I was minding my own business today when out of the blue someone who works in my office came along and said:
"Haha, how's your bitcoin?"
This was said with a fair amount of vindictive glee.
I commented that I wasn't sure what they actually meant which inspired:
"You've lost heaps mate!"
Again, some enjoyment seemed to be gained by the individual telling me about my bitcoin investment loss.
I nodded and made a cursory remark such as "tell me about it," smirked and gave a shrug of the shoulders. They grinned broadly and walked away satisfied they had sufficiently ruined my day. Thanks work colleague. src
As it turns out I didn't know that the bitcoin price had dropped slightly and, whilst it would be good to see it going the other way, I was rather nonplussed in truth; Unperturbed. I'm not selling it so it doesn't matter what the price is at the moment.
Isn't it interesting how people take an inordinate amount of enjoyment from someone else's misfortune though? This is certainly the case with cryptocurrency I've found, but not exclusive to it.
I recall someone scoffing at a property purchase I made when I was 28 years old. It went something like this...
"You idiot. Buying a property in that suburb is for losers. You'll never make any money!"
I paid $89,500 for that property in 1998. It's now worth $405,000. That's only 352% growth. Hmm, seems like a reasonable gain to me. But maybe I am an idiot as that person suggested.
I still know that person. They never bought a property and still rent a place to live in...Right in that suburb I bought the house in back in 1998! They pay $450/week in rent. Lol. And I'm the idiot?
People certainly fear the unknown and rather than hold themselves out there with something that may seem odd, unusual or uncommon, they prefer to congregate in packs...Well, probably herds is a better term...Herds of sheep. Putting their money in the bank like everyone else gives them a feeling of security, and the ability to be one of the herd if and when it fails. Everyone failed, so I feel ok about it myself is the ethos I think. I'm not saying money in the bank is bad though of course, just that people fear and ridicule what they don't know or understand.
I believe that's the thought process around cryptocurrency and other investments like precious metals for instance; Property sometimes too. It seems too hard, too risky, too complicated for some and so it's avoided in preference for a little over 0% interest in a bank.
I looked at the gold price today. It's up almost 11% or so, since I last looked a couple weeks ago, driven by coronavirus fears apparently...Seems a little better than the almost 0% return a person would have got in the bank right? I have some too...But did I rush over to my colleague above and throw it in his face that I just made 10% on my investment? Nah, of course not. Why would I bother.
I don't know why people choose to be mean-spirited like that fellow today, but they do; Nothing I do will stop it. I guess they feel empowered for a moment, delivering what they see as bad news to someone, doing something a little out of the ordinary and different to what they would do themselves. It's dumb.
A little while ago I read somewhere on steem that someone had a similar experience with cryptocurrency in that people are quick to scoff and deliver bad news, and also quick to come running when prices are up and happy accuse you of excluding them.
"Hey asshole, why didn't you tell me about cryptocurrency?!...Now you're a millionaire and think you're better than me because I am not!"
People huh? Humans. Such strange characters.
My investments have not always made huge piles of money but I've been fortunate to have only lost a little here and there. I am careful, educate myself about the risks, not just the benefits, and I diversify. It's worked so far. So do I see myself as an investment loser? Well, I'd have to say no.
So, I wonder what experiences you've had in this area. Have you had someone ridicule your investment choices because they fear them, failure or making decisions in the first place? Have you earned well and been labelled selfish for not telling everyone about the investment opportunity? Any funny stories about it? I'd love to hear some. Feel free to comment.
Tomorrow isn't promised - Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default
An original post written by a human
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