Am I going through an early mid life crisis? You be the judge! (Part 2)

in introduceyourself •  8 years ago  (edited)

If you missed Part 1, check it out here: https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@coinhoarder/am-i-going-through-an-early-mid-life-crisis-you-be-the-judge-part-1

Then I minted a physical Litecoin...

I continued with my cryptocurrency endeavors by minting a physical Litecoin in 2013. It was actually the second physical Litecoin ever minted, with the first (Lealana) coming out while I was in the design and community feedback phase. I offered these coins for little to no cost, and I didn't make much money, but it was a great experience nonetheless. I wanted to provide a physical Litecoin that everyone could afford, and I was successful! It is neat to still be able to search Ebay and see my CryptoVest physical Litecoins for sale to this day. They have appreciated in value considering most were sold for the low price of $2.99- I have seen them go for as much as $40. I was even contacted to be included in a book and asked for my signature not too long ago. This was a great experience for me, and I love to be able to look back and feel like I was a part of cryptocurrency history. Then I started several huge Bitcoin and Litecoin ASIC mines...


Then I started a huge Bitcoin mine....

I then became more involved with Bitcoin and the community. I organized and hosted one of the biggest group buys on the Bitcointalk forums. We bought 7 Batch 3 Avalons for about 1250 BTC. It was an interesting experience to say the least, and I learned a lot. I also later did a second group buy where we spent about 380 BTC on different ASIC mining hardware. Unfortunately, the difficulty rose fast and the machines were delivered late, or not delivered at all, and both ventures lost a lot of money. I later started another Litecoin ASIC mine, and resold mining equipment imported directly from China, but that was largely unsuccessful as well as I was competing against the scam artists known as GAW Miners. Unfortunately, my ASIC mining experiences were very costly and time consuming. I lost a lot of money and it consumed every waking hour of my life. The anxiety and depression set in and I vowed never to buy any ASIC mining equipment again. I definitely learned my lesson...

Then I went through a rough patch...

Having lost a lot of time and money in my ASIC mining endeavors, and not making much money by minting physical Litecoins because I sold them so cheap, I went through a hard time. I lost my Landman job because I spent too much time trying to keep the mining equipment up and running. I obtained a Bitcoin loan from someone on the forums, and the value shot up about 10 times in value which made me have to pay $10,000 back on something I cashed out at $1,000. I was going through a hard time indeed, and to make things worse I also developed a bad gambling habit. The depression and anxiety amplified the problem. I lost all of the money I had left to my name. I got evicted from my duplex and had to move back in with my parents, where I still live today. It was a humbling experience to go from a life of such affluence to having a negative bank account, creditors calling me 24x7, creditors sending me bills in the mail, and moving back in with my parents. I spent about two years in an extremely depressed state. I almost killed myself several times, but I will spare you the details on that one. Then I got a job which helped me get my feet back under me...

Then I started getting my life back together...

I got a shitty job in a call center, doing proxy voting for corporations and mutual funds. I was quickly promoted several times and ended up servicing bankruptcies, class action lawsuits, and mass tort calls. I was promoted to a peer monitoring position where I listened to and evaluated my colleague's calls to ensure excellence. As I said it was a shitty job, but it helped me to get back on my feet and get out of my depressed state. It helped to remind myself that I was a smart guy, as being around the majority of call center employees would probably make anyone feel smart (not to mention the idiots that would call in.) Getting promoted several times also helped with my self esteem, and led me to believe that if I could do it at this job then I was capable of doing that at anything I set my mind to. I went back to college and am currently maintaining a 4.0 grade point average. I am now a sophomore. I am still not sure if or when I will finish, as college is expensive, but getting a 4.0 GPA was nice for the self esteem as well. I met a different girl, and we have dated most of this year, so that definitely helped pull me out of the rut I was in too. I can finally say that I am doing well!

Am I going through an early mid life crisis?

Even though the job helped me get back on my feet, as I said... it was a shitty and stressful job. I didn't get along with one of my supervisors and she was constantly awful towards me. I love my girlfriend, but as you learned in part one, I no longer make decisions based on whoever I may be dating at the time. I love my family, as they have helped me through a very hard time and I will always be grateful. However, I am still not as happy as I would like. I have spent a long time thinking things over, and wondering what I could do to fix that. When I finally decided that...

I will be leaving to work on a cruise ship early Monday morning. I am flying to St. Louis for training. I am sad to leave friends, family and my girlfriend, but I am persistent on attempting to pursue eternal happiness. I recently decided that I am happiest while snowboarding during the winter and kiteboarding during the summer. I plan to try and juggle seasonal jobs, and doing a lot of each of those things (depending on the season.) I want to experience a lot of new places and new people. I may never be wealthy with such a life plan, but I hope to be wealthy in life experiences and fun! 

Thanks for reading! Let me know if you think I am going through a mid life crisis, or if I am just finally figuring out what I want to do with my life in the comments. Am I crazy to drop everything and leave everyone I know and love in the pursuit of eternal happiness?

I will leave you with some more pictures. :)


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Bro! You are just living life to the fullest!

That is the plan! Thanks for reading and the encouragement!

We have so much in common. I think you could probably agree that our minds sometimes work in order to beat the system. Not maliciously, but out of curiosity. While you probably had more money than I ever had in my life, I developed a gambling problem too. I maxed out credit cards cashed in IRAs early and was swimming in debt and broken on the inside while smiling on the outside. I won 40,000 dollars on 5dimes online blackjack casino through a pretty clever realization about a glitch in one of the games. I showed my parents how much I won and they said pull it out now and stop. I didn't listen and went on to show my dad how my system worked and won another 3 grand overnight. I was making minimum wage and this total was multiple years earning at that job made in less than a week. I still didn't listen and as any gambling addict will tell you I went even bigger playing 1.5k hands off blackjack and them the system beat me when I tried to double down. I vividly remember the shock and adrenaline rushing through me as I lost everything. Nobody had any idea and I made up a story for my parents that the gambling site wasn't legit and would give me my original money back after I had put in over 20k into it. I didn't know what to do and eventually had to reveal everything to my parents who are supporting me right now while I look for another job. I want to use this site to pay them back for the love they have shown me even though I made such an incredibly stupid naive decision and didn't listen to their voice of reason. Enough about me, I just see a lot of myself in your post. I really would like you to be successful and help others who may struggle with gambling or other things you addressed. Glad to have you here! Hope to hear more about your life in the future too. Best of luck!

Awesome comment. I can definitely relate with the gambling. I think every gambling addict goes bigger and bigger until it eventually comes crashing down. It came to the point I was doing $10k sports bets and $500 dice rolls. No good indeed. I have given up gambling completely, with the exception of playing poker for low amounts of money occasionally. I am glad to hear you are doing well despite your experience. That is vey honorable to use this income for your parents!!

Nice to meet you, and I will see you around!

Yes I think I will maybe one day put a small amount in and play maybe five dollar bets to make some boring football matchups a little more interesting. Not gonna lie I miss the adrenaline it brought, but I realize high stake gambling is not for me. The house has a majority for a reason. So few people can make it gambling even doing mass research for matchups. Just not a good idea. My parents are awesome. I help out a lot since my dad has somewhat limited mobility, but is always helping other to the point of exhaustion. I couldn't ask for better parents. And glad to hear you are well too! And while it does make a great story, I am glad that you were not caught getting weed through the USPS. I think there would have been some large penalties. I feel that I can help others I see that might have similar tendencies since this is a really special platform. Hope its a great day! It's sweltering out here in Buffalo ny