@LuisCortez

How did I make a small fortune with Bitcoin by being greedy? It was December 2020, as I was following the cryptocurrency prices I thought I was late in the game, but the prices kept going up and up so I put my first $1500 in Bitcoin! A few weeks later the prices went up and I duplicated my money! So... I got excited and like many others... got greedy and put more money on it at the beginning of May 2021, suddenly, everything went backward and my "investment" went 40% negative... in 1 week... I guess I learned the hard way the famous Warren Buffet quote "Be Fearful When Others Are Greedy,  and greedy when others are fearful". Now, I'm planning to keep the money there, I already made up my mind that the money is lost and will keep it there with the hope that it will go up to at least recover my initial expense since I do believe that in the future some kind of currency using blockchain will dominate (not sure BTC is that). *So to answer the question of my title: How did I make a small fortune with Bitcoin?* ***By starting with a large one!*** My biggest lesson learned after this: Invest only what you can afford to lose without breaking your peace of mind.

A goodbye letter from COVID-19 DEAR HUMAN, This is COVID-19 as you have named me this time… I wanted to take the time to thank you for this great year you had made for me. Thank you Human, because of your *cruelty* I was able to evolve from an animal to you; Thank you Human, because of your great *ego* you thought you were in control and let me loose on our planet. Thank you Human, because of your *selfishness* I was able to travel the world in less than 3 months! Thank you Human, because I know I can count on your *carelessness*, and is just question of days for me to get to every country I haven’t visited yet. Thank you human, because of your *indifference* you justified my existence while in the midst of the chaos you hoarded things you didn’t need, knowing that the most vulnerable of your kind could need them. Thank you human, because of your *negligence* I have met thousands of your fellow human beings, most of them left me, but some… I’ve taken with me. My dear human, the truth is, I didn’t want to do any harm, I wanted to come this time to teach you some lessons: **We are all connected;** hurting others, including beings of other species, will hurt everyone in the long term because we are all part of the same soul. **Learn to enjoy the present;** making you feel uncertain is to show you that you’ve never really known what will happen next, you are not in control and there is no need to! You only have to live and enjoy the present day, that’s all you really have, no one ever has known the future. **Be grateful;** in all this recent chaos, you realized what is really important, you’ve talked more with your parents, with your relatives, friends, etc. Keep ME in mind the next time you start giving things for granted again, I know you will. **Cultivate patience;** my days for this season are counted, is just a question of months for me to leave, you need to know exactly how many months? You still haven’t learned to be patient… **Learn to live in solitude;** being in quarantine will make you look inside of your mind and realize what you truly came to do to this planet, some will try to escape reality watching TV but for those who won’t, remember, the best human beings of all time exploited their suffering to produce their masterpieces. **Is OK to ask for help;** you are not a country, you are a planet, hiding your problems from other countries will end up getting worse until a point where you can’t hide it anymore and then will affect the entire planet. **Be a leader;** set an example for those who look up to you, stay calm during the chaos, don’t’ infect your mind with excessive negative news, free yourself from excuses and raise the spirits of all that you care about, they are counting on you. **LOVE** has always been the answer; the only way you could get rid of me, is by taking care of each other, everything you do has a consequence, and doing bad to others, eventually comes back to you, even if they are on the other side of the world. Simple enough. My dear human, before I leave I want to tell you, my purpose here was to teach you a lesson and I hope you got it this time, but based in history I have a feeling we will see each other again… Looking forward, dear human. Thank you, you have been such a great host! Truly yours, COVID-19 (Previously named, Ebola, Mad Cow disease, Brid Flu, Swine Flu, SARS, etc)

You don’t like your job? You have 3 options… It’s a Monday at 9am, you get into your office (maybe is not 9am, more like 9:30ish…)you get to your workstation, set up you stuff, go to the break room, make a coffee, get a snack maybe, go back to your desk, see the list of tasks you need to do, then your boss interrupts you, adds more stuff to your list, leave and now you are stressed out for all the stuff you have to do and so little time! You need to finish that by the next day! No one explained how to do it but you need to do it. they seem to only think of what they want but never asked you about you so you start questioning why are you there? The company don't seem to appreciate your efforts, there are definitely other companies that will do and pay more! You start thinking of one of your friends that told you that they make 10K more than you working only 4 days a week! You feel undervalued, you feel you are not making an impact in this company, you are not inspired to come to work anymore, you start watching the clock every few minutes to wait for the work day to finish. Suddenly its 4:45pm, you start getting ready to leave, close all windows in your computer, start thinking about your evening plans, watching Netflix? Maybe just go home and chill? while trying to look busy for the last 5 minutes and as soon as the clock hits 5:00pm you leave for the day! Sounds familiar? After more than 5 years working as an HR manager and volunteering in a non-profit that helps professionals find jobs, I’ve heard this story many times, I myself have gone through this process and I’ve unfortunately have seen signs of this in some people in my team at work. I have listened to many of my friends complaining about their current job situation, but for some reason they stay in that same company for months or even years and every time when I aske them how is it going? they just reply “It’s fine, it pays the bills”… a little sad no? So, as an HR manager I have simplified what for me are the 3 options we have when we don't like our job, so here we go: **Define what exactly you don't like, write it down, come up with one or two possible solutions, get all the courage you have and schedule a meeting with your boss or supervisor to talk about it.** That simple but very hard to do… Why? Because it requires action and facing the reality that you dont like and that you choose everyday to ignore by looking at the other side but that is only hurting you and crushing your soul every second you stay on it, is time to face it and change it so you can grow and a person and enjoy the work balance life that you know you deserve. 2. **Write down the pros and cons of staying at your job**job, and**and if the pros are more thatn the cons, then choose to stay gladly and happy**, maybe the communication is bad but the commute is convenient for you, or the company has good perks that you enjoy, or they just want you to work 40hrs a week and you have time to do other things afterwards without stressing out and havig to to stay late, etc. Think of the good things you have there and at the end maybe is not so bad, if so, then do your best with what you have to do your job and when they come to you and ask you something that usually upset you, do it gladly because thanks to that company you can have those good things you listed and that made you choose to stay working there and since it’s YOUR CHOICE to stay, do every assignment with the best possible mood you can! **3. Leave.** That simple, if you are not willing to face your situation or to take time to write down what you like and make a choice to happily stay, then why are you staying? There are many companies hiring all the time, for sure you can find one that fits your expectations. So wish good luck to your current company and leave. Now, those are the 3 options we have when we don’t like our job, please nore that any of those 3 options is: “Stay where you are and complain everyday”; we need to pick one of the 3. I understand some people have major responsibilities and can’t just leave their job right away, well…then isn’t this job you hate giving you the change to take care of those responsibilities? Great, that’s option 2, YOU are choosing to stay, so stay in a good mood! If we do this, if we can see our job situation that way, we can start taking responsibility for our situation and change it for the good of us and everyone around us! As a manager I can assure that *there is nothing worse than an employee with a bad energy going around the office with a terrible attitude but that is not able to put in words their frustration and when we ask them if anything is wrong (because they have usually lowered their performance) they just answer: “No, all is good” and keep their sad days going.* Sad for them and sad for everyone around them, since an upset employee is like a vibe of not so good energy that infects others around them and at the end affect the whole wellbeing of the company. So next time we start feeling that we don't like our job anymore, why not trying any of these 3 options and escape having that feeling of bad days have due to our “bad” job? It’s all and only on us to change it. Good luck!

Make the world a better place by your example When I was 4 years old my dad left to work in another country, this was before the internet and social media became normal so since then, my only memories of my childhood with him were the monthly 30-minute phone calls that we had. As I grew up I always looked forward to speaking with him every Sunday, he was always interested in me, showed empathy and gave me the best advice I could find on any of my problems, when I was in junior high school I started to notice that he had a lot of knowledge, he helped me solve my problems in school homework and personal, I really admired him. One day, I asked my mom why was he so smart? He always had the answer for my homework and the solution to my problems; my mom’s response was: Well, since I met him he always reads a lot, he used to have a shelf full of books in our previous home! We put them in a box when we moved to this new home. The more I spoke to him every week, the more I realized that I wanted to be like him and since the reason that I knew for his intelligence was all the books he read, at the age of 15, I decided that I was going to read all of them also. I went to the storage room in our home and search over all the boxes we had (they were a lot) and when I finally found it I started taking them all out… There were books about politics, history, math, and many other topics. My initial thought was to read all the books, but as I started skimming through some of them and after a few hours, I found myself overwhelmed with all those topics that I never really pay attention to or even understood at the moment I started to worry that I would never be able to read all and I would never be as smart as my dad, it was frustrating! But suddenly as I was pulling another old book, it called my attention that is had no cover, I look inside a few pages and there it was the title that read: “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living” by Dale Carnegie. Right timing! At the moment I started feeling worried this book crosses my path, so I grabbed this and other few books to start with and carried them with me for the next few months. It took me a while to be honest to even finish one book since I didn't have the habit, but the more I read the more I was interested in learning more and now on our weekly calls with my dad that by then were now 60min calls, I could bring topics of the books I read, one day I mentioned the Dale Carnegie book and my dad told me that he got it in one training he took years ago, so in my mind, since I wanted to become as smart as he was, I immediately wrote a note to research more about that training so I can also take it; we always talked about the experiences mentioned in that book and others, and my motivation for reading just grew more and more. Today I am 34 years old, I’ve read hundreds of books and I still get excited when I find a new one that calls my attention, I keep 5 books that I read every single year, and I lost count of how many self-development training or seminars I have attended. All that self-education that I’ve done has helped me be prepared for the challenges I had in my life and had developed in me the interest of always learning and keep growing as a person which has brought success to my life. I am grateful that 19 years ago I opened that dusty box and picked up that first book because that opened up a whole world of possibilities for me; but I am most grateful to my dad and the example he set for me, the idea that I had when I was 15 years old, thinking that “ my dad is so smart because he reads a lot” planted a seed in my me. And that brings me to the title of this article: Change the world by Your Example. No matter what you do, you have people that care about you and people you care about and they are watching you, they are looking at what you do, the decisions you take and how you react to what happens to you, and even if you don’t have anyone and are alone in this planet, there are other fellow humans beings that will most likely do the right thing when they see someone doing it because that will remind them of their core values and if someone has the same values and has the courage to stay true to them, that will be enough motivation for someone else to do the right thing too, something simple like picking up an empty bottle from the street and placing it in the garbage bin can set the example for some kid watching you at the distance. What is the right thing to do? I don’t know that’s up to your values, but what I know is that when we live up to our values we set an example, we don’t need to wait for the government or our boss or anyone to do the right thing if we know something doesn’t align with our values is our full responsibility to do it right and set an example, it might be painful or embarrassing but in the long run, is totally worth it. Whatever you do, hold to your values and when the opportunity comes to do something right, set the example, with time, you will notice how your actions or “the seed you planted” flourishes and affects positively other people around you, making the world a better place one action at a time.