Weekend Engagement - Dare To Be Different

Name and explain one regret and one thing you do not regret.

Let's start with the first one.

I'm generally a person that don't live life with regrets because I strive to do my best each day and if something doesn't work out, it happens for a reason and there's always lessons to be learnt, and it's part of our life experience. So, if I had to pick something that is close enough to be a "regret", I think it would be giving up the chance of being a Statistician.

I always enjoyed Mathematics when I was young, and when the subjects became more specialised at higher levels of education, I found myself very interested and passionate about Statistics, which might seem like Mathematics to most people but it's a little different. Simply put, Statistics is all about data and numbers, projecting trends, testing of hypotheses, etc. While most people studied the "popular" courses such as Engineering, Accounting or Finance in university, I decided to pursue my own passion and studied 4 years of Statistics.

When I graduated, I wanted to look for a job where I could apply what I have learnt and a natural job would be a Statistician. In the end, I remembered that I had 3 job offers (including the Statistician one), and considering all the different factors, from job location, monthly pay, job stability, etc I went for something else.

Like I mentioned in the earlier paragraph, I don't live life with regrets. While I have learnt stuff in many new areas in my 12 years of working life, the little boy in me will sometimes wonder if my life would turn out differently if I became a Statistician and levelled up in my passion.

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And now, to something more positive.

There are many things that I do not regret, and one of the first ones that came to my mind would be to learn about cryptocurrencies, which includes joining the Hive community as well.

My first experience with cryptocurrencies was in 2017 when Bitcoin made the news for going from USD 1,000 to USD 20,000 within a short span of time. While many were skeptical, and even till to this day, I was open-minded and curious enough to want to explore and learn what this whole thing was.

Of course, like I would tell others, it's always a rollercoaster in the cryptocurrencies space. Prices jump and plunge at much bigger magnitudes compared to the conventional financial markets, but to me, it's more exciting that way.

The journey wasn't smooth sailing of course. I experienced scams or maybe they call it "rug pull", earned some profits from getting in early, but also lost money in coins that didn't do well. And incident after incident, cycle after cycle, little did I realise that I was growing. I was gradually gaining more experience and knowledge with this asset class. I have also gotten more comfortable with the level of volatility. And I have also become better at spotting good projects, and identifying bad ones. Just like everything we do, when we put in the hours, we gradually improve and become better and better.

Even till now, most people have never heard of any other cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin and probably still think it will become zero someday. If I believed people around me back then, and didn't dare to think differently and step out to explore, my life would have been very different compared to now.

Summing up this post, I found this paper bag which had an interesting quote: Dare To Be Different. And I thought this was how I have lived my life, always being open-minded to new stuff, challenging myself to learn new things, while taking calculated risks at the same time. So, thanks for reading!