I have a lot LESS Bitcoin than I otherwise might have

00:01 hey everyone I have a lot less Bitcoin 00:04 than I otherwise might have if I had 00:07 done things differently in the last 10 00:08 years and I wanted to cover why that is 00:11 and what I would do differently if 00:13 anything the last 10 years as well as 00:15 cover a very important concept people in 00:17 Bitcoin talk about which is that 00:19 knowledge of Bitcoin is on an as needed 00:22 basis or another way of put that is to 00:25 say people find out Bitcoin on a need to 00:28 know basis because heavily plays into my 00:31 story now I've covered sort of a high 00:33 level of why I got interested in Bitcoin 00:35 and what it has done for me but in this 00:37 video I want to go into a lot more 00:38 detail um about my story specifically in 00:41 the hopes that it will be helpful okay 00:43 so I sold bomgar Corporation in 2014 I 00:46 had spent 11 years building the company 00:48 built it up to more than uh 200 00:50 employees and more than 57 million in 00:52 annual revenue over the course of 11 00:54 years I sold the company in 00:56 2014 and I did not have a money problem 00:59 at that time I was in a good spot um I 01:02 had enough money that won I never had to 01:04 work again for the rest of my life uh at 01:07 that time I could have chosen to never 01:08 work again another day in my life I 01:10 could not only have not had a job I 01:13 could have afforded a full-time 01:14 executive assistant for the rest of my 01:16 life and uh at least part-time if not 01:19 full-time household help if I needed it 01:21 for the rest of my life so there I was 01:23 in 2014 so the first time I heard about 01:25 Bitcoin was in 2014 and you might think 01:28 but wait if you if if you heard about 01:31 Bitcoin in 2014 you sold your company in 01:33 2014 why didn't you buy a bunch of 01:35 Bitcoin in 2014 well first of all I 01:37 dismissed Bitcoin as one of a million 01:39 different Technologies I heard about in 01:41 2014 so why would I believe this one was 01:43 going to become a big deal when numerous 01:45 other Technologies I was constantly 01:47 hearing about were just falling by the 01:48 wayside so I didn't take it seriously 01:50 but also the main reason was because I 01:53 did not have a need to know Bitcoin is 01:55 on a need to know basis and I did not 01:57 have a need to know because I didn't 01:58 have a problem the amount of money had 02:00 in 2014 was enough to cover me for 02:03 everything I wanted to do as long as I 02:05 lived a modest life and had you know 02:07 relatively modest Ambitions uh with 02:10 regard to what I was going to do with my 02:11 life um so in 2014 you know I didn't 02:15 have any debt uh my house was paid off 02:17 cars paid off you know and I I was all 02:20 set um now again I couldn't go crazy and 02:22 I needed to live a modest lifestyle but 02:24 I was all set so if somebody came to me 02:25 and said yeah but you you know you could 02:27 invest in Bitcoin and make way more 02:28 money I would have said yeah but I have 02:30 enough I have enough that if I invest 02:32 just in the stock market you know a 6040 02:35 stock Bond portfolio or whatever if I 02:37 just do the same thing normal people do 02:40 I'll have enough money to accomplish my 02:41 near-term goals and so I did so there I 02:44 just didn't have a need in 2014 so uh 02:47 fast forward to 2017 and 2018 um I had 02:50 spent a substant I don't know if it was 02:52 you know the majority but I had spent a 02:54 substantial amount of the money that had 02:56 uh been acred over those 11 years in 02:58 politics and public policy so the 02:60 legislature pays 03:02 $23,500 a year Yes you heard that right 03:05 $23,500 a year that is the entire salary 03:07 for a legislator and so I had taken more 03:10 than a 90% pay cut to uh dedicate that 03:14 season of my life to politics and public 03:16 policy and so a 90% pay cut combined 03:20 with the fact that I started spending 03:22 heavily on politics and public policy 03:24 not only for a bunch of Elections I was 03:27 uh cared a lot about including my own 03:29 but also lots of public policy 03:31 initiatives 501c3 nonprofits 50 uh C4 03:35 advocacy organizations 50 C6 03:37 organizations political action campaigns 03:40 called PS you know I was heavily funding 03:42 a lot of that different stuff so um even 03:44 though the money amount of money I had 03:47 you know could have sustained a a 03:48 reasonable lifestyle for the rest of my 03:50 life that is not what I wanted to do 03:52 what I wanted to do and my favorite um 03:54 you know my favorite quote or 03:55 inspirational quote is the quote about 03:57 the arena and uh I meant to print it out 03:60 and I didn't but it's uh you know uh 04:02 basically the uh uh the credit goes to 04:05 the you know blood soaked and scarred 04:08 people who are actually in the arena 04:10 changing the world rather than the 04:11 people uh you know criticizing them from 04:13 the grand stands you know who are not 04:16 even uh you know in play so I love that 04:18 quote anyway uh and I'll read it on a 04:20 separate uh you know separate video um 04:22 but that's the way I wanted to live my 04:23 life I wanted to get in the arena I 04:24 wanted to change the world for the 04:26 better I wanted to you know I wanted to 04:27 have the highest possible impact I could 04:29 possibly we have in the fastest way 04:32 possible and that was expensive that 04:34 cost millions of dollars between 2014 04:37 and 2018 so by the time I bought my 04:39 first Bitcoin in late 2017 and early 04:42 2018 um when the prices initially uh the 04:46 the Bitcoin I bought was between 04:48 $6,400 and you know probably 04:51 $9,800 so that initial Bitcoin from 2017 04:54 to 2018 is up between 10x and 15x and I 04:58 bought a little bit uh I mean that 04:60 enough to sort of matter but not really 05:01 enough to matter so uh for the theme of 05:04 this video the reason I don't have a lot 05:05 more Bitcoin one because I did not have 05:08 a need to have something 05:09 transformational financially in 2014 05:12 that that need did not exist because 05:13 stocks and bonds were good enough for me 05:16 in 2014 to do what I needed to do and I 05:18 thought at the time that was you know I 05:21 was not going to end up needing 05:23 substantially more financial resources 05:25 than I could generate by just keeping my 05:26 assets in the stock market U so 28 rolls 05:29 around and still I have a problem but 05:31 not a big problem the problem is I've 05:33 spent millions of dollars trying to 05:34 change the world and you know create 05:37 positive impact largely successfully I'm 05:39 very I mean I'm very proud of the fact 05:40 that of all the money I've ever spent on 05:43 efforts to change the world almost all 05:45 of it bore fruit which is which is very 05:47 rare for anybody doing advocacy work um 05:50 I mean it's very regular that you sit 05:52 down with somebody who spent millions or 05:54 even hundreds of millions of dollars 05:55 trying to change the world and ask them 05:56 how they feel about it and they're like 05:58 half of it was a complete waste of time 06:00 and the other half of it sort of mixed 06:02 bag that is the normal response you get 06:04 from somebody who spent a lot of money 06:06 trying to change the world is half the 06:08 money was a waste the other half was a 06:10 mixed bag but they're pretty sure enough 06:12 good came out of all of it to make it 06:13 worth it that's not how I feel about the 06:15 impact you know I've made in the world I 06:17 feel very good that almost all I mean 06:20 maybe 98% 99% a very very very high 06:23 percent of all the money I've given to 06:25 things all the money I've spent all the 06:27 uh you know the the things I've been 06:28 involved with I feel very good about the 06:30 impact in the world they've had uh but a 06:31 huge part of that is every single dollar 06:33 I spent I spent just vast amounts of 06:35 time researching and studying what I was 06:38 doing so that every single bet I was 06:40 placing in an effort to change the world 06:42 was extremely like massively analyzed 06:45 and calculated and all that so so I I 06:48 felt very good about the money I had 06:50 spent uh between 20 I should say we me 06:53 and my wife because you know we make all 06:55 of the major financial decisions 06:56 together and um obviously so these are 06:59 you know credit goes to her for uh for 07:01 being uh you know willing to team up on 07:03 a change the world campaign that cost a 07:05 ton of money um so anyway we had spent a 07:07 substantial amount of money between 2014 07:08 and 2018 so the reason first reason I 07:10 don't have way more Bitcoin than I I 07:12 have is because I didn't need Bitcoin 07:14 back in 2014 so I ignored it because the 07:16 stock market was just barely good enough 07:19 to accomplish my financial needs in 2017 07:21 and 2018 um I bought Bitcoin but I was 07:26 in the process of embarking on a very 07:28 expensive uh um uh political Campaign 07:31 which was initiative 65 which was an 07:33 effort to bring a medical marijuana 07:36 program to the state of Mississippi so I 07:38 started that initiative I funded that 07:40 initiative I I did I did I hired the 07:42 entire staff for that initiative I I 07:45 mean that initiative was my baby from 07:47 late 2017 all the way through the 07:50 election and the ballot initiative in 07:52 2020 and then ultimately the Supreme 07:54 Court overturned it in 2021 and then we 07:57 got the uh we got the program 07:58 legislatively in 202 2 so that from 2017 08:02 to 2022 um you know a large portion of 08:05 that especially through you know the 08:07 first half of 2021 I mean that was my 08:09 baby it cost millions and millions and 08:12 millions of dollars and I was reluctant 08:14 as I was embarking on that to put a 08:17 bunch of Capital At Risk so my thought 08:19 process was well look i' I know I'm 08:22 going to have enough money uh you know 08:24 to fund this thing with you know my 08:26 current strategy I don't have enough 08:28 time to go research Bitcoin and how you 08:30 know how likely it is to succeed and 08:32 what the volatility is I just don't have 08:35 I don't have a need to solve a problem 08:37 that where the pain is high enough to 08:39 buy more than a relatively small amount 08:41 of Bitcoin so I bought a relatively 08:42 small amount of Bitcoin in 2017 and 2018 08:46 and then just focused on you know 08:48 initiative 65 the medical marijuana 08:50 campaign that was a full-time I mean 08:51 literally a full-time job in addition to 08:53 my legislative service for all of 2018 08:56 all of 2019 and all of 2020 and then you 08:59 know I mean that was it was super 09:00 intense for about three and a half years 09:03 um I mean just super intense so again I 09:05 did not have the time to research 09:07 Bitcoin and also I was just reluctant to 09:10 put Capital at risk that I thought I 09:12 might need to continue to fund the 09:15 medical marijuana campaign in 09:17 Mississippi and the reason I'm you know 09:18 I've talked about this in other places 09:20 but the reason I'm passionate about that 09:22 issue is I lost both my parents to 09:23 cancer when I was in my 20s uh both of 09:25 them died in a lot of pain even with all 09:27 of the best uh medication and the best 09:29 pain killers in the world and I deeply 09:31 believe after tons of research that had 09:34 medical marijuana been available to them 09:37 when they were in the you know in 09:39 hospice and both in the process of dying 09:41 of cancer that had medical marijuana 09:43 been available to them it would have 09:44 significantly helped with the pain and 09:46 especially the nausea uh in both cases 09:48 my mom had a very uh in both cases in my 09:50 mom's case with ovarian cancer and my 09:53 dad's case um with lung cancer even 09:55 though he never smoked so it was not 09:57 smoking related but my dad got lung 09:59 caner cancer 09:60 metastasized to his brain um in both of 10:03 their cases nausea was just a huge 10:05 problem inability to keep down food 10:07 inability to have an appetite and uh 10:09 medical marijuana is just fantastic for 10:11 that so I was passionate about the issue 10:12 and I absolutely wanted to see that 10:14 campaign through and I did not want to 10:16 risk Capital that I knew I had uh that 10:19 could fund that campaign and result in a 10:21 win and I just didn't have the time or 10:24 the risk appetite at that time to risk 10:27 Capital uh knowing that I had to finish 10:30 that job and get that uh initiative 10:32 passed so ultimately we collected 10:34 228,000 signatures that's insane 10:37 228,000 signatures which was extremely 10:41 cost intensive you know labor intensive 10:44 and costly to just aass an army of 10:46 people to go get 228,000 signatures um 10:49 and then we had to run a massive 10:51 campaign on top of that um you know for 10:54 all of that so um and I'll get to more 10:56 of that in a minute here so um in 2018 10:59 around comes 10:60 2018 and I buy again enough Bitcoin to 11:03 to matter a little bit but not really a 11:04 lot and then I move on and you know 11:07 continue the good fight on you know 11:08 legislative stuff uh public policy 11:10 Criminal Justice Reform the medical 11:12 marijuana campaign I do all of that well 11:14 in 11:15 2020 um the legislature my fellow 11:18 colleagues in the you know Mississippi 11:21 legislature um screwed me over by 11:24 putting an alternative ballot initiative 11:26 on the ballot so I had done it the right 11:27 way collected 228,000 sign but the 11:30 legislature has the right to propose an 11:31 alternative ballot initiative and they 11:34 were trying to Scuttle the whole thing 11:36 to make it go away and the best way they 11:38 knew to do that was to confuse the issue 11:40 by putting an alternative ballot 11:42 initiative on that was also about 11:43 medical marijuana now the truth is their 11:46 initiative would have not resulted in an 11:47 actual medical marijuana program it was 11:49 essentially an effort to confuse the 11:51 voters and mess the issue up so much 11:54 that uh you know it would fail at the 11:56 ballot um so anyway so what what would 11:59 have been an easy campaign to get that 12:01 passed in 2020 once again resulted in an 12:04 extremely expensive campaign because now 12:06 we had to explain to all the voters why 12:08 they were going to see two different 12:10 initiatives on the ballot in 2020 here 12:13 in Mississippi and how they were 12:15 supposed to distinguish between the two 12:18 and what they were and why there were 12:20 two and that cost millions of more 12:22 dollars on top of that so rolling into 12:26 2021 I had a serious problem I mean 12:30 again going back to the theme that 12:31 Bitcoin is on a need to know basis and 12:34 people find out about Bitcoin on an as 12:37 needed basis I suddenly in 2021 had a 12:40 very serious need to figure out what I 12:43 was going to do to try to claw my way 12:45 back to you know even close to where I 12:48 was back in 2018 before all of that or 12:51 even back to 12:53 2014 uh back uh you know at the peak of 12:56 my US dollar denominated uh net worth 12:59 back in 2014 so I had this Bitcoin uh 13:02 from 2017 and late 2017 and early 2018 13:06 which again had a had a cost basis of 13:08 between $6,400 was the cheapest cheapest 13:11 cheapest Bitcoin I ever bought in that 13:13 period and the most expensive Bitcoin or 13:15 not the most expensive but the the 13:17 average was probably in the 13:19 $9,800 something like that so again up 13:21 15x from the cheapest cheapest point but 13:24 sort of most of it was probably in the 13:26 ballpark of about up 10x uh today but 13:29 again the problem was I hadn't put 13:31 enough money in Bitcoin from back then 13:33 for even that 10 or 15x upside to be 13:36 transformational because again I did not 13:38 have the time I didn't have the risk 13:40 appetite I just I didn't have the need 13:42 and so I was basically messing around 13:44 with it I mean that's what I was doing 13:45 in late 2017 and early 2018 as I was 13:48 messing around with Bitcoin the problem 13:50 is if you mess around with Bitcoin and 13:52 you put a pretty small percent of your 13:53 net worth in Bitcoin then even though it 13:55 goes up 10x you're like well heck if you 13:58 put 1% of your net worth in Bitcoin and 14:00 it goes up 10x then you have 10% more 14:03 money well 10% more money is way better 14:05 than just 1% but if somebody's like wow 14:08 that's totally transformational you feel 14:10 super rich you're up 10x on your Bitcoin 14:12 it's like yeah but if it's 10x on one% 14:15 you only have 10% more than however much 14:17 money you had before which for most 14:19 people they would not describe as 14:20 transformational so I had put I there's 14:22 probably more than 1% but it was not 14:25 again it was not enough to really matter 14:27 uh back then okay so fast forward to 14:29 2021 I have a serious problem which is I 14:33 have spent you know not only have I 14:34 spent the majority of the assets I have 14:36 from 2014 I've done that multiple times 14:39 at this point in 2021 and again largely 14:42 successful I mean the medical marijuana 14:44 campaign passed with 74% of the vote uh 14:47 I mean we got it on the ballot it's the 14:48 first time that anyone in the history of 14:50 the state of Mississippi had ever gotten 14:52 anything on the ballot over top of the 14:55 objection of the Mississippi legislature 14:57 I mean it's just it was incredible like 14:59 I mean we just did something nobody else 15:00 had ever done before and then obviously 15:02 we had to go you know fight the fight 15:03 the fight to get the program passed in 15:05 the legislature once the Supreme Court 15:07 invalidated the uh ballot initiative 15:09 process um but anyway all that to say 15:12 when all that happened around RS 2021 15:14 and I have a serious need I have a need 15:17 to know you know uh if bitcoin's on an 15:21 as needed basis I am now in the as 15:23 needed part of people which is I got to 15:26 figure out I got to figure out how to 15:28 get back to where I was and so I was 15:30 started looking at all the assets I 15:32 looked at real estate I looked at stocks 15:33 I looked at bonds I looked at everything 15:35 and I came to the conclusion with every 15:37 other thing I could invest in it was not 15:40 going to get me where I wanted to go you 15:42 know I've got private Investments for 15:44 example Prosper on the island of Raton 15:46 uh that could pay off you know huge but 15:48 it's not liquid meaning I have stock 15:50 that has a sort of assigned Book value 15:53 that's worth a lot but it's not liquid 15:55 there's no way I can pay bills with that 15:57 and there's no Marketplace to sell that 15:59 stock today which means I have a you 16:01 know I have have wealth related to 16:03 private Investments meaning not publicly 16:05 traded I have wealth related to private 16:07 Investments but you can't you know you 16:10 can't live on uh you can't live on uh 16:12 you know paper numbers right it's you 16:14 got to be able to turn it into something 16:15 real that you can buy stuff with and my 16:17 private company Investments are not in 16:19 that category um so anyway so I had a 16:22 serious need to know so in 2021 after 16:25 thoroughly evaluating all the different 16:26 you know opportunities and assets I came 16:29 to the conclusion that Bitcoin was 16:31 likely the only asset that had the 16:34 upside necessary to get me where I 16:36 wanted to go and even though I had spent 16:39 down the vast majority of the assets I 16:41 had acquired with the sale of bomgar 16:44 Corporation in 2014 I still had enough 16:47 that if I put them in Bitcoin I could 16:50 start to get back to where I was before 16:52 and potentially over time even Beyond 16:55 where I was before um so that's what I 16:58 did I started in 202 16:60 uh I think I may have bought some 17:01 Bitcoin in 2020 but probably I was 17:03 probably in 2020 just watching my you 17:05 know 2017 2018 Bitcoin go up uh I think 17:09 it was 2021 that I really started buying 17:10 more Bitcoin especially after it peaked 17:13 in uh you know the early part of the 17:14 year in I think March or April or 17:16 whatever it was as the price started 17:18 coming down I was like all right I've 17:19 got to load up on this and I got to load 17:20 up on this like in a big way so I 17:22 started buying Bitcoin I started buying 17:24 more Bitcoin I started buying more 17:25 Bitcoin so I bought through the 2021 dip 17:28 from $69 ,000 or 17:30 $64,000 down to $30,000 I was buying 17:34 buying buying I think my single largest 17:36 buy uh the single largest buy of Bitcoin 17:38 I've ever done was for $39,000 and so 17:42 the price had gone up to 64,000 it had 17:44 come back down it was dropping 17:45 consistently of course I knew I was not 17:48 going to be ever be able to time the 17:50 perfect bottom of the market so 17:52 ultimately when I had the liquidity and 17:53 I had the conviction meaning I had done 17:55 enough research and to uh to be certain 17:58 I was making a good investment I think 18:00 the the largest single purchase of 18:02 Bitcoin I ever made was for 39 or just 18:04 under 18:05 $39,000 and that was in the summer of 18:08 2021 uh but then I continued to buy on 18:10 the way up and back down in 2021 and 18:12 then when 2022 came around and it just 18:14 started going down and down and down I 18:16 was like this is my chance Bitcoin is 18:18 Blessing Me Bitcoin is going to give me 18:20 a chance to ratchet what started at I 18:23 don't know whatever it was a few percent 18:25 or you know somewhere above 1% but not 18:28 enough to matter of net worth from way 18:30 back in 2017 2018 to I ratchet it up to 18:33 you know as I was making these purchases 18:35 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% uh you know 18:40 60% and then uh in probably coming into 18:44 2023 I probably had between um I don't 18:48 know it was above 60% of my liquid net 18:50 worth again not company not counting 18:52 private companies but of my uh liquid 18:54 net worth I probably had you know call 18:56 it 60% something like that in Bitcoin 18:58 and then in 22 I ratcheted up even more 19:01 and more and more probably to 80% and 19:04 then in 2023 uh as we got into 2023 I 19:07 was like okay I'm at like 80% Bitcoin 19:10 here I want to ratchet it up more but I 19:12 need some sort of assurance that if 19:15 something bad happens with the banking 19:17 system it's not going to get blamed on 19:18 bitcoin and uh I was finally given that 19:21 you know blessed by that in March of 19:24 2023 when Signature Bank Silicon Valley 19:27 Bank and um uh whatever the other one 19:30 was signature Silicon Valley Bank and 19:32 the Third Bank that uh that got taken 19:34 over by the government only one of them 19:37 was insolvent the other two were 19:38 assassinated literally the government 19:39 came in and said you're banking too much 19:41 with the crypto industry and we're just 19:43 shutting you down because we can um 19:46 which you know that was only discovered 19:48 in retrospect at the time they said they 19:50 were shutting them down because they 19:51 were insolvent but ultimately after they 19:53 were audited it was it it turned out 19:55 they were not insolvent so only one of 19:57 the three Banks actually was insolvent 19:59 the other two were just fine and the 20:01 government just took them over anyway 20:02 because they figured hey if we're taking 20:04 out One bank that serves the uh crypto 20:07 sector we might as well take out all 20:09 three of them and you know that will 20:11 hurt the industry um ultimately rather 20:13 than hurt the industry even though it 20:15 made you know it a little harder for 20:17 some of the participants to get bank 20:18 accounts um the effect was Bitcoin went 20:20 up and so that was the final signal I 20:22 was looking for that was like wow okay 20:25 three Banks blow up and get you know 20:27 taken over by the government and bailed 20:29 out and rather than go down you know 20:31 nobody's blaming this on bitcoin which 20:33 of course had nothing to do with it and 20:35 nobody's blaming this uh you know nobody 20:38 is you know sort of uh running away from 20:41 Bitcoin instead they're running to it 20:42 like everybody's like wow the money in 20:44 the banks are is not really safe like 20:46 they got bailed out this time by the 20:48 government but what if the government 20:50 had decided to teach everyone a lesson 20:52 and you know not bail out those people 20:54 and a lot of those Banks had a lot of 20:55 business accounts that had more than 20:57 $250,000 in them them so if you're a 20:60 startup company and you've just raised 21:01 $5 million and Silicon Valley Bank goes 21:04 under and you know 4.75 million of that 21:07 disappears and the FDIC gives you you 21:09 know 250,000 you know you're upside down 21:11 you're you're you're toast um so when 21:14 that happened in March of 2023 I was 21:16 like okay you know the banking sector 21:18 can blow up and it doesn't get B blamed 21:20 on bitcoin and rather than the price 21:23 going down because everyone's scared the 21:24 price actually goes up because 21:26 everybody's understands you know they 21:28 understand that Bitcoin is the one thing 21:30 the government can't do that to uh and 21:32 can't take over and all that uh so the 21:34 price went up so that's when I started 21:36 ratcheting from 80% of my liquid net 21:38 worth up to where I am today in the 21:40 ballpark of uh it's probably just a 21:42 little north of 97% of my liquid net 21:44 worth um so that's a very long story I 21:47 understand a very long story but uh the 21:49 summary of all that story is why don't I 21:51 own more Bitcoin one because I did not 21:55 have a need to know back in 2014 and 21:59 education on bitcoin is on an as needed 22:01 basis and I just didn't have a need to 22:02 know in 2014 uh in 2018 I still didn't 22:06 really I mean it was certainly growing 22:08 but I still didn't really have a need to 22:10 know in 2017 and 2018 which is why the 22:14 amount of Bitcoin I bought was again I 22:16 don't know pick a number but it's you 22:17 know not it's it's a number that's above 22:19 1% but it was sort of less than enough 22:21 to matter in 2017 and 2018 and then fast 22:25 forward to 2021 when I was in full-on 22:29 need to know basis I am officially 22:31 hunting for an asset that can get me 22:34 back where I was uh and Beyond back from 22:37 you know when I sold bomgar Corporation 22:38 in 2014 and after a rigorous examination 22:41 of everywhere I could possibly put money 22:44 uh determined that Bitcoin was it and 22:46 then ultimately I did what I always do 22:48 when you know I'm get interested in 22:49 something I learn everything there is to 22:51 know about it and then I read everything 22:53 against it so I have read every single 22:55 book that's ever been written that was 22:57 anti- Bitcoin or anti- crypto or 23:00 critical of Bitcoin or crypto to make 23:03 sure that I'm not missing anything to 23:05 make sure that they don't have a 23:06 compelling argument that I haven't 23:08 thought of that affects whether I think 23:10 Bitcoin is the best investment in the 23:11 world and after all of that rigorous 23:13 examination I can continue to increase 23:16 increase and increase the amount of 23:18 Bitcoin uh I have so um one thing I 23:21 don't think I've ever talked about is 23:23 what is my overall Blended cost basis my 23:26 guess my guess is that's in the sort of 23:30 let's call it the low 30,000 um so you 23:33 may be thinking wait low 30,000 you've 23:35 been in for Bitcoin for seven years 23:37 eight years now how are how is your cost 23:40 basis in the low 30,000 why is it not 23:42 down at pennies well because a 23:44 relatively small amount of the Bitcoin I 23:46 bought was back in 2017 and 2018 when it 23:49 was between you know 6,400 and 9,800 23:53 like that's just a relatively small 23:54 percentage of the total even though I 23:56 still own that Bitcoin um that's a 23:58 relatively small part of the whole and 24:00 I've been buying all the way up and all 24:02 the way down so uh I bought a lot of 24:04 Bitcoin Below $177,000 in 2022 but 24:07 that's offset by the fact of the that I 24:10 made the single largest individual 24:12 purchase in 2021 at 24:14 $339,000 so when you average all of that 24:17 in when you we you know you total up all 24:19 the Bitcoin I've ever bought uh divided 24:21 by all the money I've ever paid for it 24:23 or I think it's actually the reverse but 24:25 regardless when you when you divide one 24:27 number by the other number to figure out 24:29 okay on average what is the price I've 24:31 paid for the average Bitcoin over the 24:33 entire period of time I've been invested 24:35 in Bitcoin it's probably somewhere in 24:37 the low 30,000 so has that been 24:40 transformational for me yes now if we 24:43 because you know Bitcoin at 97 uh or 24:46 98,000 a coin is has means it's tripled 24:49 um now normally tripling is not a big 24:53 number but you're but in this case we're 24:55 talking about tripling all of my liquid 24:57 assets at the time that you know this 24:59 journey started in 2021 uh or I should 25:02 say that this journey started in Earnest 25:04 in 2021 and tripling is a huge deal if 25:07 it applies to all of your assets now in 25:10 this case it doesn't apply to all of my 25:11 assets it applies to 97% of my assets 25:13 which is basically all of my assets so 25:16 if I had wanted to I could have bought 25:18 Bitcoin as low as 25:20 $64,000 sat on it and then bragged to 25:22 everybody that my Bitcoin was up 10 to 25:25 15x uh but the problem was that would 25:27 have been true but per the previous math 25:30 I covered if you have 1% of your assets 25:32 in Bitcoin and it goes up 10 or 15x that 25:35 means you have 10 to 15% more which for 25:38 most people 10 to 15% more of their net 25:40 worth of all of their you know liquid 25:42 assets is not transformational I mean 25:45 that's you know obviously helpful but 25:47 it's not transformational which means 25:49 you got to put more than you know 1% in 25:52 um and for most people I say you know 25:54 when they ask me about retirement 25:55 accounts I'm like I don't know if it 25:56 were me and I was in their situation I'd 25:58 put in 20 or 30% uh because that way if 26:00 it goes up you know substantially it's 26:03 real money but at the same point it's 26:05 not like they're you know eating cat 26:07 food if the investment doesn't work out 26:09 um even though obviously it's extremely 26:11 painful you know to have 20 or 30% of 26:13 your assets in anything that doesn't 26:14 work out but in this case I think the 26:16 risk profile of Bitcoin is so low that 26:19 that's you know I would be very 26:20 comfortable and in my case I've got you 26:22 know way higher than that again of total 26:24 liquid assets including retirement funds 26:26 that's 97% now that does not count some 26:29 emergency funds that Rachel manages that 26:32 I do not have the legal right to and 26:33 that was set up back in 2014 uh I had 26:36 them wire uh a small part of the money 26:39 of the proceeds to uh of the sale of 26:41 bomgar Corporation to uh bank accounts 26:44 that Rachel controls that I don't 26:45 control um so and I told her I was like 26:48 look I have a very high risk appetite 26:50 and you know since we had sort of agreed 26:52 that I was going to manage the you know 26:54 the vast majority of our assets I was 26:56 like we really need a fund that I can't 26:57 touch you know to make sure that you 26:60 know we can still put food on the table 27:01 even if nothing I ever do works out um 27:04 so anyway so that 97% does not include 27:07 the funds that Rachel manages because um 27:09 I have no literally no legal right to 27:12 those funds no say over those funds and 27:14 I don't want to because the entire 27:15 purpose of setting it up that way is to 27:17 make sure that we had some 27:19 diversification um I guess not 27:21 diversification in the traditional sense 27:22 because it's a relatively small amount I 27:24 shouldn't say diversification to make 27:25 sure we had an emergency fund so that um 27:28 you know that those funds that she 27:30 manages plus the 3% that I manage that's 27:33 not in Bitcoin is our emergency Reserve 27:35 fund but again that's you know a very 27:37 small percentage of the total and for 27:39 the liquid assets that I could possibly 27:41 invest in Bitcoin we're at 97% Bitcoin 27:44 um and the rest is like a smattering of 27:47 stocks and bonds and whatever normal 27:49 people who are not bitcoiners invest in 27:51 anyway so all that to say the reason I 27:53 don't have more to to resmar for the 27:55 second third or fourth time is I did not 27:58 have need to know I was not desperate 27:60 for a solution in 2014 or 2018 and by 28:03 the time I was in 2021 the prices were a 28:05 lot higher so even though I ultimately 28:07 committed the you know the vast vast 28:09 vast majority of all the assets I had to 28:11 bitcoin I was buying most of that 28:14 Bitcoin in 2021 2022 2023 and 2024 and 28:20 the lowest the price has ever been at 28:22 any point from 2021 to the present is 28:25 15,500 so by definition even my absolute 28:29 best timed Investments are whatever 28:32 15,000 into 100 is whatever that's you 28:34 know however many per you know X that is 28:37 but again even that that's offset with 28:39 Bitcoin I mean I'm I made a sixf 28:41 figureure investment in Bitcoin at 28:42 68,000 as well so like all of that has 28:44 to be average so that's why my average 28:46 cost basis is probably in the low 30, 28:48 thousands which means that I have triple 28:51 the assets I would have had I not gone 28:54 down the Bitcoin Road well I should say 28:56 had I left that in stocks and bonds 28:57 they'd be up some 28:59 so instead of tripling you know those 29:01 same assets would have been up I don't 29:02 know some percentage um but they were in 29:05 the stock market until I bought Bitcoin 29:07 with them so you know most of those 29:09 assets were benefiting from the the 29:11 upside of the stock market for most of 29:12 that time period because the way I 29:14 bought Bitcoin was literally wiring you 29:17 know funds from uh either Charles Schwab 29:20 or Fidelity or wherever they were um in 29:22 retirement or not retirement accounts 29:24 but investment accounts wiring money 29:26 from investment accounts to coinbase to 29:27 buy Bitcoin so those funds were in 29:30 Investments until the very last second 29:32 before they got Comm uh committed to 29:34 bitcoin but regardless the Bitcoin is 29:36 still again if you triple if you triple 29:38 your entire net worth is that 29:40 transformational yeah I it feels 29:42 transformational to me you know three 29:44 times as much coming from where I was 29:46 after having spent the majority of my 29:48 funds multiple times you know you take 29:50 any amount of money you have and drop it 29:51 in half and then drop it in half again 29:53 and you know maybe a third time and it's 29:55 like you're not going to have a whole 29:56 lot or you know maybe not a whole lot 29:58 but but you're going to have way less 29:59 than you used to and but if it's enough 30:02 to matter and in my case I was able to 30:04 Triple what was still enough to matter 30:06 um yeah that's transformational that's a 30:08 big deal and given the huge amount of 30:10 upside that Bitcoin still has in my 30:12 opinion um you know I think bitcoin's 30:15 got an easy 10x you know Michael sailor 30:17 says bitcoin's going to go to 13 million 30:19 a coin which is 130x from where we are 30:21 today so yeah if it goes 130x where we 30:23 are today I'm going to be fantastic um 30:27 if it only uh reaches PA with the price 30:28 of gold which is about between 9x call 30:30 it 9x where it is today yeah if I triple 30:33 my money to get where I am today and 30:35 then I 9x it again that's pretty 30:38 fantastic um so any amount any amount of 30:41 money you have that you're investing in 30:43 Bitcoin if you do the same thing I did 30:44 which is buy as much Bitcoin as you can 30:47 um then you know as it goes through a 30:49 10x multiple between now and 2030 that's 30:52 10x and if that's a 10x a meaningful 30:54 percentage of your net worth that ends 30:56 up being a big deal um so that's my 30:58 story had I bought a lot more Bitcoin a 31:00 lot sooner I'd have a lot more Bitcoin 31:02 and a lot more wealth in US Dollars I 31:05 just I didn't have the motivation uh 31:07 motivation meaning the need I did not 31:09 have the need for Bitcoin in 2014 or 31:11 2018 and by the time I got around to 31:13 buying substantial amounts of Bitcoin 31:15 with a high degree of conviction with 31:16 deep research you know way down the 31:19 Bitcoin Rabbit Hole knowing everything 31:20 there's to know and reading all the 31:21 books against it and for it and all that 31:23 by the time I got to doing about all of 31:25 that I was buying most of the Bitcoin I 31:27 own in 2021 2022 2023 and 2024 and in 31:31 those four years again you know Bitcoin 31:34 was a lot cheaper than it is today but 31:36 it wasn't on fire sale prices I could 31:38 have had in 2017 or 2018 or the 31:41 practically steel I could have had 31:44 buying Bitcoin back in 2014 if I had 31:46 bought it when I first heard about it so 31:47 um anyway hopefully that story is 31:49 helpful um hopefully it helps you 31:51 understand that everyone's Bitcoin 31:53 Journey probably looks like mine it does 31:55 not involve getting in on bitcoin early 31:57 buying a ton of it the very first time 31:59 you hear about it and then becomeing you 32:01 know unfathomably Rich that is virtually 32:04 nobody's story because I don't know 32:06 anybody that buys Bitcoin when they he 32:08 hear about it for the very first time 32:09 nobody buys anything the very first time 32:11 they hear about it and when it's still 32:14 around four years later and they're like 32:16 wow this thing's still around I should 32:17 take this seriously nobody goes and 32:19 dumps 97% of their entire net worth into 32:22 something that they only heard about or 32:23 took seriously the second time virtually 32:26 everybody does what I did which is you 32:28 hear about it and ignore it a few years 32:30 goes by you hear about it you take it 32:32 seriously to buy it enough a little bit 32:35 then a few years goes by and eventually 32:36 you get where I got which is you have an 32:38 actual real legit need and when you have 32:41 an actual real legit need well then you 32:44 buy a lot of Bitcoin and for me that 32:47 actual real legit need that led me to 32:49 buy you know to convert 97% ultimately 32:53 of my liquid net worth into Bitcoin was 32:55 a need I did not have until 2021 and and 32:58 that means you know 2021 2022 2023 and 33:01 2024 those prices were the prices I was 33:05 buying most of my Bitcoin at which again 33:07 is why my probably average cost per 33:09 Bitcoin is in the again my best guess 33:11 would be the you know low $30,000 33:13 something like that so hopefully all of 33:16 this is helpful in your own Bitcoin 33:17 journey I here to help you in any way I 33:19 can I try to share as much detail about 33:21 my own journey and my own life as I 33:23 possibly can with the help that it with 33:25 the hope that it will help you 33:27 understand how your journey fits with 33:29 all this and that your journey is 33:31 probably not different than mine um and 33:34 hopefully if I did anything differently 33:36 first of all I don't regret any of the 33:38 uh the money I've spent on anything I 33:40 don't regret any of that um because look 33:43 you can't change the world by sitting on 33:45 money money is intended to be spent and 33:48 had I not undertaken the things I did 33:50 the eight years I was in the House of 33:52 Representatives in Mississippi or the 33:54 you know three and a half years I spent 33:56 full-time working to bring uh a viable 33:59 well-regulated you know medical 34:01 marijuana Pro program to Mississippi had 34:04 I not done any of those things we 34:05 wouldn't have them uh the medical 34:07 marijuana program in Mississippi now has 34:09 50,000 patients 50,000 people are able 34:14 to use the medical benefits of medical 34:16 marijuana without risking being arrested 34:19 and had I not done that those 50,000 34:21 people every day would wake up wondering 34:23 if they're either allowed to use it or 34:26 if they're going to you know use it 34:27 anyway and risk getting arrested 34:28 and humans should not be in that 34:30 position with a medical product so um so 34:32 anyway so I don't regret any of the 34:34 money I've spent on any of that sort of 34:36 stuff even though if I had it today 34:37 obviously I could buy way way way way 34:39 way more Bitcoin um but I don't regret 34:41 any of that because the positive impact 34:43 it had on the world is the point of 34:45 money the point of money is to make 34:47 yourself and your life better the life 34:49 of your family better and the life of 34:50 everybody else better and so I don't 34:53 regret any of the money I've spent again 34:55 even if you made me audit every dollar 34:57 I've ever spent I would still say 34:59 probably 98% 99% is things I'm proud of 35:02 that I would do again I maybe 1% or 2% I 35:05 would say yeah that was a waste of money 35:08 like that went nowhere and you know 35:09 positively affected nobody but um but 35:13 anyway it was I I feel really good about 35:15 all of that and I feel good about the 35:17 amount of money I still had left to buy 35:19 Bitcoin because it was still enough to 35:21 matter and being being enough to matter 35:24 is a big deal um and again if it 10 if 35:27 it 10x is from here or if 100x is from 35:30 here or 130x is from here like Michael 35:32 sailor thinks it will well all of that 35:34 is a huge deal and a very positive 35:36 impact um for me personally and then I 35:39 can do the exact same thing with that 35:40 money that I did with the last money 35:42 which is turn it around and use it to 35:44 positively impact the world so that's my 35:46 plan to do it and to do it over and over 35:48 and over uh till the day I die 35:50 positively impacting as many people as I 35:52 possibly can every which way I can with 35:55 uh Bitcoin the engine of wealth that 35:58 makes it all possible so have a 35:60 wonderful day everyone and hopefully 36:01 Bitcoin can be the engine of wealth for 36:04 you that it has been for me enabling me 36:06 to achieve objectives that I otherwise 36:08 would not be able to and feel great 36:11 about where things are and the exciting 36:13 future ahead have a great day everyone 36:15 thanks