The Difference Between Being Early and Being Lucky.

[uchegod-21]

Sometimes I tend to call those who invested in bitcoin at the early stage when the price was really low shouldn't be termed as lucky but the most believers, because at that time almost no one believed in the bitcoin potential and only those who could afford to lose their money actually bought bitcoin since it had almost no recognition on the exchange at that time. But now they risks have paid off and in massive gains, but we shouldn't call that luck.

I agree with calling them believers instead because that is the only term that best describes the level of conviction those early adopters had for Bitcoin. The truth is that if we were all taken back in time to when Bitcoin was first launched, many of those who today wish they had invested in Bitcoin much earlier would still have chosen not to invest because they would still not understand it and would still make excuses as to why they couldn't invest earlier.

All early adopters can be considered lucky to have found valuable information earlier than others, but how they chose to manage the valuable asset they acquired depended on the individuals. The results they got also differed because they were not all believers. Some were interested in the hype, some were afraid of missing out, and only a few kept hodling. The early days had more weak hands because of a lack of conviction.

[Leahized]

Sometimes I tend to call those who invested in bitcoin at the early stage when the price was really low shouldn't be termed as lucky but the most believers, because at that time almost no one believed in the bitcoin potential and only those who could afford to lose their money actually bought bitcoin since it had almost no recognition on the exchange at that time. But now they risks have paid off and in massive gains, but we shouldn't call that luck.

Basically I can call it the way of faith and luck. Because the lucky ones have only been able to hold on so far. When a coin is in new condition, its reliability is very low. As at present, many people who are investing and sell bitcoins from some profit. In the same way, those who were investing in Bitcoin from 2011 to 2013 or 2014 sold it at a profit. However, there are many reports nowadays. Bitcoin holders are owning millions of dollars by recovering their old accounts because they didn't use the account to keep the price low. So it can be called lucky for this success.

[barbara44]

Therefore, what separated those who were merely early from those who ultimately benefited from bitcoin is conviction and patient imo, because it is easy for anyone to buy an asset when nobody is paying attention to it, but it is much harder to hold it through market crashes, negative media coverage, government criticism and years of uncertainty. Feel free to give your two cents on this discussion.

Many of these weak hands even sell at a loss; they still believe that at one point, Bitcoin will lose its value, so a big crash is a signal for them to dump their shares.
I consider people who are firm believers of HODL not only lucky but also destined to reap huge rewards, it's not easy to HODL to ignore the market and see your shares losing value and at a loss, so HODLERS may be late investing, but they extend their luck by extending their patience until they realize huge profit.

Those weak hands are nothing but impatient people who can't wait anymore. They need instant profits which is almost impossible in any financial asset. Many people think of bitcoin as a get rich quick scheme. They think earning money with bitcoins is so easy that they can simply spend a day or two and make thousands of dollars. Well, they are wrong and they get to learn it the hard way. Not just with bitcoins, but any other investment requires a lot of patience. I am sure these people can't stand a chance to make profit anyplace else.

Holders have already made decent profit but it was not that easy. Market always tested their patience and only rewarded those who stood strong. All others were crushed and their money was circulated between the winners.

[pawel7777]

(...)
There is this statement people common make in bitcoin and cryptocurrency related discussions, i wish i got in early. Many people, especially newbies believe that anyone who bought bitcoin in the early days became rich or wealthy simply because they were early but that's not completely true.
(...)
Being early is when you or someone recognize an opportunity before most people do and act immediately, while being lucky is just the state of achieving a positive outcome largely due to circumstances beyond your control, although sometime being early and being lucky overlap but they are not identical as most of us think.
(...)

Some good points OP.

People like daydreaming about what they would do with all their wealth if they got into crypto early and they assume that (almost) everyone who got in early made it big.
That's just not how this works in real life. Learning about Bitcoin early was actually not the toughest part. It was much harder to keep holding through turbulent times. When you see your stash of worthless digital money that you were playing with is now worth, say, a few thousand dollars, and then the price starts to drop, it's hard to resist the temptation of not selling it all on the assumption it's a one-time opportunity and the whole thing will crash.
After bitcoin went above the magic barrier of $1k, there were many voices (even right here on this forum) that we will never see such high price ever again.
We now have the comfort of knowing how things have unfolded, but back then nothing was certain. The risk of Bitcoin being delegalised in all major countries was very real.

[Gaza13]

Sometimes I tend to call those who invested in bitcoin at the early stage when the price was really low shouldn't be termed as lucky but the most believers, because at that time almost no one believed in the bitcoin potential and only those who could afford to lose their money actually bought bitcoin since it had almost no recognition on the exchange at that time. But now they risks have paid off and in massive gains, but we shouldn't call that luck.

Good fortune will certainly not simply come to someone unless it is grounded in knowledge. This stands in contrast to those who are hungry for knowledge and take the time to study what they intend to purchase, as well as the fundamental concepts behind the asset's value. They certainly wouldn't hesitate to make an immediate purchase or invest early on, because they already grasp the underlying concepts and fundamentals of the investment itself. Yes, given the current conditions, the decline is quite significant; the vast majority of people are exiting their investments at a loss. Ideally, they continue to accumulate to secure the lowest price for their investment, Bitcoin. Yes, I agree with you; this isn't a matter of luck, but rather the result of the hard work we've put into understanding this asset (Bitcoin).

[JeffBrad12]

Sometimes I tend to call those who invested in bitcoin at the early stage when the price was really low shouldn't be termed as lucky but the most believers, because at that time almost no one believed in the bitcoin potential and only those who could afford to lose their money actually bought bitcoin since it had almost no recognition on the exchange at that time. But now they risks have paid off and in massive gains, but we shouldn't call that luck.

Basically I can call it the way of faith and luck. Because the lucky ones have only been able to hold on so far. When a coin is in new condition, its reliability is very low. As at present, many people who are investing and sell bitcoins from some profit. In the same way, those who were investing in Bitcoin from 2011 to 2013 or 2014 sold it at a profit. However, there are many reports nowadays. Bitcoin holders are owning millions of dollars by recovering their old accounts because they didn't use the account to keep the price low. So it can be called lucky for this success.

Lucky is already the right term for those who bought bitcoin, forget it for more than a decade only to find themselves secretly own millions in an old wallet.
They are lucky to forget ever owning bitcoin and only to encounter later on once the price has increased thousand times. If that is not lucky I don't know what else.
For the OG holder who are holding their bitcoin all the way even when they watched the price growing though, those are rare breed and real diamond hand.

[cryptomaniac_xxx]

Basically I can call it the way of faith and luck. Because the lucky ones have only been able to hold on so far. When a coin is in new condition, its reliability is very low. As at present, many people who are investing and sell bitcoins from some profit. In the same way, those who were investing in Bitcoin from 2011 to 2013 or 2014 sold it at a profit. However, there are many reports nowadays. Bitcoin holders are owning millions of dollars by recovering their old accounts because they didn't use the account to keep the price low. So it can be called lucky for this success.

And that is the true essence of investing, not just in Bitcoin. As you can see there are early investors who sold at a profit, but still if they would have hold it for a long time then their money will multiple many folds. But we don't know what will be the future of Bitcoin that time.

In every decision we made in life, we can say that there will almost be element of luck. As I remember, one of the most successful person in the world, Oprah Winfrey once said, "the most difficult thing to do is to make the right decision". So that very saying, stuck on my mind and it's very true and applicable to our Bitcoin investment. Specially those who hold for a long time and now they can say that they made the right decision as they could have made a lot of profits already from a small investment early.

[Pandu Geddon]

Lucky is already the right term for those who bought bitcoin, forget it for more than a decade only to find themselves secretly own millions in an old wallet.
They are lucky to forget ever owning bitcoin and only to encounter later on once the price has increased thousand times. If that is not lucky I don't know what else.
For the OG holder who are holding their bitcoin all the way even when they watched the price growing though, those are rare breed and real diamond hand.

There's no other word than lucky. Some people might have already lost the way to access their old wallets, but those who are lucky can still access the Bitcoin in their wallets, even after forgetting about it for a long time obviously have really good luck. We don't know how they first bought Bitcoin, maybe some of them were gambling at the time, and they got really lucky.

[virasog]

Sometimes I tend to call those who invested in bitcoin at the early stage when the price was really low shouldn't be termed as lucky but the most believers, because at that time almost no one believed in the bitcoin potential and only those who could afford to lose their money actually bought bitcoin since it had almost no recognition on the exchange at that time. But now they risks have paid off and in massive gains, but we shouldn't call that luck.

Basically I can call it the way of faith and luck. Because the lucky ones have only been able to hold on so far. When a coin is in new condition, its reliability is very low. As at present, many people who are investing and sell bitcoins from some profit. In the same way, those who were investing in Bitcoin from 2011 to 2013 or 2014 sold it at a profit. However, there are many reports nowadays. Bitcoin holders are owning millions of dollars by recovering their old accounts because they didn't use the account to keep the price low. So it can be called lucky for this success.

Well there many people who were lucky, who knew bitcoin when it was under $10 or under $100 or even under $1000 but there may be very few holding it and most of them has already sold it for minor profits and miss out of gains that can could have made them the richest persons of the world. I don't blame those people because when you are getting good profits you will obviously sell bitcoin and and back before in those times no one would have thought that bitcoin will survive for so long and reach those high prices but this is what it is.

[bangjoe]

People who jumped in early are certainly very lucky but from what all happened, from our delay in getting into the market so that learning is more behind and not following the huge surge in bitcoin prices during the phase in doubt, but that's not the real problem let what happened and our regrets be a lesson for us for today and the future with bitcoin, I think not a few people also sold their bitcoin when they bought it in the early phase, including people in this forum not a few of them also failed their investment in bitcoin and continue to repeat even today.

Although today the price of bitcoin is fairly expensive because it is known to many people and also the adoption is very strong, but it does not rule out the possibility that the future is much better because those who invest from the human population are still under 15%, it could be that we are now still in the early stages not at a greater stage.

[Fiatless]

There's no other word than lucky. Some people might have already lost the way to access their old wallets, but those who are lucky can still access the Bitcoin in their wallets, even after forgetting about it for a long time obviously have really good luck. We don't know how they first bought Bitcoin, maybe some of them were gambling at the time, and they got really lucky.

The majority of the early owners of Bitcoin either mined it or got it through giveaways. It was easy for them to lose access to their wallet because they didn't take the coin seriously since it was strange and also easy to get.

Well there many people who were lucky, who knew bitcoin when it was under $10 or under $100 or even under $1000 but there may be very few holding it and most of them has already sold it for minor profits and miss out of gains that can could have made them the richest persons of the world. I don't blame those people because when you are getting good profits you will obviously sell bitcoin and and back before in those times no one would have thought that bitcoin will survive for so long and reach those high prices but this is what it is.

I have read about members who used most of their Bitcoin for gambling. Others sold the coin immediately and had little value because they never thought that Bitcoin would exist for a long time. There were always news stories that promoted FUD. I have so much respect for those who were able to keep up with Bitcoin to date. They have an extraordinary faith in a strange currency.

[Promocodeudo]

I agree with calling them believers instead because that is the only term that best describes the level of conviction those early adopters had for Bitcoin. The truth is that if we were all taken back in time to when Bitcoin was first launched, many of those who today wish they had invested in Bitcoin much earlier would still have chosen not to invest because they would still not understand it and would still make excuses as to why they couldn't invest earlier.

All early adopters can be considered lucky to have found valuable information earlier than others, but how they chose to manage the valuable asset they acquired depended on the individuals. The results they got also differed because they were not all believers. Some were interested in the hype, some were afraid of missing out, and only a few kept hodling. The early days had more weak hands because of a lack of conviction.

Why many are now very interested in Bitcoin is because of it's value as of now, sincerely speaking those that adopted Bitcoin earlier are supposed to be praised because it wasn't an easy decision for someone to embrace something that he doesn't know how the future is gonna be, people will definitely find something to say, these days we read some sweet talks in the media but those statements does not reflect to individual secret decisions on Bitcoin.

I agree that they were lucky but being lucky is different from believing in the course, how many of them stayed back, some of them sold off at some point when they are supposed to hodl further, I  have much respect for those who saw the future of Bitcoin then and believed in it's potential and of course their patients rewarded rewarded.

[GoldBitcoin112]

greetings to you all my fellow Bitcointalkers and happy Sunday.

There is this statement people common make in bitcoin and cryptocurrency related discussions, i wish i got in early. Many people, especially newbies believe that anyone who bought bitcoin in the early days became rich or wealthy simply because they were early but that's not completely true.

Although the time you got into something matters, but i think many people, especially newbies overlook an important distinction that needed to be recognized that being early is not the same thing as being lucky.

Being early is when you or someone recognize an opportunity before most people do and act immediately, while being lucky is just the state of achieving a positive outcome largely due to circumstances beyond your control, although sometime being early and being lucky overlap but they are not identical as most of us think.

As we all know those who discovered bitcoin in 2010, 2011, and 2012 were said to be early, but not all of them who discovered bitcoin early are rich or wealthy today, fact. Large number of those people who discovered Bitcoin early sold their bitcoin investment after they made small profit, some of them lost access to their wallets, why some too abandoned bitcoin simply because they didn't believe it would succeed, another fact.

Therefore, I want to make one thing clear so that we can get the picture clearly, if being early alone guarantee success, I am pretty sure that many people would be very rich or wealthy today through bitcoin but that's not the case.

Some people bought bitcoin years ago with very little knowledge, maybe they made that  Bitcoin purchase out of curiosity or FOMO, fear of missing out and they forgot about it, and later discovered that their bitcoin investment had increase in value overtime. Indeed, this set of people should be considered as luck people, because luck played a larger role than skill or foresight.

Therefore, what separated those who were merely early from those who ultimately benefited from bitcoin is conviction and patient imo, because it is easy for anyone to buy an asset when nobody is paying attention to it, but it is much harder to hold it through market crashes, negative media coverage, government criticism and years of uncertainty. Feel free to give your two cents on this discussion.

Due to being too curious I couldn't read all your statements, because I already have something to say, those who started Bitcoin earlier most of them now a bastard billionaires , why some lost their keys I accepted but I'm pretty sure that being lucky doesn't have anything do with Bitcoin here, you failed to invest in it earlier you failed, and nothing has changed but to those who just hear of Bitcoin now I think they really missed a lot , many of us are still crying till today why did this opportunity of Bitcoin investment didn't get to them on time  when Bitcoin was even cheaper, you see many are still using this words till today but that didn't still stop them of pushing their bitcoin investment journey, but one thing about this is focus, since the price of Bitcoin has increased that is the more reasons why we shouldn't give up now , to those who knows the benefits of Bitcoin investment, you will indeed keep on accumulating so you will get to a height.
Because in time to come we are sure that the price of Bitcoin will even increase more than this

[Wind_FURY]

People who jumped in early are certainly very lucky but from what all happened, from our delay in getting into the market so that learning is more behind and not following the huge surge in bitcoin prices during the phase in doubt, but that's not the real problem let what happened and our regrets be a lesson for us for today and the future with bitcoin, I think not a few people also sold their bitcoin when they bought it in the early phase, including people in this forum not a few of them also failed their investment in bitcoin and continue to repeat even today.

Although today the price of bitcoin is fairly expensive because it is known to many people and also the adoption is very strong, but it does not rule out the possibility that the future is much better because those who invest from the human population are still under 15%, it could be that we are now still in the early stages not at a greater stage.

The biggest mistake people do to is the make themselves believe that, like the early Bitcoiners, that they could also be "early" in investing in a nascent shitcoin. Although they could make more profit investing in "that" than if they invested in Bitcoin, BUT they should know when to sell them.

Are they actually going to HODL them for decades?

 

There's a VERY high probability that your investment would be down by 90% or MORE.

[DPHOR]

Therefore, what separated those who were merely early from those who ultimately benefited from bitcoin is conviction and patient imo, because it is easy for anyone to buy an asset when nobody is paying attention to it, but it is much harder to hold it through market crashes, negative media coverage, government criticism and years of uncertainty. Feel free to give your two cents on this discussion.

That is true and from what you explained above, not those who were lucky enough at the initial when Bitcoin was introduced are the people who are holding currently. I wouldn't also be surprised that almost 70-80% of those who invested earlier are the same people who are holding now, what thing that matters about investment is that you must exercise patient hold it till the benefits are being achieved but most of them weren't able to hold till the price broke out 1k. Then when most people acquired it in less than 1$ immediately it rises to 50$ they sold thinking the price wouldn't go up again or won't reach this level.

[Adams0001]

I do not really see any reason why people should be regretting about their actions today for having to sell their bitcoin back then. Even if it was today thing you could have seen people who would have dump massively due to the profit they have seen, There are people who invested into bitcoin the initial stage when the price was around 1$ and immediately it hit 10$ they took quick profits without know the purpose of bitcoin where they are only seeing the instant profits then without studying the future of bitcoin to where it would end up reaching. True if it was today thing you could still see people who are that ignorant of themselves without taking that bold move to hold back their bitcoin. Well, I wouldn't have to apportion blame to anyone who now regretting for losing for big time or dump their bitcoin at cheap price.

That is just it, we can’t always have that enough confidence to know Bitcoin will last for so long so people that invest in early stage have sold there coin because they have achieved profits they didn’t think that Bitcoin will reach such amount by now, because if they know Bitcoin will increase higher they won’t have sell there coin and they will be a rich person.

Many people that are lucky are does that lost there private key and later when the price increase they look for it and people that get the access are the rich in bitcoin currently. We don’t know how bitcoin will be in the next 10 years so we shouldn’t be thinking otherwise we should just invest when you’re capable and if you reach your target is good to sell since you didn’t lose any.

[Lida93]

Many investors today who has made huge profits from their investments didn't necessarily made it by being early on whatever they had invested or went into. I think most people learned from the mistakes of those that had earlier taking the risk of early investing into an asset and through some mistakes or bad decisions lost out. Take bitcoin for instance, not really all those guys that bought bitcoin in the very early days still holds bitcoin today , some sold it too quick when it got from $1 to $100. Those who later saw their mistake are the ones holding it till date as the whales.

[Odusko]

I don't really believe in the word luck for some reason, because for anyone to be lucky, they must definitely take some risk first, the risk they take us what position them from the luck ther are enjoying, cryptocurrency investment is a high risk investment and for that reason those that take early risks believing in project even when no one does make them a special class of investors in the crypto space that are far from just being lucky.

[Orpichukwu]

There's no other word than lucky. Some people might have already lost the way to access their old wallets, but those who are lucky can still access the Bitcoin in their wallets, even after forgetting about it for a long time obviously have really good luck. We don't know how they first bought Bitcoin, maybe some of them were gambling at the time, and they got really lucky.

But luck is not what was used to securely save the private key to those old OGs who first started accumulating bitcoin; they might be lucky not to have misplaced it, but some of them actually might have cherished it and protected the key like it's something valuable and not to just let it go, while those who did not take severity seriously are not relying on their luck to get their private key back where it might have been lost.

[Agbamoni]

Sometimes I tend to call those who invested in bitcoin at the early stage when the price was really low shouldn't be termed as lucky but the most believers, because at that time almost no one believed in the bitcoin potential and only those who could afford to lose their money actually bought bitcoin since it had almost no recognition on the exchange at that time. But now they risks have paid off and in massive gains, but we shouldn't call that luck.

I agree. They were the people who truly understand the bitcoin network. The solution it actually came to provide and eventually they got lucky to meet a huge pump. However we can as well say those who got wealthy during the first and second bull run where lucky. The reason is because they did not expect it. After the bull runs that's when done persons gradually picked interest in bitcoin.