3-second attention span economy. I’ve read every single quote and comment. To be honest, I’m overwhelmed. I’ve never felt this much warmth on this platform. And I’m just deeply, sincerely grateful. Thank you, truly. I’m not much different from anyone else who just entered this space. The only real difference is that I’ve bled more. I’ve lost more. As a Christian, my faith gave me this habit of constant reflection, and forced me to look in the mirror and face the rot inside me. It gave me a way out when I was drowning, and eventually, that became my redemption. Crypto was meant to be about anarchy. It was meant to be the middle finger to the gatekeepers in suits who think they’re better than us. That spirit feels dead lately, but I still believe in it. I have to. This space changed my life, and I’ll keep building here until the wheels fall off. But I’m not going to pretend I had some perfect journey. In my early years, I got absolutely fucked by Ponzis. I couldn't control my greed and lost most of my early Bitcoin (thank you, MMM). I was just a naive kid. Every time I think about this part, I want to apologize to my mom. She had zero clue what I was actually doing. I was literally sneaking out every other night to act as a middleman in Vancouver’s nightlife. I was sourcing and flipping Moutai, whiskey, and expensive cigarettes to rich Chinese university students. I was the one brokering the VIP tables and getting people through the door. Honestly, I was just really good at getting rich kids to come to parties. I know people look down on that kind of "job." It isn't something people proudly say like "I worked at Google." But I’m proud of it. I was literally making an entry-level Google salary as a teenager just by being a better hustler than the adults. Without that hustle, I wouldn't have anything I have today. That revenue stream was the only reason I could keep buying back into Bitcoin. I was sitting on a level of wealth I had to hide from my parents for years. No parent in their right mind would let an underage kid handle that amount of wealth. I’ve never known what it’s like to get rich quick overnight. For me, it was always a long, grueling season. The closest I ever came to “getting rich overnight” was thanks to Cryptokitties. Watching my kitties flip every day for weeks while ETH was mooning... that was the first time I actually felt like I’d made it. But the scariest thing is when God gives you a "trial card" to see a world you aren’t ready for, only to snatch it back and throw you to the bottom. In late 2018, when prices had dumped to a devastating low (again...), I had to go right back to the middleman business to get more bullets. But that time, I was different. My faith had shifted my perspective. I wasn't just chasing a high anymore. I knew, with everything in me, that crypto was the destiny I was meant to build. If you're at your lowest right now, don't let the ego stop you. I've been in those dark times too. Nothing is "too tacky" when you are grinding to fund your vision. Whether you're hauling inventory, flipping goods, or doing the gritty backend work no one else wants to touch - do what you need to do. Tell those who try to shame you to fuck off. Because when you finally make it one day, they will all come back to you acting like they were your biggest fans from the start. The people judging you from the sidelines aren't the ones who are going to change your life. You are. Keep building. I'm right here with you.

If you want to stop impulse trading, a quick hack is to just go date people. I’m not joking. This actually works. (unless you’re married then just ignore this) I discovered this by accident during a phase where I was making absolutely dogshit trading decisions. Since then, “go date someone” has basically become an external part of my trading system. Because impulse trading isn’t really about charts or setups. It’s about getting trapped inside a sick mental tunnel against yourself. Your attention locks onto one anchor, usually the chart, and your emotions start looping. Greed, anxiety, hope, regret, all feeding each other. Once you’re in that state, using pure mental power like “discipline” or “strong willpower” to pull yourself out is almost impossible. It's like trying to tell yourself to stop thinking about a pink elephant. The more you try NOT to think about it, the more… you think of a pink elephant! I tried everything to break the cycle. Strict rules. Trading journals. Even stupid sticky notes on my desk screaming “DON’T DO IT”. Obviously, getting brutally liquidated multiple times did toughen my mentality. But that’s NOT something you can strategically repeat or rely on. It’s too destructive. Anything lighter, anything that doesn’t seriously fuck up your life, never worked consistently for me. Then something unexpected happened. A friend set me up on a blind date right in the middle of a trading day. I was pissed at first. I was still pulling out my phone every 10 minutes, checking charts like a maniac. Then she casually asked, “btw, are you into techno?” My brain just stopped. For the first time in weeks, I completely forgot about the charts. 3 hours straight. The dopamine hit from human connection completely overrode my trading obsession. Think about it like this. When you try to suppress trading urges (aka human nature), it's like pushing a beach ball underwater. It ALWAYS pops up with more force. So instead of trying to FIGHT human nature, you GO WITH IT. STOP trying to kill the desire. STOP trying to erase the energy. You REDIRECT the same energy to something else. JUST CHANGE THE TARGET. This isn't about willpower. It's about understanding that your brain needs something engaging to focus on. And faces are literally more engaging to our brains than charts could ever be. I started scheduling dates strategically during my most impulsive trading periods. My trading account literally grew more when I was actively dating because I made fewer emotional trades. The best part is you don't even need successful dates. Just the act of getting out and connecting with someone new (and someone you like😉) breaks that obsessive cycle. For married folks, maybe schedule intense social activities instead. Anything that FORCES you out of your trading bubble works. The truth is, we all know WHEN we're entering that dangerous trading mindset. We just IGNORE the warning signs. So next time you feel yourself getting sucked into chart-watching obsession, close the laptop and go on a date. Your portfolio will thank you. And hey, you might just find someone special in the process😉 Trading discipline through dating might sound ridiculous. But it's literally become an essential part of my trading system.

People think the secret to trading is learning more strategies, more macro, more charts. They’re wrong. The real breakthrough happens when you finally stop staring at candles and start staring at the broken parts of yourself. Your fear. Your ego. Your damn inner demon. I always tell friends, half-joking but also dead serious: you need to get liquidated 3 times before you ever become a profitable trader. Because “winning” isn’t making money. Winning is keeping that money next year without blowing yourself up again. I survived 3 near-death blows in crypto. After each shitshow I genuinely believed I finally figured it out. I told myself I was mature now, disciplined now, ready now. Then the market punched me in the face again and made it painfully obvious I wasn’t. I couldn’t keep the money because the weak, pathetic version of me was still breathing. And until the market beats those versions of you to death one by one, you will keep throwing your wins straight back into the fire. I didn’t made this up. Every field that studies human nature agrees on one thing. Psychology. Philosophy. Religion. They all say the old self must die. Jung calls it meeting your shadow. Nietzsche calls it killing the false you. Buddhism calls it ego-death. The Bible tells you to put off your old self and become new. Different languages, same truth. You have to die before you can actually live. In trading (and in life), “death” is moment you lose not just money but your ego. It’s the part that panics, chases, and lies to itself. “Rebirth” starts the moment you tear yourself apart and look at your own broken pieces from a third-person view. Your personality. Your strengths. Your weaknesses. Your desires. All the shit you’ve been too scared to look at when life was going well. It’s in that dark, cracked-open space where you finally start seeing what actually fits you. What you’re built for. What you truly want. What your life could be if you stopped lying to yourself. People say true happiness is when your talent, your interests and your effort finally point in the same direction. You can only find that direction after you’ve been cracked open. Most people never reach that point because they never break enough to see it.

I got liquidated 3 times until I started making money in trading. Everyone says find a strategy, build “discipline”, then you’ll make money. This is the most bullshit and misleading advice of retail trading. Because discipline can NEVER be “practiced” into existence like a habit. You CAN'T train it like a sport where repetition makes you better. That fake discipline works fine until real pressure hits, then you completely fall apart. No strategy will ever work on you if your mind is the weakest part of your setup. Because here’s the ugly truth👇 > If life hasn’t broken you (multiple times) before, you simply don’t have the psychological resilience to REPLICATE the discipline in traders you admire. > Their strategy works because it’s PAIRED with a level of INNER RESILIENCE most haven’t earned yet. > The calm you see in profitable traders wasn't “practiced.” > It was forged from surviving enough PAIN that their old instincts had NO CHOICE but to DIE. > Their discipline came from DESTRUCTION, not DETERMINATION. > With luck and fake discipline you can make money, but you sure as hell can’t keep it for long. So HOW to get "REAL" discipline?👇 > You cannot “gradually” grow discipline over time. > It happens very suddenly and violently, usually at your lowest point when your old self finally gets ripped apart. It’s like arguing with someone. Some people stay ice cold and say exactly what destroys the other person. Others break down crying. The difference isn’t “self control.” It’s that the calm one has already survived far worse, so this moment means nothing to them. Chaos doesn’t touch them because they’ve seen bigger storms, not because they “practiced patience.” So if you're in your lowest point right now, don't waste it👇 > People don’t get many chances in life to experience metamorphosis. > If you waste all that emotional energy attacking the world or pushing away the people who love you, you’re burning fuel that should be used on yourself. > Put that energy into your own damn evolution. > Put it into the quiet moments where you sit down and actually face your shame and fear. > Start by writing down the 30 things you are most afraid of or most ashamed of. > It sounds small, but it’s huge, because the version of you who is “doing well” would never have the guts to face that list. A lot of people think the secret to trading is more strategies, more macro research, more knowledge. They’re wrong. It's stepping completely outside of trading to recognize and accept your broken parts. Your demons. And STOP studying people's success! Study how they survived their lowest point instead👇 > People love calling someone smart or disciplined, then they copy their routines like it'll magically work. > It won't. You can't copy success because half of it is luck, timing, and advantages you don't have. But you can learn from how they fell apart and got back up: > How they handled losing everything > How they kept going when most would quit > How they turned pain into power instead of self-hatred Those parts are real. Those parts can be copied. Those parts are earned through fire, not gifted by genetics or privilege. Success is personal. But the path of dying, rebuilding and coming back stronger is universal. And it’s the only damn part worth copying.