How I got interested in money?

People around me always ask how did I got better with money without not being from finance domain?

TL;DR : The simple answer, I lost ~?15L at the age of 23 and I had no other option apart from learning how to earn it back.

Long Story:

1) I started earning in 2016 and it wasn't until 2017 that I started investing. I bought my First Bitcoin even before I bought a mutual fund. Stocks I didn't even try until 2019.

When I first had to consciously decide where to put in my money, I wasn't sure. I had no understanding of stocks/mutual funds or Crypto.

The reason I chose Crypto was because, just like me, most of the people didn't knew anything about it and I assumed it to be a level playing field. It was so new in India that even finding people to talk to who knew about Bitcoin was difficult, and finding ways to invest was altogether a different ball game.

( I was already carrying the "Not-from-Commerce" baggage.)

2) Without much knowledge I started doing some trades. And Ohh Bwoyy! Beginner's Luck is definitely a thing. I made my first ?1Lac very conveniently. And, it didn't take much time for me to earn an amount even more than my then annual salary.

Just to give you an example, in October 2017 I bought 400 Ripple (XRP) @ INR 18 per coin. And, in next two months the price shot up to INR 324. The reason I bought XRP was because I liked the name - RIPPLE

I was taking profits multiple times over my principal. The word started spreading and I became a celebrity in my own "mini world" thinking I could live like this forever

( 23-year old na?ve boy?? thinking life's nothing but a game)

3) In early 2018, I got into a business deal with my group of friends where we were investing in Crypto ICOs. During that time only 3 in 10 people knew how to do ICOs. So we were ahead of the curve. The strategy was similar to that of any IPO(in share market) buy new coins before they became available to larger public markets and book profits on Listing.

Sound simple, right? And it was also very simple to execute. The only caveat was you need to have the amount to cross the entry barrier of 2 ETH and you should "know" the insiders. My biggest USP was my connections.

Your Network is Your Net Worth

During the same time, I came to know of a passive income platform for crypto staking where I started storing my coins. It was for a "cloud mining" setup. The platform was reasonably famous in Crypto world.

So before getting into it, I had placed in all security bypass features. I accounted for all the possible "leakage" gaps, and secured them. I considered everything except for the platform itself. I was so confident that I had transferred almost all of my earnings here for better returns.

(World's going to turn upside down.)

4) In February 2018, there was a exploit in the platform and resulting in me losing 1.5 Bitcoin & 2 Ethereum.

Never check the depths of water with both feet.

It would be an understatement to say I was devastated. I was crushed, and broken beyond measure. It felt like my ribs will explode out of my body coz my heart was beating so fast. I was in my office working when I suddenly got to know this, and I remember crying fanatically in the parking lot. You can imagine any dreadful, sad traumatic scene you have scene in any of the movie and that was me.

At one point, I was crawling on the road behind the cars. I was struggling to even get up and walk. The terrible pain I felt in my gut and breathlessness combined formed a gulp in my mouth which made my shrieks voiceless. Things were so bad that I have to actively say to my brain not to think of self-harm.

A friend cum colleague named RS came to my rescue. He picked me up from the road and took me aside. I cried the hardest on his shoulders. Sad thing was even though I was the victim yet I was afraid that what would "others" think. The tragedy of this whole process was I couldn't even tell anyone what had happened. They didn't understand this "intangible asset class"

I gathered a lot of courage and called my parents about it. There only words were, "Its okay. This is not the end. Just come back home. Promise us, you'll come back home immediately"

I complied.

(I lost 98% of my portfolio to that scam/hack)

5) During March the market crashed and to top it off Indian government banned cryptocurrencies. This led to market falling down by 90% and staying at that level for next 2.5 years.

The business deal I was running with my friends turned awry. The portfolio value of our investments reduced to 5% of the initial value. During this time, two of the guys started asking back for their "principal investment". They weren't ready to acknowledge the fact that it was a regulatory - market loss and it was beyond anyone's control. The behavior they exhibited was if there was profit it should be equally split, but God forbid, if there was loss then ONLY you have to bear it.

( Business Fund had ZERO exposure to the scam that I was personally victim of. I am a man of ethics)

The problem with running a business without by-laws in place is that when people go rogue there's no way of protecting yourself. To this complicated mix, add a group of friends who lost their money (INR 30K) to market volatility & regulatory action. All of this was in an unknown domain of blockchain. End result was broken kinship & mistrust which evolved in name-calling. ?

In the meantime, I didn't tell them the tragedy I was going through. They had no idea that I got scammed and lost 98% of my portfolio. For me the scam/hack and market-loss were two independent events and didn't involve anyone else. I tried explaining them that what they were doing was wrong but they didn't budge. I was coerced into paying back the principal by these “best friends” of mine. I paid them a portion of their lost principal from my own pocket because I wanted to save “the childhood relationship”

To sum it up at the age of 23 , I was sitting on a loss of ?15 Lacs and having severed ties with a group of my school-friends.

(I was alive but dead inside.)

6) After much consoling and familial support I tried getting back on my feet. I relocated to a new place, took a transfer to a new project and started preparing for MBA entrance. The isolation was a defense-mechanism to nurse my bruised ego and self-respect. I was harboring a great pain in my heart. Kept myself actively busy to distract myself from everything else. I thought the worst is over.

A month before the MBA entrance exam some unknown assailants broke into my flat to loot and things got awry that I almost jumped out of room at height of 50-ft to save myself. During such break-ins the motive of crime can elevate from money to life very quickly. I survived that long night. I am blessed to escape 3-attackers unhurt & unscathed.

This incident was strong enough to induce PTSD and it almost placed me in a box, had it not been for the upcoming entrance exams that I had. My lack of preparation acted as a spur to get me out of the negative mindset.

(The good thing about hitting rock-bottom is that there's only one way from there. THAT'S UPWARDS!!)

7) The entrance exams were done. I had mediocre score, a common profile and just bare minimum work experience to be eligible yet I got in. My best shot was to secure a PGPM seat in Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai. My interview for Great Lakes was going average until the interviewer noticed I was a graduate of MIT, Manipal.

I was lucky that towards the fag end of my interview, the panelist asked me to talk about Manipal. I was lucky that the follow up was about the last book I read which was on "Untold Story of Bitcoin". The moment I gave these two closing answers I saw the panelist noting down something on his sheet.

(I knew, I have made it.)

8) In summer of 2015, I had made a friend from Wisconsin, US. She had told me about a technique on how she dealt with her dark memories and troublesome past. The technique involved "locking" those thoughts away by saying to mind "Lock them". To be honest, I didn't appreciate the technique then and even found it hysterical.

Until it was my time to join the college and start afresh. No strings attached.

Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures

I simply told my brain, "Lock these memories away". And, it worked! It was this simple. All of my adventures remained locked for good 2-years till mid-2021.

I took up Marketing Majors and studied all other subjects which I liked the name of. I utilized this time to learn new things, make new friends, enjoy life and started forgiving myself. Tried identifying my interest areas and made some honest headways in those directions. Resetting my life and growing.

9) Our college got over at the cusp of pandemic start. The remote working started and so did the series of lockdowns. It was during the time of 1st wave that I saw dad's old stock investment files which were untouched for 20+ years. I got interested and started looking into them and found some irregularities and deficiencies. All of them were in physical form and had to be dematerialized into electronic form to be made eligible for selling.

So I started reading about this and acting on the deficiencies. Mind you I had zero knowledge on how to proceed further. But I gave it a shot , anyway! After 11-months of continuous efforts I was able to channelize a portfolio worth much more than twice the size of money I had lost!

Stocks were just the beginning, it was followed by fixing insurance policies, LIC, MFs, FDs and much more. Remember I wasn't train to deal with all this yet I was succeeding.

I got so good at this that I even landed myself an external client who needed my help for their portfolio. The remuneration was 10% of their portfolio for my consulting. WOW!

Doing to Learn >> Learning to Do

Although the deal fell through due to some technical issues but the happiness of obtaining your first client is too sweet!

(I regained my self-respect because of this non-existent problem I solved)

10) During all this time, Bitcoin stopped being illegal in India and its astronomical rise had taken the world by storm. But I was passionless towards crypto, and tried avoiding all discourse - social\verbal\news - I had it all locked away. Until I contacted COVID-19 in May 2021 and was alone in quarantine. I was bored enough of all TV shows and movies that I thought of unearthing my "lost treasure".

To my surprise, the 2% remnant portfolio had appreciated very much. Before I had shut my shop 3 years, I had throw a "hail mary" in some unknown projects which had potential for future - ETH, BNB, SNX, NEO/NASH - and ohh bwoy I was rewarded handsomely.

This time I had entered the game much wiser and much stronger. I didn't knew the way to make money but I definitely knew the ways to lose it. Hence, first and foremost thing I did is to putting a check to conserve my new capital - my redemption - my SECOND CHANCE.

There were many new things added in these last two years like - DeFi, Liquidity Mining, Staking, Farm Offerings, Web3. I had very limited understanding of all this. But I started learning and things started going my way.

I participated in community discussions and open contest. In one such contest, I won the 1st prize in the entire world. Things started to line up one after another and I started booking more profits.

(It took me 4 years to become ZERO from negative)

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For all these years I was carrying a chip on my shoulder about the things that have gone wrong. I was helpless and a mess. I was afraid, full of angst and hurt. But guys, if you're reading this, then believe me world has a weird way of making it up to you. These problems molded me into a MAN. I had lost money, peace-of-mind, friends, and my self-respect at the tender age of 23, right at the start of my career.

YET,

here I am healthier and happier than ever! These four-years have fortified me to an extent to endure any number of storms/sieges. This journey of learning about the unknown world of Blockchain, to losing a huge amount of money, to giving a redirection to life, and to finally winning it all back has nothing but a catharsis to me. Poetic justice for the 23-year old young boy who lost it all. This journey has humbled me and made me a better person.

I still think why it happened with me? The only reason I tell myself is God have larger plans for me. He wants me to be brave and THINK BIG! It is going to be an exciting journey ahead.

Guys, Just Keep Moving! Don't Give Up!

Tough times don't last, Tough People Do