How I Lost 6-Figures In Less Than a Year
Learn these insights, so you don't end up in the same situation
Tanyo G
August 18, 2023
GM.
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In 2020, I was dreaming of making six figures a year.
A year later, I was making them.
This would have been great if I actually kept some of that money.
But I lost all of them in less than a year.
Here’s how it happened and what you can learn from that situation:
How I Lost 6-Figures in Less Than a Year
I lost them the same way I made them - easy.
Here’s the timeline:
October 2021 - got fired from my job.
I was working as a copywriter at a marketing agency that focused on SaaS companies.
I was writing copy (landing pages and social media ads) for companies like CXL and Hotjar, earning a good living.
I even got some clients on the side at that time.
It was working well, but I got complacent.
I started slacking off, not performing at my best and lost all my clients and, eventually, my job.
I also got bored with the whole copywriting gig, which contributed to the situation.
Lesson #1: Don’t get complacent because you can lose it all so quickly.
I wasn’t grateful for the opportunities that I got, so I quickly lost them.
Lesson #2: Take advantage of all the opportunities in front of you.
At the time, I was working with killer entrepreneurs, but I didn’t appreciate that.
I should have been their shadow, talking and learning from them constantly.
Instead, I became entitled and didn’t do anything to impress them - major L.
I pivoted to making crypto-related content
I chatted with a friend of mine who was making bank creating crypto-related content.
Back in 2017, I started trading crypto and tripled my money quickly before losing it all.
I knew back then that crypto would be huge, but I was small-minded.
I told myself, “There’s no way I could learn all of the mumbo jumbo.”
However, after I lost my clients and job in 2021, I decided to transition into crypto because I saw the opportunity.
Took a free MIT course and learned the concepts in 1-2 months.
With that knowledge and previous copywriting experience, I started reaching out to prospects.
To my surprise, it started working quickly.
Lesson #3: Don’t limit yourself.
People don’t realize how easy it is to learn a new skill or a new industry in this day and age.
If you focus daily on a new space for 1-3 months, you’ll become an insider.
If I listened to my gut back in 2017 and started learning the blockchain space, I’d have been a multi-millionaire by now…
Started making bank (5-figures a month)
My offer was dead simple - I create educational content for my clients.
This killed.
I got over 5-figures worth of work in my first month.
After years of chasing my goal of making $10k a month, I hit it a month after I took the course.
I quickly became one of the most established writers in the space, creating content for some of the largest crypto brands.
It all felt so easy.
I was closing deals left and right.
For the first time in my career, I had to turn down work because I didn’t have enough bandwidth.
Lesson #4: Simplicity wins.
I combined my skills and passion for writing educational content with my blockchain knowledge and made a killing.
I focused on one channel and one offer, and to my surprise, it worked.
I started buying crypto coins and NFTs
I had like 3 months’ worth of savings, I didn’t have big living expenses, and I started buying cryptocurrencies and NFTs.
Notice how I didn’t say “invest.”
At the time, I thought I was investing, but what I was actually doing was gambling.
How did I decide which tokens and NFTs to buy?
Based on the narrative on social media.
This strategy worked shockingly well for a while.
My crypto bags were worth over $50,000
It was December 2021.
I was fired 2 months ago.
I was at a friend’s apartment, looking at my CoinGecko profile, and saw that my crypto bags were worth over $50,000.
I thought to myself, "I should probably sell.”
I even read the same day in a book, “If you have made so much money that you can screenshot it and send it to your friends, it’s time to sell.”
But I was thinking, “$50,000 won’t change my life dramatically.”
For context, my parents have made less than that in the past 3 years.
I also live in Bulgaria, so $50k goes a long way.
But still, I didn’t sell.
Instead, I was banking on another bull run.
My rationale was simple.
I was thinking, “I can probably 5x my money, get to 6 figures, sell, and then chill.”
So I continued to buy more crypto even though there were signs that the bull run was over.
I kept putting $6000 a month into crypto
I was still making 5 figures a month and put between $4-$6k in different currencies, which were even riskier bets than before.
One morning I got stoned and spent like $600 on three NFTs (now worth $15.)
It was pure gambling.
But I still believed that there was still one bull before we crashed.
So my total investment reached over $100,000 around May 2022.
However, it all went downhill from there.
The work started drying up
The bear market started.
Crypto companies slashed their marketing budgets, laid off folks, and weren’t as enthusiastic as before to hire freelancers.
So I decided to take a bet on myself.
I had a few months’ worth of savings and wanted to build a media company similar to Morning Brew and The Hustle.
I cut off all my clients.
“I’m going all in on this,” I told myself.
In September 2022, I launched the first issue of this newsletter (called Crypto Player One at the time) as a daily web3 gaming newsletter.
“I wouldn’t need to sell my bags, I’m here for the long term,” I told myself.
Well, I was wrong again.
First, my bags were almost worthless.
It went from 6-figures to being worth around $5000.
I sold my positions, so I could pay my rent and food.
So a year after I had over $100k worth of crypto, living in a huge apartment in the capital of Bulgaria like a king, I’m now back in my hometown, living with my parents…
Lesson #5: If you’re going to bet on yourself, make sure you have at least 2 years’ worth of savings.
I went all in and vastly underestimated my skills, the market, and how hard it is to build a media company in a highly speculative industry.
Lesson #6: If you’re going to start a company, start it part-time.
The right move that I should have made is to work on the newsletter part-time and build it slowly while getting paid freelancing and working with clients.
That would have given me some security in the short term, so I wouldn’t need to sacrifice my business.
Lesson #7: Interest rates control everything.
I didn’t realize it at the time (end of 2021), but the interest rates influence the economy in ways we can’t even imagine.
They literally determine the cost of capital, and being in the riskiest industry (crypto), I should have taken them into account.
Lesson #8: You don’t lose money being stupid. You lose money thinking you’re smarter than you actually are.
This quote I learned from Nassim Taleb summarizes the situation perfectly:
"I lost money because of my excessive confidence."
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