Growing up in my country was fun back then, not out of plenty but there was contentment and little or no motivation to impress. A lot were average in terms of money including my family, we were not very rich but not poor either. Grew up with friends in this same category although there were those from a rich family among us, they were few. I grew up with the mentality that education is the key, and hard work was the way to success and sustainable wealth.
I never knew hearing this over and over will do a number on me, and influence my decision-making in so many ways. There are some things I could not get myself to do, and I think it has to be based on what I was told as a kid. The biggest of it all is sports betting. My mother is not a big fan and mentioned this anytime she has the opportunity to do so, saying it is outright gambling and it is bad.
When I got older, especially during my secondary school days when I had to be in school with people far from my house, I got to see that sports betting is a normal thing. My classmates talk about the odds and the games they will bet on over the weekend, only to talk of their wins and loss when school resumes on Monday. I like football and am pretty good at analysing it, my friends at school ask me questions only to use it to "forecast" their games for the weekend. The forecast refers to analysing different teams and picking the right ones to bet on.
University days showed me that I can not even get myself to do it, I can only talk about football and why a team will probably do well or bad in the next games. Instead of sports betting, I used books to replace it during my secondary school days. Now I trade crypto!
I get laughed at that I chose to trade crypto that happens to involve more rust than betting, but somehow I feel okay and not guilty trading it. We are wired differently I guess.
