First thing you should know about me…
I suck at investing.
This means you should not take my advice…
No comments or hate mail please if you decide to enter the world of cryptocurrency after reading this and lose all your money.
But I know a lot of you want to know how I got into this game, and what I’m doing, so I’m going to share with you a few stories that may or may not help.
Many of you know one of my partners Todd Dickerson. His word is basically gold. So whatever he tells me to do, I usually do.
About 5 or 6 years ago, Todd introduced me to the idea of mining Bitcoin. I had no idea what he was doing or why it was important to do, but it sounded cool, so on his advice, I bought a miner box for my computer.
He explained that with this box you could mine coins (at the time they were about $10-$30 a coin).
By the way, if you have no idea what Bitcoin is or need a super helpful explanation, you should read this explanation from my friend Julie. It’s the best I’ve found.
There was just one problem – it took like 8 months for my miner box to arrive and by then, the electricity needed to power the thing cost more than the value of the coin so it wasn’t worth it and I didn’t bother setting it up.
Do you know how much I’m kicking myself right now that I thought I had “missed it?”
Anyway, not all was lost.
This miner box actually became a prop in one of my marketing videos for a $10,000 coaching program, and I drew the analogy that just like a miner box produces Bitcoin, a funnel produces money. We sold a ton so I made back my investment in the box.
The Bitcoin/Crypto talk got shelved for a few years until Bitcoin hit $1000 and then I remember thinking,
“Well I’m not buying it now because it’s a bubble and I missed it!”
Again, kicking myself.
Fast forward to earlier this year. Todd came to the office one morning and announced,
“Guys – I just made $350,000 in one week!”
At that point I was like,
“Okay. I keep thinking I’m missing it, but I’m not missing it. Just tell me what to do.”
Todd immediately warned me that I should not invest all my money and lose everything. He said that because again, I suck at investing and he knows this.
In fact, one year, it was right before the election and Obama was favored to win, I read this book on gold and silver. I took all the money I’d saved for taxes and put it into silver because I thought I knew everything after reading this book.
I bought it for $30 an ounce and sure enough, right after the election, it shot to $40 and I thought I was the smartest person in the world.
Until it dropped to $19…
Then $14…
I guess there’s a lesson here.
You don’t win if you don’t try. You also lose sometimes when you try and you have to be okay with that.
I wasn’t okay with it at the time. I was so stressed out and eventually buried my silver in the ground somewhere, deleted the app, and had to hustle and make all my tax money back.
Anyway, Todd knew this story which is why he said,
“Dude! Do not throw all your money away!”
Because I was older and smarter than my silver investing days, and because Todd’s word is gold, I listened.
He basically gave me these instructions, which so far…have worked really well.
-- Use a trusted exchange like Coinbase (which also puts limits on your account so you don’t spend all your money too fast)
-- Put in $3000 a day – $1000 into Bitcoin, $1000 into Ethereum, and $1000 into Litecoin
-- The theory of dollar cost averaging is that you put in money every day and some days you’ll buy higher than you want to, and other days lower, but it averages out in the end
It’s been a rollercoaster ride of ups and downs, but certainly more ups than downs. It’s been insanely profitable.
Blockchain technology, which is what cryptocurrency is built on, is not going away. It’s definitely the future.
I think the core coins – Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin, Ripple, and maybe a few others are here to stay.
And for those of you who are worried about regulation for the government, history shows us that when the government tries to squash something (like the prohibition era for example), it usually creates MORE desire and market for that thing.
I don’t think the government can squash Blockchain. It’s just too big and too revolutionary.
But here’s the thing.
Todd’s investment in cryptocurrency (and mine now too) is very much a game of hedging our bets.
Think about it – if the economy goes well, Clickfunnels will continue to do well and make money. And if the economy tanks, our businesses are going to take a hit, and cryptocurrency (a decentralized non-government backed money) will skyrocket.
Our CPA laughed when we told him this and said,
“Yeah…so you and I have a very different way of assessing risk.”
Some genius writes a white paper, raises a ton of money, and then tries to build the thing they wrote about. When it doesn’t happen, all those people lose their money.
I think there’s another lesson here about execution.
People think…
“Oh if I just had the money to execute on my idea, I’d be successful!”
It takes a lot more than just money to execute an idea.
Clickfunnels had two or three versions before the one you all know now, and they both failed because actually building and implementing something is a lot harder than you think.
So I’m not really into the ICO’s.
I think eventually they will force the government to clamp down with regulations, and the crypto market will take a hit, but the main coins and Blockchain will survive.
So that’s the story of how I got into Bitcoin and how I’m playing the cryptocurrency game right now.
Ultimately for me, it’s a fun game I do – almost like a video game.
If it all crashes, I will be okay.
In the meantime it’s fun when the kids ask me,
“Dad! Dad! What’s Bitcoin at now? Can I have a Litecoin for taking out the trash?”
Life is a balance of risk and reward, fun and responsibility. It’s not always easy to find that balance, but I think the goal is to just always be mindful of it.
Let me know in the comments below what you think and if you like hearing about topics like this.
Talk soon,
Russell Brunson
**There are affiliate links in this post. I receive a small commission when you purchase one of the products or services I mention. All opinions are expressly my own.**
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