A lesson from Bitcoin.
By: Iain Robertson
Tags: Life Lessons, Bitcoin, Investing, Inspiration, Lessons Learned

Reach for the Sky: Sunset while flying over Sanya, South China.

You can take lessons from everything and anything and when my senses are high because I am on the look out for such moments of learning, then it never ceases to amaze me the things I hear and see that just stops me in my tracks and makes me think. I do immediately grab them into my iphone journal for later reference or reflection. It is all part of my process now.

Some things I hear or see do make me reflect that little bit deeper and looking on the plus side, these moments of reflection also give me material for this blog.

Storytelling to get a point across is as old as the hills. The lessons are always in the stories we tell ourselves and each other and the things that stick best are told in the story format.

Don’t you think?

Now Bitcoin is something I don’t partake in, partly because I don’t fully understand it and partly because I don’t want to loose my money.

I am more of a play it safe and risk a little kind of guy…. it’s an age thing I guess. I don’t have the time left in me to replace what I might loose.

The lesson I took from my recent experience with Bitcoin was when I was discussing some investment things with a friend. She is brilliant and never stops amazing me with her creativity and insight. She is on a FIRE path to freedom from the constraints of her current work and will get there way sooner than I will as the starting point for her is so much earlier in life.

If only I knew then what I knew now… anyway.

While explaining some Bitcoin stuff to me I was engaged with the conversation and eager to understand.

‘Bitcoin was being bought up by investors and because there is only so much of it and there is not a lot more being mined at the moment, then the price is rising super fast and people are making lots of money’

How much is it at now?

Twenty three thousand bucks a coin.

‘Wow’ I said, ‘that is a lot of money’

‘I know’ she said in reply, ‘but I only have 2, my friend has 10’

In this statement was the lesson for me. A simple lesson.

Why concern yourself with what the other person has or doesn’t have?

What my friend has is a good position in this instance… she has made a chunk of money. They were bought when the price was as low as they had ever been.

The fact that she is concerned more with what could have been or what someone else has rather than celebrate what they have got in hand is typical of humans, myself included.

I often worried more about the other guy, what they have that I didn’t and I did not always take proper stock of what I have in hand.

I was always looking for the next thing to own or buy…. I am now fixing to change that. I am working hard on my reaction to others and how it impacts on me, or doesn’t in most cases. I have a much more I appreciate it, but don’t care that much attitude.

I know she said it in all innocence and I did softly point out that she was in a great position, and not to be too concerned about what her friend has and so we laughed at her original statement.

My take away from this was not the money or the success that was being achieved but the focus on the things that you can not control.

Why let things that you can not control affect you?

My friend only had control over what she had bought, and what she could buy or sell if she had the inclination to do so. She didn’t have any control over what her friend purchased and certainly couldn’t control the price of Bitcoin.

It is human nature, it’s how we work. Nature or nurture, I’m never sure, but it is in all of us. I look for it in me now and correct it when I see it.

Try reworking it, it makes life a little bit more straight forward.

Even if Bitcoin isn’t.