Hey everyone! First off, real quick, I need to say THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for you all setting a MASSIVE RECORD with this letter yesterday.
Absolutely crazy, I’m pretty sure 1,000 podcast downloads was the previous record, so, yeah, pretty humbled by the response.
If you aren’t subscribed yet I send this letter out 5x a week and pour my heart and soul into it, I think you’ll love it and I’ll even let you try it for free :)
But let’s get on to it….
Exactly 1 year ago, the World ended.
It’s Friday on March 12th this year, but in 2020, we called it BLACK THURSDAY.
The headline read:
“Black Thursday: Wall Street stocks plunge 10% in worst one-day loss in 32 years”
Bitcoin wasn’t faring much better, actually worse!
“Bitcoin loses half of its value in two-day plunge”
“The world’s most widely held cryptocurrency dropped below $4,000 Friday, knocking off half of its value over two days.”
Not to mention, everyone was legitimately scared for their lives.
We didn’t know what we were dealing with, so things started to “hit the fan”.
I’d like to focus for a second on just the MONEY side of things, though, I think it’s VERY important.
Try to think back to where you were on that day…
What were you thinking about?
Were you watching the news 24/7?
I’ll admit, I was.
But I was most concerned with the markets.
I couldn’t get this thought out of my head….
It was SCREAMING at me….
“Someone is going to get filthy rich during this….”
Whenever there is crisis, there is opportunity.
99% of people will lose their heads, and the other 1% will scoop up the rewards of all that panic.
Hindsight makes that glaringly obvious.
If you would have invested $100,000 on March 12th, 2020, in…..
1) Bitcoin - You’d have roughly $1,350,000
2) Tesla - $624,029
3) Zoom - $324,445
4) Netflix - $165,919
5) Gamestop - (you may want to sit down for this) - $6,532,663
Then why weren’t we all PILING our NET WORTH into the stock market and Bitcoin (and Gamestop :)?
Why weren’t we calling every loved one we knew, and taking out loans against our life insurance and selling our houses and kidneys in order to buy more???
Sure, some of us were investing, but where was the URGENCY????
I personally was reading, and investing, but I want to slap myself now for not being more aggressive.
Hindsight is 2020, but I think there are DEFINITELY lessons to be learned from this.
We can’t just sit here, looking back at FORTUNES that were won (and lost) in 2020, and not evaluate our decision making process going forward.
I for one want to LEARN from what happened, so I can capitalize on future opportunities with the proper amount of urgency.
1) A time machine would be really valuable.
This one is a joke. Just making sure you’re still reading.
But seriously, if someone can get on with inventing that, I think we’d all be billionaires or trillionaires.
2) The news is NOT your friend.
Want to know how I figured out what was going on in 2020, actually?
Twitter.
YouTube.
Notice I didn’t say.
CNN.
Fox News.
CNBC.
Those people either A) don’t know what they are talking about or B) are purposefully trying to manipulate you for their own gains.
I figured that out after probably the 2nd day of news conferences and just turned it off.
This ALONE saved me multi-millions in 2020.
If I would have wasted another day watching that filth, who knows where I’d be?
It honestly makes me cringe.
3) Skin in the game is quite literally everything.
Man was I doing research during March 2020.
What should I invest in?
I was talking to my “wealth advisor”…
I asked him “What do you think about Bitcoin?”
He said, “Do you enjoy Gambling?”
I hung up and transferred all my money out of his brokerage and back into my control.
I’m serious.
Actually wait that’s a story for the next point.
SKIN IN THE GAME.
(stay focused Kale you have more readers now)
(sweats profusely)
It was very simple.
I listened to every podcast, every video, but I was only listening for ONE thing…
What are these people, who are TALKING, invested in THEMSELVES???
What did they put THEIR money on the line for???
There was one community that ALWAYS, and I mean ALWAYS had ridiculous conviction and BRAGGED about putting 50-99% of their NET WORTH into ONE THING.
I’m guessing you can guess who those people were….
Yep, the Bitcoiners.
4) SEE THE RED FLAGS
Back to my wealth advisor.
It would be easy to be swayed by the fancy suit.
The office in Naples.
And the appearances in Forbes Magazine.
But then I stopped myself.
I really had to slap myself and take a cold shower.
I started thinking…
“Kale, YOU’VE been featured in Forbes Magazine!”
“this guy is probably just a normal guy, who has a nice cushy life, and is OLD.”
“he probably doesn’t benefit from any sort of technology, if technology keeps advancing, what use is there for him?”
“Therefore, of course he doesn’t like Bitcoin. That’s like Michigan liking Ohio State.”
These were my actual thoughts, BTW.
I think 2020 taught me this clearer than anything else could.
PEOPLE TALK OUT OF BOTH SIDES OF THEIR MOUTH.
They tell you something and even ADVISE YOU to do something, when they are so biased that they can’t see clearly.
I think it was the news that first revealed it, which then showed it to me more clearly in my wealth advisor, which finally caused me to stand up against it.
I decided that I was personally going to rock with those that have skin in the game.
5) URGENCY URGENCY URGENCY
The #1 thing I’ve noticed from running a successful business for a long time now is this.
People lack urgency.
They just do.
Gone are the days of being attacked by a literal bear, where chiseled families would spring into action with spears and the cardio ability to sprint for miles.
Urgency USED to be built into the human race.
Now, that urgency has been SYSTEMATICALLY taken away from us.
“Just sit on the couch and order doordash and watch Netflix and CHILL!”
“Don’t worry, no seriously, worrying is bad. If you ever feel anxious just take a nap or take a day off.”
It’s honestly sad, and I’m constantly having to push people because I’m definitely wired a little bit differently.
They say “time is money” but in 2020 it really was.
Every day that you lacked urgency in the financial markets was another day that you got absolutely destroyed by some kid in a basement investing in Tesla.
Regardless of what happened to you in 2020, good or bad, let it remind you that timing IS important, and you need to act with urgency in this life if you are going to get ahead.
My favorite example of this is this 27 second clip by the GREAT Casey Neistat.
Actually, I’ll just leave it there for today, I don’t want these letters getting too long.
Let’s open this up for a little discussion in the comments…
What were YOUR biggest takeaways from 2020?
What are you going to do differently now that you know what you know?
See you beautiful subscribers on Monday.
Kale
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