Investment decisions are not solely about price predictions and coin analysis. They are about life — people trade not only for pleasure, but they are driven by the wish to improve their lives. Today, we will share two stories with you. They are about investing, but you won’t find any market review here — because they are also about people. People who once bet everything on crypto and that had consequences. People who reached success and failed in their desire to profit from crypto. Whether you invest much in crypto or not, these stories can bring you some insights about investing and forming a life strategy in general.Disrupting the systemA man who sold everything bought Bitcoin before 2017, a went on a crypto-nomadic “decentralized life” with his familyA man with a Bitcoin logo tattoo on his arm, Didi Taihuttu, is 41 years old and calls himself the “patriarch of the Bitcoin Family.” Fiat money is a part of his past, not present.His story took off in 2013. A young man who Didi hired in his business told him about Bitcoin, and Taihuttu started mining it as it was “an evolution to disrupt systems” — something he was doing his entire life. Bitcoin mining was astonishingly promising at the time, and Didi spent 4,000 Euros on computers to start taking profits. Which, however, didn’t work out — Bitcoin collapsed in 2014, and the hardware was sold.This could have been the end of the story, but not in the case of Didi. In 2017, his friend gave him a call and warned that the revolution of Bitcoin was starting and it’s time to get back into crypto. That day, Didi came to his wife with an even crazier proposal: “Darling, let’s sell our car, house, and everything else for Bitcoin.”Romaine may have said no — if not the kids. Do you think she wanted to secure and multiply her savings with scarce and inflation-proof Bitcoin? No — the reason was almost totally opposite. Didi was claiming that the wealth and stability that they had at the time were bad for the kids. In 2016, the family visited their roots in Indonesia — and saw most of the people growing rice for their living and having no access to banks, which made them think about the nature of cryptocurrency and blockchain. Later on, Didi’s father died from cancer, and all his savings couldn’t cure him. Taihuttu’s family realized money wasn’t really important for them anymore — but simply being with each other was.Romaine said yes. The family sold most of what they had for Bitcoin and went to Thailand, where they joined a group of other traveling families. A few months in a small town weren’t a problem — the basic infrastructure accepted crypto. The next destination was the Netherlands — there, they bought the rest of their Bitcoin for $1,000–2,000. In December that year, the first cryptocurrency hit $20,000.At its peak, Didi was thinking of cashing out and transferring his wealth back into fiat — this would secure his savings for the rest of his life. However, he made the decision not to get involved with the banking system anymore — and it didn’t change even when Bitcoin’s prices started to crash in January 2018.With today’s Bitcoin at nearly $50,000, Didi’s story is a story of success. Would it be different if Bitcoin didn’t skyrocket? We can’t know that. But we know that when the prices started to drop in 2018, Didi was firm in his decision to keep his life decentralized. His crypto stayed with him, and his family did, too. That’s what matters for Didi.How to lose a 3-year salary in crypto and not abandon itAnyone reading Didi’s story could oppose — this is a survivor bias, there could have been people with the same goals and values, but they didn’t make it to blogs’ and magazines’ pages because they failed and no one knows their stories. We believe that this is a valid argument, and that’s why we want to introduce you to Helvis — a man who lost 60,000$ in several weeks.You definitely know the rule “Don’t invest more than you can afford to lose.” When the 2017 bull run came, Helvis was happy to forget this rule. He put in his last $2,000 while listening to Twitter shouting about the bull run that is to come. With no plan and poor research, Helvis was eager to invest.Everything that followed was kind of a blur: Helvis barely remembers when he shaped his investment strategy. He put his money into Verge and Tron, and after they made him the blazing $60,000 out of $2,000 in just 4 months, he swapped for Ethereum. With Helvis’s total yearly income of $24,000, the success seemed tremendous. You may guess what followed next — the man started to want more.And when you want more, you put your funds in the most potentially lucrative (but also the riskiest) assets. Helvis put his money in Bitcoin that collapsed a few months later, ICOs that turned out to be a scam, and did margin trading — the synonym of risk. He got totally obsessed, and while losing his mind, he lost about 99% of his investments.There is, however, some kind of a happy end in this story. Two years after Helvis lost everything in crypto, he is still involved in it — this time, as a blockchain developer. And after the emotions played out, Helvis is ready to take a wiser look at what happened and learn a few lessons:There was too much emotion. Doing research and shaping a reasoned strategy is the first thing to do when you enter crypto. The second one is learning to understand and control your emotions.There was a feeling of control over the market, which was only a delusion. When coins grow just as you expected, it’s cool, but that doesn’t mean they will continue doing so forever at your will.He didn’t learn. Have you heard of the Dunning–Kruger effect? After reading a beginner’s guide, Helvis thought he’s now an expert in crypto trading. That played a bad trick with him.Your own wayIt may seem that Didi’s story is about good luck, and Helvis’s story is about bad luck. They couldn’t control market swings that brought them to where they are. However, what they could control was their wish to change their lives and the ways they chose to make it a reality. You may have your own idea of changing your life with crypto — and if you do, make sure you’ve counted the risks and your emotions will only help you on your way.Check out our new platform 👉 https://thecapital.io/https://twitter.com/thecapital_iohttps://upscri.be/3c1144What Happens When You Bet Everything On Crypto. Two Stories And One Conclusion was originally published in The Capital on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.