How I Turned $2k Into $10,000,000 in Less than 1 Year, Lost Most of it 2 Years Later, and my Plan Going Forward to make it all back X10 — MY STORY

[DeNero]

Hey there and thank you for stopping by!
(WARNING: This is a LONG read)

My name is DeNero, and as my first post on here, I wanted to start off by introducing myself and sharing a bit about who I am and my story.

I remember first reading TMF in the summer 2016 (and Unscripted a few years later). During that time I was very motivated to start an online business, work from anywhere, make millions every year, and travel around the world - and this was one of the best business books I read at the time that kickstarted my path.

But my journey got off to a bit of a rocky start, where I started and pursued different online businesses/opportunities, and despite having some decent success with them - it was never really consistent enough to the point where I could comfortably travel full-time, afford whatever I wanted, and not have to worry about the price tag (aka at least 10k+/m in profits).

But then came 2021 and everything changed. It was the first time since I started my business journey, where I truly experienced a huge breakthrough and the BIG success that I always dreamed about. However, as you read from the title, to say that the last few years of my life have been a rollercoaster, would be quite an understatement. So without further ado - here is how it all went down:

At the end of 2020 I got into crypto, but more specifically into the whole world of DeFi (I actually first got into crypto in 2017, but that story is for another day). It was a very exciting innovation in the crypto space, and I spent a lot of time learning as much as I could about it. However during that time, I didn't have too much money to invest, only around 2k, as I was working part-time as a coat checker at a banquet hall on the weekends, making on average $120-200/night and about 2-3k/month (and keeping a lot less after paying off a lot of expenses); but despite that I invested as much as I could in various projects in the DeFi space, while trying to figure out how to succeed & make money online so I can travel the world full-time which has always been my biggest dream & motivation.


After a month or so of daily grinding, at the end of January I finally hit my first big “win”. As many of you have probably heard of it, this project was none other than Shiba Inu - in which my friends & I were its first investors in 2021 way before it blew up & everyone started talking about it (at the time it had 0 daily volume and had a MC of 150-200k). However, as most people who got into it as early as I have, sadly I didn’t hold my tokens for very long after the big & very long consolidation & downfall of its first big run (it went down 90%+ and stayed that low for several weeks, which at the time felt like months); but I still was able to turn a $500 investment into 10k within a week or so (I can tell you the whole story about Shiba, its origins, how I found it, how we made it initially blow up, etc another day if you’d like).



And even though it’s not much, this opened a lot more doors and gave much more money to play with, which increased my chances of striking it REALLY big & potentially making millions, at least that’s what I believed and the way I saw it at the time.

Fast forward about a month or 2, and I moved from ETH to a brand new chain called BSC which was created by Binance. At the time it felt like a goldmine because it JUST started popping off, so I decided to go all in on that chain and become one of the earliest investors on it.

Initially things were very rocky and I ended up losing at least half of my 10k due to P&D projects or complete scams/rugs, leaving me with around 5k after a few weeks. But a few weeks later after a lot of grinding & hard work, I finally struck the golden project that I’ve been looking for all along, and this project was called SafeMars.

In a nutshell, SafeMars piggy-backed off the success of the original SafeMoon, which reached an ATH of 10B MC. After missing the SafeMoon train early on (even though funny enough I first saw it during the presale and considered investing, but decided to pass because it felt like a scam & too risky), I came across SafeMars in the beginning of March; and I knew this was my 2nd chance to get in SUPER early and strike it big. So I decided to invest a total of $300–400 at 25–30k MC and got 1–2% of the supply (I also was 1 of the very few people who did the private sale for liquidity)

And boy did I strike it big indeed. Fast forward a month later, and on April 20th my $300-400 initial investment turned into a massive $5,000,000+ bag at the peak MC of 500m, and that’s after I sold a portion of my bag along the way for some 5figure profits.

However, this is also where I made my biggest mistake to date. Instead of selling all my tokens for ~$4.5-5m and re-investing it into safer projects that haven’t blown up yet and could give me virtually guaranteed returns in the coming months, my goal was to hit $10m with it and sell 90% of my tokens for a huge profit and leave a moonbag, or do that when my tokens were AT LEAST worth $7-8m. And although I was SO close to getting there on 2 occasions, big holders just kept selling their entire bags anytime it hit 500m MC and tanked the price (my goal was for it to reach 700-800m at least before selling a lot).
At the very end, I ended up getting out with a very disappointing, but still a large & respected 600-800k by the end of May. Along the way, I also made other great investments on BSC and some on ETH chain that became very successful, so my crypto networth was still well over $1m during this time. Not bad after starting the year off with around 2k a few months earlier, right?

Fast forward to the end of September/early October 2021, and after a very slow summer, I hit my biggest winner to date. After the success of Saitama, anime meme season started taking off. And amongst the many anime projects, I came across and invested very early on into 1 in particular called Mononoke Inu. I believe I invested around 1-2k at around 100k MC, and got 2% of the supply. The team seemed committed and the meme potential was huge.

Despite some early hiccups and FUD, slowly but surely it regained its momentum and then started REALLY taking off. Over the next few weeks, it went from a 50k MC project, to an ATH of ~650m at the end of October. A lot of that success came down to 1 guy who was crazy enough to invest 2-3m into it over the course of a week (sadly it turned out to be a bad investment for him, but I’m sure he’s very well off if that’s how much he could afford to invest in a memecoin), and that made everyone even more bullish than before.

And it was that exact week, nearly exactly 2 years ago, when I reached my ATH crypto networth of EXACTLY $10M, which has been my main goal that entire year and since I started my online business journey many years ago in 2016.

But there was 1 problem - the liquidity on Mononoke was TERRIBLE and very low, which on 1 hand was good because it allowed it to grow quicker, but on the other hand that meant that in order for me to cash out 5m+, I would not be able to do it right away and would have to sell it smaller chunks over time. And similarly to SafeMars, I got a bit too emotionally attached to it thinking it was going to keep going and that this time FOR SURE it would reach a 1b+ MC (after Saitama reached 2-3b at the same time) and I’ll have a $10m+ bag - especially given that the whole the market was looking very strong & bullish as well and December has always been historically a great month in crypto.

Well sadly after being SO CLOSE to start cashing out my millions, it became like SafeMars 2.0 all over again. Just as quickly as it went up, it started to crash as everyone started panic selling after several big whales dumped their bags, and since that moment it never really recovered.

I remember that day like it was yesterday, it all just happened so quickly and I barely even had any time to enjoy this achievement and analyze the best way to approach cashing out my tokens (it was all less than 1 day). So at the end of it all, I ended up getting out around 600-800k a week or 2 later, and missed out on another huge opportunity that felt like my last big chance given this was already the end of the year with not much time left before the start of 2022, which I was not very bullish on.

(By the way, during this whole time, since the summer of 2021, I left Canada and started traveling the world and getting a taste of that luxury lifestlye. I went to Latin America first and then to Europe in the summer of 2022, stayed in some incredible places & villas, went to epic business/personal development events, was living the life, and FINALLY achieved my biggest life dream since many years back when I first started my online business journey.)



Anyways, long story short, over the next few months I kept grinding it out and made some good success with several other projects that I got into early on, but Q1 of 2022 the whole market dipped a bit and became very neutral. Nothing much was happening, and at the beginning of May I made a promise to myself that if in the next few weeks nothing changes - I will cash out & sell everything I had at that time (around $2m worth of tokens), and leave crypto for the time being to focus on various business projects & ventures.

And before I knew it, on May 9th - “1-2 weeks before I planned to sell everything” the whole market flopped. Everything went on a HUGE dip, and by the end of May or beginning of June my 2m networth dropped all the way down to around 1m or even slightly below that. At that point I was very angry, frustrated, annoyed, confused, and didn’t know what to do - I couldn’t believe I mistimed this whole downfall by 2 F-ING WEEKS, or that it at least didn’t happen at the END of May or June instead.

I kept asking myself - do I remain calm and keep going to at least get back to 2m, or do I take the L, accept the loss, cash everything I have left and move on?

I didn’t want to sell at such a huge loss and decided to keep going, and at this point crypto became very mentally draining and was no longer as fun & exciting as it was in all of 2021. I just simply wanted to make my money back and be done for good.
But since I wasn’t in the best mental space, I ended up making some very poor and costly decisions by taking on too many big risks, much bigger than I did before (to speed up the process of making my money back), which also included sports betting - most of which did not pay off. And over the next year or so, I was slowly bleeding my money away and ended up going down to my last 50-100k by spring of this year (2023).

And just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse, life decided to throw even more lemons & challenges at me, and things took another toll.

One day, as I was getting ready to sell the majority of my most valuable NFTs for ~50k, I made one of the worst decisions to date and connected my wallet to a site that was not very reputable but seemed legit, because the buyer wanted to buy my entire NFT collection (instead of only a couple) for an amazing price, and his condition was to do it through that website which he claimed was a reliable escrow service for crypto & NFT transactions. Well, shortly after connecting my wallet and being unable to do the trade after he kept making a bunch of weird excuses (which already seemed fishy to me), 30mins later I get many notifications that all my NFTs have been transferred over to another wallet.

At that moment I felt like my heart just dropped.

Yep, I got hacked & wiped out for the last big amount I had left trying to exit crypto with and start fresh, and that was one of the toughest and worst feelings I’ve felt in my life and one of my lowest points. I went from being a multi-millionaire a year ago, to having virtually nothing left after 2.5 long & tough years of grinding it out everyday (and even longer as I started my online journey at the end of 2016), which felt like all that effort was for NOTHING (although on the positive side I gained a lot of valuable experience and learnt some tough lessons).

I also had a lot of bills to pay, daily expenses to cover, and an expensive flight ticket to purchase to return back to Canada and visit my family who kept asking me every time we spoke when I’ll come back for a visit, and a few months before that we agreed I’ll be back during the summer time in 2023. This was also the best time to visit because my grandparents from another country came for a 2 month visit this summer, and really wanted to see me.

Luckily I had some other NFTs & tokens in other wallets, and I managed to get enough to buy a pretty expensive $1.5k *1-way, economy* 5 hour flight ticket from Panama City to Toronto, and this summer I spent a lot of time with my family, grandparents, friends, played tennis weekly (for the first time since I left a few years back), and most importantly started to go through a lot of my former books, as well as physical + digital notes and strategizing how I plan to getting back on track and reach the level I was at my peak. So the timing of me returning to visit my family was perfect.

Fast forward to today, and I decided to document my whole journey and this new chapter of my life across various social media platforms - firstly for myself to 1 day look back and see how far I’ve come; but most importantly to network with like-minded people who are on the same path as me, and in general for anyone who would like to follow me & my journey and hopefully use it as inspiration.

I am very ambitious and have set a lot of big goals & things I plan to achieve by the end of this year as well as for 2024 and the years to come (a lot of which I’ll be building on top off from various online business projects I was working on a few years prior to getting into crypto).

I’d like to believe that my recent turn of events has been a blessing in disguise, as tough times are part of a hero’s journey. Going forward, I’m ready & excited to overcome any obstacle that comes my way and come back BIGGER & STRONGER than ever before. I’m making this commitment to myself and I’ll do whatever it takes to get back to where I was at my peak, TIMES 10, while making a big & positive impact in the world along the way.

More specifically, from now until the end of the year - I plan to partner with a lot of influencers on YouTube & IG and help them create, package, price, sell, and scale their online coaching program to millions & beyond; and overall to help busy entrepreneurs work smarter and automate various parts of their business to free up their time. This will be my main focus going forward, and I also plan to document my weekly progress about it on here as well, so keep an eye on my future posts.

I know this was a bit long, so thank you for taking the time to read my story, and I look forward to personally connect with you more closely! Also, let me know if you have any questions for me in the comments below and I’ll happily answer.

Cheers to our greatness & success

DeNero

P.S. I’m still a huge believer in crypto and will always own & invest in crypto long-term, I just came to a realization that this is not my passion, calling, or purpose in life; and although it may be fun, I do not get true fulfillment by buying & selling different tokens/coins.

Also, if anyone here happens to know the best way to structure a US LLC for a non-US resident (to accept payments online), and be able to quickly start a corporation in a foreign + reliable country with a low tax rate (<10%) and then connect the 2 together to transfer funds, I'd love to hear your experience & tips on the best way to go about it the right way.

 

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[Vigilante]

The longer you sit at a blackjack table, the higher your odds are that the house edge is going to beat you.

I lost a company once in a hostile takeover. I thought I was done. Maybe seven years later I sold another company. I wasn’t done.

You are not done. You can find success again. Don’t do it via gambling. Build a business.

 

[Ravens_Shadow]

I often wonder why those who want to start a "business" immediately aim to get into the coaching space without having any past success to back it up. It's an interesting trend along with anything Crypto, NFT, AI, etc and I run the other way. Good luck, stick around, keep posting, and you'll make it. Instant money leaves as fast as you got it, as you've learned. Build something worth building.

 

[collected]

Wow what a story and lots of life lessons learned. The fact that you can lose that much money percentage wise in that short of a time period without having control over the asset price sounds like gambling to me. Gamblers tend to think "How can I get my money back?" instead of "What's the best decision to take right now?" I think your mindset now is headed in the right direction so if you do get back in the Fastlane I believe you'll stay there.

 

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[ZackerySprague]

With the decentralization piece missing in Crypto, it could have potentially saved you from that NFT loss. Amazing story man no doubt. Welcome to the forum.

Crypto and NFT for me are a no-go, I've seen too many people believe in its technology, create fake coins, hire influencers to promote it, and then all get rugged pulled because the owners let their greed get in the way and change their mindset. It scares me to know that people could easily create fake coins, trade crypto, and get scammed. I'd rather have the centralization system at play so that I know the other party actually does have the money and to actually stop scams that happen at play.

The ledger itself is also faulty and will not be able to keep up with the transactions that happen on a daily basis for Cards such as Mastercard and Visa. The technology that Crypto uses is not scalable to the American dollar and will not replace it in my opinion.

Good luck in your online coaching program.

 

[DeNero]

The longer you sit at a blackjack table, the higher your odds are that the house edge is going to beat you.

I lost a company once in a hostile takeover. I thought I was done. Maybe seven years later I sold another company. I wasn’t done.

You are not done. You can find success again. Don’t do it via gambling. Build a business.

Yes I completely agree that gambling is not the way to get truly rich and I only really started "gambling" and taking much higher risks after my 2022 downfall, just trying to get back to where I was in early May at least B/E.

But I did not feel like I was "gambling" when I made my initial millions, because I was diversifying and taking calculated risks the whole time. So even if 1 project failed, I had many others on the side that were also thriving and would make up for it (just for the sake of time I only shared my MOST successful ones on here, but I had dozens of other very successful ones as well that passed 7 figures).

So yes going forward I will definitely put all focus on building a highly leveraged online business with high profit margins, that one day I can exist for 8-9figures, and that's my main focus right now.

 

[DeNero]

I often wonder why those who want to start a "business" immediately aim to get into the coaching space without having any past success to back it up. It's an interesting trend along with anything Crypto, NFT, AI, etc and I run the other way. Good luck, stick around, keep posting, and you'll make it. Instant money leaves as fast as you got it, as you've learned. Build something worth building.

I absolutely love the online coaching space. With coaching, you can truly make a huge transformation in someone's life, be it with their business, relationships, health, mindset, or helping them learn & master new and valuable life skills, which to me is a very fulfilling feeling because you're actually making a big contribution in the world (vs selling some smaller products that with all due respect, will not change someone's life if they buy it).

I believe everyone needs to have a coach/mentor in life, and likewise can also be a coach & mentor to someone in an area they excel at while helping pave the way to someone who's just getting started.

And the other great thing with online coaching/agency business model is you can easily charge high-ticket prices and maintain really high profit margins, without the need to sell thousands of Ecom/low-ticket products that come with very low margins.

Also just to clarify - I never said that I'll be doing the coaching myself, but rather I will provide a highly valuable service to many experts with an online presence, who have a proven coaching program and is proven to get people results, as they cannot and do not want to run their whole content creation & coaching business themselves.

As a final note, fast money doesn't ALWAYS leave quickly - it just so happened to be that case for me BECAUSE I got too greedy/emotionally attached and didn't have the right profit-taking strategy in advance. If I did and got out at 5m like I should have (and also didn't sell other great projects early on for a stupid reason), I kid you not I would have been worth well over 40m by now, as I planned to invest 1-2m each into Solana, Matic, and Fanthom (all safe projects and each did 7-8x since that April 20th entry point), and also would have had more money to play with & invest in other newer projects that took off as well during that timeframe.

Anyways, as much as being in this position sucks, it is what it is and I don't mind building everything again from the ground up. I've done it once 1 way, and I know for a fact I will do it once again another way too. I just hate losing valuable time, but I only got myself to blame for that lol.

 

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[DeNero]

Wow what a story and lots of life lessons learned. The fact that you can lose that much money percentage wise in that short of a time period without having control over the asset price sounds like gambling to me. Gamblers tend to think "How can I get my money back?" instead of "What's the best decision to take right now?" I think your mindset now is headed in the right direction so if you do get back in the Fastlane I believe you'll stay there.

I agree, but on the other hand you can say that starting a business in general is also a big risk/gambling (as most businesses people start end up failing) because there's a lot of competition and it's hard to stand out; as with having a regular "job" because you can get fired at any time and have little control over how much you make + hours you work.

Much like investing in start-ups and angel investing is another form of "gambling" as well and is probably the closest thing in comparison to investing in crypto projects early on, I mean what's the difference between them?

If anything, you can invest only a couple grand in a crypto project early on and instantly see how the market responds a lot quicker, whereas angel/start-up investing requires a much higher capital of 6-7figs, and it may take you YEARS before seeing any kind of return. That's a HUGE gamble in of itself, yet people with money take those risks because they know the rewards are extremely high as well if it becomes successful.

For me, I just realized that if I were to take this seriously and go all-in (I actually was in the process of starting an online business in the beginning of 2021, but had a gut feeling that the crypto market was going to take off that year like it did in 2017, and I wanted to be early and take full advantage of it, unlike in 2017 when I entered too late and barely made anything), I HAVE to take high risks to get high rewards (especially with a small starting capital), which ultimately paid off and got me to an 8fig net worth in a very short period of time.

Also 80%+ of projects I invested in failed rather quickly or ended up being scams, so diversification is key and at the end of the day it's all a numbers game. After 50-100 calculated investments with good potential and taking out my initials after 2-5x, 1 is bound to and will inevitably take off and go far - so it wouldn't say it was "pure luck/gambling".

And many times, you just need that 1 to achieve financial freedom and be set for life. I've have many "unicorn" like winners that year, more than anyone I know in the crypto space - my issue was that I was applying Warren Buffet's and many other famous billionaire investor's principles of investing "long-term" and being patient to receive the REALLY big rewards, and did not cash out in time because I waited too long thinking that all of 2021 the market will be steadily going up (or until at least the summer). So ultimately it became like a double-edge sword, because had I sold my tokens too early then I wouldn't have reached the millions in the 1st place. It's interesting & funny how that works.

 

[DeNero]

With the decentralization piece missing in Crypto, it could have potentially saved you from that NFT loss. Amazing story man no doubt. Welcome to the forum.

Crypto and NFT for me are a no-go, I've seen too many people believe in its technology, create fake coins, hire influencers to promote it, and then all get rugged pulled because the owners let their greed get in the way and change their mindset. It scares me to know that people could easily create fake coins, trade crypto, and get scammed. I'd rather have the centralization system at play so that I know the other party actually does have the money and to actually stop scams that happen at play.

The ledger itself is also faulty and will not be able to keep up with the transactions that happen on a daily basis for Cards such as Mastercard and Visa. The technology that Crypto uses is not scalable to the American dollar and will not replace it in my opinion.

Good luck in your online coaching program.

Well I knew the risks that come with it and take full responsibility as I only have myself to blame for that, which I could have easily avoided if I wasn't in a rush to sell the NFTs or been more attentive + analyzed the situation better.

I love the power & control decentralization that crypto & DeFi offers, where you can literally become your own bank and don't have to get any permission to access or transfer your money to anyone overseas, be it $1000 or $100,000,000 (alongside many more).

But it does come with a lot of responsibility and I guess it's not for everyone.

And thank you! Although I won't be doing the coaching myself, instead I will provide a highly valuable service to many experts with an online presence, who have a coaching program that is proven to get people results; as they cannot and do not want to run their whole content creation & coaching business themselves.

 

[collected]

I agree, but on the other hand you can say that starting a business in general is also a big risk/gambling (as most businesses people start end up failing) because there's a lot of competition and it's hard to stand out; as with having a regular "job" because you can get fired at any time and have little control over how much you make + hours you work.

Much like investing in start-ups and angel investing is another form of "gambling" as well and is probably the closest thing in comparison to investing in crypto projects early on, I mean what's the difference between them?

The difference is that in crypto you have less control over the asset price as opposed to running a business where you have a lot more control over the price of the asset. If one runs the business well then the asset price is more likely to go higher. You can make money in both however in general crypto/nfts has a much higher degree of randomness when compared to other ways of making money. While being in a job won't going to get you 10 million by retirement age you don't lose money by being a job so it's less random.

 

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[DeNero]

The difference is that in crypto you have less control over the asset price as opposed to running a business where you have a lot more control over the price of the asset. If one runs the business well then the asset price is more likely to go higher. You can make money in both however in general crypto/nfts has a much higher degree of randomness when compared to other ways of making money. While being in a job won't going to get you 10 million by retirement age you don't lose money by being a job so it's less random.

Sure the crypto market is more volatile, but my point is both are forms of gambling if you look at it from that perspective.

The main difference I would argue, is that you can "test" the waters with crypto a lot easier, cheaper, & quicker; and lose A LOT less than with angel/start-up investing if the business/project you invest in fails.

And I would also argue there's less competition in crypto like there is with start-ups, so it's easier to stand out and create something valuable that doesn't necessarily "compete" with other projects, and thus draw in a lot of investors who believe in its future as long as the team delivers on their promise.

Again, both are high risk-high reward types of investments and is definitely not for everyone.

But I knew that if I wanted to make the big money that year, I HAD to take those "risks" and couldn't play it safe by investing my money in Bitcoin, Etherium, BNB, and many of the other big ones (especially with a low starting capital).

At the end of the day, winners and the most successful people in the world play "to win", not "not to lose".

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Jesus Christ...

Makes a fortune in crypto...
Loses a fortune in crypto...

Then proceeds to preach about the extreme risks and slowness of business ownership. Is this a joke?

This is a business forum for entrepreneurs who build something REAL with tangible value, something that can be sold for 7, 8, or 9 figures, and/or something that cash flows 5,6,7 figures monthly.

You don't sound like an entrepreneur, you sound like a gambler who won big.

And then lost it.

And then wants to gamble and win big again.

More shocking, you read both my books and instead of understanding WHY your fortune was quickly lost, you seem like you want to double down. Did you read the section on money-chasing in Unscripted ?

What's sad is that your acquisition of easy money will make it terribly difficult for you to build something of real value because when tough times hit, the "sell" or "buy a different coin" mentality will strike.

We build wealth here through business ownership.

Not through stocks or crypto.

I normally don't tell people here "I wish you luck" because luck can be minimized in business with good decisions, but in this case, I feel you will need it.

So... I wish you luck.

 

[DeNero]

Jesus Christ...

Makes a fortune in crypto...
Loses a fortune in crypto...

Then proceeds to preach about the extreme risks and slowness of business ownership. Is this a joke?

This is a business forum for entrepreneurs who build something REAL with tangible value, something that can be sold for 7, 8, or 9 figures, and/or something that cash flows 5,6,7 figures monthly.

You don't sound like an entrepreneur, you sound like a gambler who won big.

And then lost it.

And then wants to gamble and win big again.

More shocking, you read both my books and instead of understanding WHY your fortune was quickly lost, you seem like you want to double down. Did you read the section on money-chasing in Unscripted ?

What's sad is that your acquisition of easy money will make it terribly difficult for you to build something of real value because when tough times hit, the "sell" or "buy a different coin" mentality will strike.

We build wealth here through business ownership.

Not through stocks or crypto.

As I wrote at the end of my original post, my full focus and attention going forward is creating & scaling highly leveraged online businesses (B2B initially) that have great profit margins, and that one day I can exit for 8-9figures one day if I wanted to.

That's exactly why I joined your forum, and I plan to update everyone here with my weekly "business" journey & progress, not my investments.

This post is simply my story of where I've been, what I've done, and the things I achieved in recent years + lessons I learned. Had I just graduated from college/university and had no such history, OR just recently quit a cooking or construction job to pursue entrepreneurship, I would have STILL made an introductory post like this one that may have looked completely different (context wise), but with the SAME INTENTION of showing a commitment to starting & growing an online business going forward and updating the community with my weekly progress.

So I'm not sure why this triggered you as much as it did.

What if I hadn't lost that fortune and used my millions to start a big tech business(es) that took off and made a huge impact in the world with the same exact backstory (but a different ending), would you have had the same reaction?

And what if that business that I started shortly after failed? This happens a lot, especially for new entrepreneurs, hence my point that starting a business is just as risky or at least carries its own risks as investing in other businesses, stocks, or crypto - with the only exception that you have full control of how successful it becomes, but is entirely dependent on the individual, their strategy, and decision-making skills.

P.S. My first real business was an Ecom/Dropshipping store which I did for about a year (before getting into crypto in 2017 & 2021) and kept trying to push through during the tough times trying to make it work, which had some success but was inconsistent and ultimately didn't succeed for many different reasons.

And I didn't actually "lose" my fortune/millions, it's more so that I "lost out" on millions and a huge fortune because I didn't sell my tokens in time - hence I was a multi-millionaire "on paper". Just like you don't make millions in stocks unless you sell and cash it out. This is very different than actually having millions in the bank or even in BTC/ETH/stablecoins and losing almost all of your own money due to countless of bad decisions.

And I definitely do not feel like nor consider myself a gambler. I only ever gambled a few times via sports betting, where at the end I was around B/E, and is definitely not the reason why I lost a lot of money in recent years.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

As I wrote at the end of my original post, my full focus and attention going forward is creating & scaling highly leveraged online businesses (B2B initially) that have great profit margins, and that one day I can exit for 8-9figures one day if I wanted to.

As I wrote at the end of my original post, my full focus and attention going forward is creating & scaling highly leveraged online businesses (B2B initially) that have great profit margins, and that one day I can exit for 8-9figures one day if I wanted to.

That's exactly why I joined your forum, and I plan to update everyone here with my weekly "business" journey & progress, not my investments.

This post is simply my story of where I've been, what I've done, and the things I achieved in recent years + lessons I learned. Had I just graduated from college/university and had no such history, OR just recently quit a cooking or construction job to pursue entrepreneurship, I would have STILL made an introductory post like this one that may have looked completely different (context wise), but with the SAME INTENTION of showing a commitment to starting & growing an online business going forward and updating the community with my weekly progress.

That's awesome to hear, perhaps I didn't grasp this because you lost me with your continued allegiance to the crypto-bro-mentality, followed by the commentary of "business is risky" trope regurgitated by common people who know nothing about business.

So I'm not sure why this triggered you as much as it did.

I get triggered when people are directed toward uncontrollable, powerless nonsense (crypto, stocks) when they should be embracing their power (business).

Also, it is triggering when someone suffers through a very powerful lesson and then dismisses it. That was my interpretation, so if I was wrong on that note, you have my apologies.

 

[Johnny boy]

I lost a company once in a hostile takeover.

how'd that happen

 

[Johnny boy]

I was applying Warren Buffet's and many other famous billionaire investor's principles

*buys shitcoins worth $0.000000000000049

And now he's gonna start a business

(it's probably gonna be coaching....)

And the other great thing with online coaching/agency business model

I KNEW IT lmao

The best part is he's going to make a lot of money too. All while knowing NOTHING about ANYTHING. Damn.

 

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[DeNero]

*buys shitcoins worth $0.000000000000049

And now he's gonna start a business

(it's probably gonna be coaching....)




I KNEW IT lmao

The best part is he's going to make a lot of money too. All while knowing NOTHING about ANYTHING. Damn.

I know a lot about the things I plan to help certain business owners with as a DFY service, as that's what I was learning and working on prior to making a decision to go into crypto full-time in 2021 (which I didn't cover here because it is irrelevant to the title). Never said I plan to do coaching myself; and you can laugh all you want, but the online coaching & educational industry is booming & growing every year, and is something I find very valuable & fulfilling, whether you are the producer or the consumer.

I figured why not take full advantage of this amazing opportunity (and a potential repeat of 2017) where I can learn about a whole new tech innovation, make a lot of money with it, connect with a many like-minded people where we can help each other out, and then a few months later get back to what I was working on originally but with A LOT more money in the bank than I would have made the traditional way, which I can leverage and accelerate my business growth with.

This was my plan & thinking at the time, but sadly things didn't go as planned and I learned a lot during this time period about investing, as well as many important life lessons the hard way, which have only made me stronger and will help me a lot in the long-term.

 

[Johnny boy]

you can laugh all you want, but the online coaching & educational industry is booming & growing every year, and is something I find very valuable & fulfilling, whether you are the producer or the consumer.

you just regurgitate already free and easy to find information

then emotionally sell a lifestyle

that's usually funded from the selling of the course and not from using the knowledge of what is taught

sold to naïve teens who spent their last $400 because they saw a video of you in a lambo.

I'm sure it's fun.

"F*ck this crypto shit, you can lose money. You know what you can't lose money doing? Selling crypto courses to everyone else losing money. This shit is guaranteed dawg. lol"

Go right ahead, make your money. Just don't bullshit yourself and trick yourself into thinking that's not exactly what it is. Call it what it is, just drop the bullshit.

It's just disrespectful to our intelligence for you to pretend like we don't see exactly what all of this is.

 

[Vigilante]

how'd that happen

The 30 second version is, I had an asset purchase agreement that was separate from an employment agreement, and all of the workout money sat in the employment agreement. They used a clause to terminate the employment agreement, and after two years worth of litigation, the judge ruled in their favor, because of an integration clause in the asset purchase agreement.

 

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[Johnny boy]

The 30 second version is, I had an asset purchase agreement that was separate from an employment agreement, and all of the workout money sat in the employment agreement. They used a clause to terminate the employment agreement, and after two years worth of litigation, the judge ruled in their favor, because of an integration clause in the asset purchase agreement.

oof

 

[DeNero]

you just regurgitate already free and easy to find information

then emotionally sell a lifestyle

that's usually funded from the selling of the course and not from using the knowledge of what is taught

sold to naïve teens who spent their last $400 because they saw a video of you in a lambo.

I'm sure it's fun.

"F*ck this crypto shit, you can lose money. You know what you can't lose money doing? Selling crypto courses to everyone else losing money. This shit is guaranteed dawg. lol"

Go right ahead, make your money. Just don't bullshit yourself and trick yourself into thinking that's not exactly what it is. Call it what it is, just drop the bullshit.

It's just disrespectful to our intelligence for you to pretend like we don't see exactly what all of this is.

You are so deeply delusional that there's no point wasting my time arguing or trying to convince you otherwise, as you don't even take the time to properly read what I wrote. So by all means think whatever you want, I don't care.

All I will say is that I only have good intentions and I'm very excited to genuinely help a lot of people/coaches that I'll be working with and get them amazing results for their business.

P.S. Coaching/mentoring and selling online courses/information are 2 very different things, but clearly you don't seem to get it. It's like comparing apples to tomatos. Just saying.

 

[Kung Fu Steve]

and that one day I can exit for 8-9figures one day if I wanted to.

Easy as that.

They say everyone's life is either a warning or an example.

I'm curious how your mentality has changed during this process... have you actually learned the lesson (or any lesson)?

You knew many of these were "pump & dumps" ... but you participated anyway? I'm no moral authority (clearly) but I'm hoping we can chalk up your Jordan Belfort days up to youth.

I'm also a fan of crypto. I've made a bit with it as well. So I've got no judgment. And we can debate its merits and its future all day long... but I'm hoping you see what MJ points out about actually providing value to the world or your community in exchange for financial success... not just trying to siphon off cash from any sucker who will buy the next meme coin or coaching for coaches who coach coaches how to coach coaches...

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

not just trying to siphon off cash from any sucker who will buy the next meme coin or coaching for coaches who coach coaches how to coach coaches...

For the love of God, I hope he doesn't become another Envelope Stuffing Entrepreneur.

I make money coaching people how to become coaches and coach other people to do the same thing.

I don't understand how young people nowadays can think they can coach other people when they never won a game, much less got to the minor leagues. It's seems like a cop-out because they know the world is full of fools who will buy with the right marketing, and the right angle, and the right shiny Lambo on their TikTok reel.

At the end of the day, it's all one gigantic bro-marketing scheme.

 

[Kung Fu Steve]

For the love of God, I hope he doesn't become another Envelope Stuffing Entrepreneur.

I make money coaching people how to become coaches and coach other people to do the same thing.

I don't understand how young people nowadays can think they can coach other people when they never won a game, much less got to the minor leagues. It's seems like a cop-out because they know the world is full of fools who will buy with the right marketing, and the right angle, and the right shiny Lambo on their TikTok reel.

At the end of the day, it's all one gigantic bro-marketing scheme.

I'm sure there's a term for it but we've now lived through several economic cycles (you more than me ) and we've had all of the MLM, envelope stuffing, and every other experience(s)...

Is it just a case of "he doesn't know any better"? Or does he know exactly what he's doing?

... it still boggles my mind they knew they were actively pumping & dumping Shiba and all the other shit coins... but I don't think he's ever seen/heard of these situations throughout history... it's not like war profiteering is new, either, but that seems to be the big thing now... and it's no big deal! Get that bag, bro!

 

[ZackerySprague]

I don't think I've ever seen any acquisition in the online coaching/mentoring niche that was acquired for 8 to 9 figures. All acquisitions I've seen are from the Ecommerce space and Software space with brands that were well known or had utility in a large market.

Your TAM for a course is only so huge until one point you would run out of customers or you'd have to pivot and add an additional product that provides more value.

Recurring income is key, software allows you to do.

Simple products like Deodorant will always be sold to customers because it's something we all need and adding your product to a chain of stores allows scale.

Steven Sielkoff talks about the retail side for products. It's a really good book.

 

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[biophase]

Much like investing in start-ups and angel investing is another form of "gambling" as well and is probably the closest thing in comparison to investing in crypto projects early on, I mean what's the difference between them?

Angel investing is the same as investing in crypto?

If you had only sold your crypto anywhere between 50% and 100% of its peak. I mean you had a wide wide range to exit. It's not like your crypto shot up for 1 hour and you had to decide quickly. If I remember correctly, you probably had a month or more to decide to sell.

The biggest difference in investing in a company and crypto is that there is a business running under that company stock.

And yes, I also understand that a stock can go from $100 to $10 in a day. There are similarities, but there is underlying value in most stocks.

And many times, you just need that 1 to achieve financial freedom and be set for life. I've have many "unicorn" like winners that year, more than anyone I know in the crypto space - my issue was that I was applying Warren Buffet's and many other famous billionaire investor's principles of investing "long-term" and being patient

This here is your lesson, you applied Warren Buffett's logic to something completely unrelated to his philosophy. Crypto isn't the same as stocks. The stocks that he owns do not have large swings and he's purchasing based on their value. Crypto's current value is literally the price it trades at.

 

[msufan]

I see no benefit to running this guy off the forum. He had the courage to post screenshots and photos and everything. Very interesting journey, DeNero -- here's to your next venture in an area that actually provides value for others!

 

[biophase]

As I wrote at the end of my original post, my full focus and attention going forward is creating & scaling highly leveraged online businesses (B2B initially) that have great profit margins, and that one day I can exit for 8-9figures one day if I wanted to.

That's exactly why I joined your forum, and I plan to update everyone here with my weekly "business" journey & progress, not my investments.

By investments, are you saying that your crypto is your investment. Or did you move that money into something else?

So I'm not sure why this triggered you as much as it did.

What if I hadn't lost that fortune and used my millions to start a big tech business(es) that took off and made a huge impact in the world with the same exact backstory (but a different ending), would you have had the same reaction?

This would be much better because you would have learned how to start, grow and run a business.

It's the fact that you lost it all and had a potential $10M and didn't learn from the experience at all. I mean you say you did, but honestly, it just doesn't sound like you did. Only time will tell.

And what if that business that I started shortly after failed? This happens a lot, especially for new entrepreneurs, hence my point that starting a business is just as risky or at least carries its own risks as investing in other businesses, stocks, or crypto

If the business failed, you would have learned alot hopefully. If you buy a stock and it drops 50% and you sell, you didn't really learn much in terms of skills.

And I didn't actually "lose" my fortune/millions, it's more so that I "lost out" on millions and a huge fortune because I didn't sell my tokens in time - hence I was a multi-millionaire "on paper". Just like you don't make millions in stocks unless you sell and cash it out. This is very different than actually having millions in the bank or even in BTC/ETH/stablecoins and losing almost all of your own money due to countless of bad decisions.

I'm going to make a prediction. Whatever business you start, the profits or speed is not going to match the potential of the next shiny object, whether it be crypto or some new gold rush. You are going to neglect that business and jump into whatever it may be. Once you've tasted a $0 to $10M in less than a year. You are not going to push through any tough times of a real business. I've seen this happen to people a few times already.

 

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[DeNero]

Easy as that.

They say everyone's life is either a warning or an example.

I'm curious how your mentality has changed during this process... have you actually learned the lesson (or any lesson)?

You knew many of these were "pump & dumps" ... but you participated anyway? I'm no moral authority (clearly) but I'm hoping we can chalk up your Jordan Belfort days up to youth.

I'm also a fan of crypto. I've made a bit with it as well. So I've got no judgment. And we can debate its merits and its future all day long... but I'm hoping you see what MJ points out about actually providing value to the world or your community in exchange for financial success... not just trying to siphon off cash from any sucker who will buy the next meme coin or coaching for coaches who coach coaches how to coach coaches...

I learnt a whole lot of lessons about investing, the biggest of which is how important it is to have a logical and an unbiased profit taking strategy from the get-go prior to investing into anything, and to always sell & take profits on the way up. Then to be disciplined enough and stick it to it, even if you really believe the project, token, or stock will keep going up.

The other one is to always ask myself: "If I had this X amount of money (the current token/project worth) in the bank/in stablecoins, would I be comfortable & confident enough to invest that entire amount into this project/token at that point in time?"

If the answer is yes, then I will keep it and remain patient; but if the answer is no, I should sell it. In my case, if that I had mentality at the time - that meant cashing out 80-90% of my tokens in memecoins that were worth between 500k-1m, leaving a small moonbag in case they reach a 300-500m+ MC (at which point I'll sell the remainder amount); and then rinse & repeating this process across many new "high risk" projects/investments, while re-investing the profits in safer projects that have a lot of growth potential for the coming months and haven't blown up yet.

But sadly at the time my mentality was "oh well this isn't really MY money to begin with anyways, so I can afford to risk & play around with it in hopes it keeps growing until it reaches my main target" - but had I treated this as if it WAS my money out of pocket, then I would have ended 2021 with an mid 8fig networth at least.

In terms of morality of buying low and selling high, it's the same as asking if it's morally wrong for an investor like Buffet to sell their entire Coca-Cola stock in recent years after buying it 30-50 years ago when it's up at least 10,000%, or in a similar & more recent example the same idea but with FB or Tesla stocks? And the answer is NO, there's nothing wrong with that.

If you're late to the party, you have to expect that it becomes a lot riskier from the standpoint that it could dip or correct at any moment, and that the ROI % will be lower. But on the other hand it also usually means that it's "safer" because it has proven itself over an extended period of time. Just like when you get into a stock or project like this, you're taking A LOT of risk and have a high likelihood of losing all your money, so when you do finally hit a winner or unicorn, it's well worth it and you should never feel bad about selling.

End of the day, if I sold all or most of my SafeMars tokens when they were worth 5m+ - it would not be the ultimate reason the project died (although def a factor and momentum killer), as many other memecoins that have reached a 1b+ MC in the past had whales who sold millions $$ of their tokens around the same time as I could have, yet the project came back bigger & stronger and kept reaching new heights.

And yes I absolutely agree that adding value to people while making great profits is extremely satisfying, rewarding, and fulfilling; and is what I'll be focusing on going forward. But there's also nothing wrong with doing both, which is what I planned to do right after cashing out lots of money in 2021.

Finally, I just want to make it very clear one more time to you and @MJ DeMarco that until the end of the year and for at least the 1st half of 2024, I don't plan to be coaching people MYSELF and selling my own coaching programs; instead I'll be providing a B2B service to influencers and online coaches who are looking to grow their business, and helping them sell THEIR programs across various industries.

P.S. Building an 8-9fig worth business is very possible and only as easy or as hard as your perceive it to be. Having the right mindset and being disciplined is one of the most important things. I was always a multi-millionaire in my mind long before I became one 2 years ago in reality (and even tho it was "on paper", to me that still counts), and I know for a fact that if I can do it once, I can and will 100% do it again many times over. Let's just wait and see.

 

[DeNero]

By investments, are you saying that your crypto is your investment. Or did you move that money into something else?


This would be much better because you would have learned how to start, grow and run a business.

It's the fact that you lost it all and had a potential $10M and didn't learn from the experience at all. I mean you say you did, but honestly, it just doesn't sound like you did. Only time will tell.


If the business failed, you would have learned alot hopefully. If you buy a stock and it drops 50% and you sell, you didn't really learn much in terms of skills.


I'm going to make a prediction. Whatever business you start, the profits or speed is not going to match the potential of the next shiny object, whether it be crypto or some new gold rush. You are going to neglect that business and jump into whatever it may be. Once you've tasted a $0 to $10M in less than a year. You are not going to push through any tough times of a real business. I've seen this happen to people a few times already.

By investments I referred to investing in anything other than myself or my business.

I have also started several Ecom businesses when I first started my journey at the end of 2016, had some decent success, but ultimately they failed due to many different reasons.

Most of all I did not enjoy the process and did not fully believe in the products I was selling, and I realized that for me to succeed in anything I do, I must learn to love the process and deep down truly believe that whatever I'm selling will make a positive difference/big contribution to the person's life.

And let's wait and see what happens in the coming years. When you start seeing & hearing my name outside this forum, that's when you'll see for yourself I made it big and don't plan on stopping anytime soon.