As everyone knows, in addition to being a trader, investing in crypto, "rewinding history" and gossiping on Youtube. I have another job, which is to sit in coffee, beer, and lemon tea to chat with my friends.

Thanks to these things, I also have the opportunity to learn a lot of things, even from perspectives that are different from mine. And you can also talk about your perspective, what you've been through to give them a different perspective.

Since the end of 2022 until now, I have never listened to so many stories of difficulties, insolvency, and bankruptcy.

What I mean here is traditional businesses, not just investing in stocks, real estate or crypto.

Currently, until the end of 2023, my perspective is still not very positive about the economic situation. Perhaps there will be more businesses and investors using leverage to no longer be able to survive.

If the economy is not positive, most of the income of most workers will decrease, whether it is an absolute decrease or due to inflation, salary reduction or unemployment will also increase.

It sounds negative when I say it, but I think this is a time when there will be many positive points for those who know how to seize the opportunity.

Whether the economy, or nature, always has cycles, like how we are born and then die, how the earth rotates around itself, around the sun, 4 spring, summer, fall, and winter, economic growth and then decline. withdrawal,…

The sunset of this cycle will be followed by the dawn of the next cycle.

Without these moments there would not be much opportunity to change the order. Great powers will always be great powers, colonies will still be colonies.

And the rich will continue to be rich like this:

Folk

“The king's son becomes a king, and the monk at the temple sweeps banyan leaves.
When the people get angry, the defeated king's son will come out and sweep the pagoda."

TIME TO CHANGE POSITION

In contrast to the flow of time, there will always be times when there are strong changes where we can change our position, such as changes in technology.

Thinking back to myself, I also experienced times when I could change my position but there were times I missed:

Around 2008-2009

At this time, I was in 12th grade and trying to create a ChuyenLy.net forum, and a music listening website (I didn't know how to code, mainly looking for instructions to follow, still the same to this day). Toan went to code forums to participate in events asking for hosting and domain because he had no money.

The reason why I started "making" a website is so ridiculous. Because some guys in my class had their accounts banned from the school forum, I thought I'd create my own forum. Hearing the name of the website ChuyenLy.net, it's actually just the kids in the class and a few upperclassmen who go there.

I blindly placed Google Adsense, that day GA had just launched so it was very easy. After 1 or 2 weeks of placing an order, I saw it jumping up to over 200$.

But at that time, I thought I thought it was just a fun game, I didn't have a bank account, I ended up playing it and got locked out and quit. Calculating that day 200$, sitting on the net must have been tiring.

Around 2013: When I graduated from university

Around fate, I went back to doing some online things I used to play with in high school that I forgot about during college.

At that time, online sales and FB advertising were just starting, so costs were very cheap and there was little competition. At that time, there was still no clear concept of the Digital Marketing profession.

After I quit my job at the company, my first startup was selling men's office shoes.

Around 2016-2017: Know the Financial market from Forex, then coin. I'm also very enthusiastic about taking advantage of changing positions, but changing positions to lose all the accumulated money, leaving a large amount of money negative...

After that, I worked hard on Marketing to get it back, mainly combining with others who had the source of goods and dividing the profits 50:50. I would be in charge of building an online channel to push the goods.

Then do MMO and Dropship. In general, I will do anything that can use Marketing skills and doesn't require holding on to goods or investing a lot of capital.

The me at this time is actually very confused, because I do many things to make money but I keep thinking and don't know what I really like?

Gradually, I also spent time learning to invest more seriously, then had some results, gradually I only traded and invested, living the free life I wanted.

Fortunately, due to many failures from previous times, in the years 2022 - 2023, I will not be affected too much.

There's nothing special or difficult about what I do. I've shared most of what I've done, how I manage risks, etc. on 2 Youtube channels and blog posts.

Why do I see this as a period of transition?

The times I mentioned the times I had the opportunity to change my position above were mostly just big changes in technology: like the appearance of Google search, social networks, Smartphones,...

But at this time we are having both changes in the economic recession, and also technology with the explosion of the AI era.

The economic recession signals the time when the stars change and we are closer to the start of a new cycle. The intersection points of each cycle are always chaotic times, the old is weak, the new gradually get stronger.

Financial markets at these times are often gloomy and cheap, people after a period of disillusionment when the market is still very scared and others... run out of money. It takes some time for the brain to forget this pain, and the market "has money" to increase again.

This is the time when people can learn financial knowledge and gradually accumulate to increase investment assets. In addition, at this time, old businesses, warehouses, and stores due to operating costs, high interest rates, and large inventories can easily go bankrupt, and there are many opportunities for new people.

Every time there is an explosion of a technological period, a lot will change because with technology it will make every job easier and less costly.

And those who take the lead and apply it in the right direction will always have an advantage. After that, more and more these technologies will gradually be popularized, everything will gradually become more saturated and everyone will have to adapt to survive whether they like it or not. Either way, you have to learn why not take the time to approach early to have an advantage.

What can be done during this transition period?

This is my personal perspective at this time, combining experiences that I have had and that are suitable for me. Everyone can choose what is suitable for themselves!

I will divide this section into 3 parts: About investment finance, About Freelancer-marketing & the part I think is the most important About your inner self

About finance and investment

Do not buy liabilities in installments or borrow interest to invest.

This is the most prerequisite factor, because interest rates are high, it is uncertain when the economy or investment markets can grow again.

Buying unnecessary things in installments will erode your income with high interest rates, and miss the opportunity to use that money for investment or business capital.

If you are in debt, prioritize paying off debts with the highest interest rates first such as consumer loans, credit card debt, etc.

Later, when you pay it off, you will find that the feeling of living without debt is much happier than the feeling of owning things that lose value over time and are not yours.

Allocate capital into investment markets to manage risk

Each financial market has its own characteristics, good and bad points

Do not go all in on any market whether forex, crypto or stocks. Especially with Forex because this is a CFD market that uses Margin. If you can't control the risks or emotions, you can lose a lot.

Previously, I wrote an article about risk management that you can read: Minimize investment risks - Lessons from the egg-selling aunt

Crypto The market is still very potential, the downtrend is an opportunity for you to increase your assets in the future, not when the uptrend comes.

In addition, in this market, those who do not have capital can take advantage of the time to do an airdrop.

Last time, I received a total airdrop of more than 10k$ from the Optimism, Arbitrum, Aptos platforms. Even though I'm not an airdrop farmer, I'm just a user. I think this amount of money in the downtrend is for students, new graduates, or people who don't have enough capital to change their position.

Stock Personally, I think the risks are quite high, both politically and the time it takes to reach the top is quite long, but it is a safe channel for those who like to follow the traditional style.

Currently, I'm most afraid of stocks when a company suddenly gets involved in legal trouble, and I'm not good at fundamental analysis of companies.

If you are like me, you can apply Price Action to analyze VN30 ETFs and then buy DCA fund certificates, not individual stocks. This will avoid current political and economic risks.

I'm just learning about real estate and don't have any experience to share yet

Most people know me through Forex analysis, but now Most of its capital is in investment channels like Crypto, Stocks because analysis is easier and more leisurely.

Each person's investment position at each time will be different, but I still think the best way is if you make profits from Forex, don't be too eager to increase your account, withdraw profits to participate in investment channels. Other thoughts are safer, more sedentary and leisurely.

Focus on making money, reduce targets

Opportunities when the economy is in recession and cheap assets like this do not appear continuously. So I think the necessary thing at this time is to focus on making money, reducing spending to save money for DCA assets like Crypto, Stocks. One dollar we spend today may be 4.5 dollars in the future.

To do this, people can refer to a minimalist lifestyle, both less dependent on material things and more comfortable.

Before, I also wrote an article about the minimalist lifestyle, everyone can read it Minimalist Living – Trends and Misconceptions?

About Business – Freelancer

• Being a Freelancer or starting a business for yourself currently does not require too much capital, there are many support tools, and the cost is cheap so I think anyone can start. Mainly find the fields you like or have advantages in
• Use AI like ChatGPT, Midjourney,... to apply work into a process. I find it very good to use whether doing SEO, Marketing, Content, Business, Google Sheet, photo editing,...
• Whether you work as a Freelancer or start a startup, start with the smallest things, low operating costs, don't rush to start making a big deal, importing large batches of products, or renting a big office. Everything needs to be tested and modified, the important thing initially is to survive in the market for a long time.
• Doing the smallest things also helps you understand the market, understand customers, understand the product, what is important, what is not. And most importantly, it gives you flexibility when competing with large, sluggish competitors in the industry.
• Don't copy someone else's model exactly, analyze your strengths and find what you can improve. If you keep copying the exact same thing, or using AI or tools to spam or clone, you won't be able to go far or develop. As in the Crypto market, projects that only fork large projects without anything special cannot last long.

About yourself internally - The most important thing

The external things above are also important, but what I think helps us overcome all changes or difficulties is our own internal self.

Like a boat sailing in a storm, it needs a good boat and a talented captain who knows how to adapt to unexpected developments. But to improvise with the unexpected, you need experience, and from experience you will have calmness and confidence.

People often say "Failure is the mother of success, so you should fail many times." I partly agree because no one can succeed immediately without experiencing failure. Even if you have succeeded according to a certain definition, you can still continue to accept failure in different things.

However, failure is only valuable when you know how to look back to evaluate, and learn from experience for the next time.

I believe that each person will have different destinations for themselves.

Try to get out of the way according to society's standards of success such as having a lot of money, good job, salary, big house, luxury car, happy family, successful children,... or following the standards other things like going to many places, experiencing many things, freedom, retiring early,...

Let go of standards and think about what you really want to do. Because when you determine what you want and what kind of person you want to become, you can feel happy when walking on that path.

Because every job and every journey will have its own advantages and disadvantages, nothing is perfect. By determining this, you will avoid standing on this mountain looking at that mountain.

For example, with me,I really like making money So before, when I first graduated, started a startup, MMO,... I always saw images of entrepreneurs, that I had to become this or that boss, expand into a chain, manage many employees...

When I learned about Trading and Investing, I wanted to see million-dollar traders with pictures of luxury cars, big houses, wealth, etc. all over the internet.

After having a little success, being delusional and then being slapped in the face by the mindset of wanting to get rich quickly, I became more mature and found a suitable direction and found myself truly enjoying the way I am now: a free life. Doing what you like, living simply and sincerely, having an abundant material life "enough" for yourself and your loved ones

Because I realized that everything I thought I wanted before was a desire for external things, images I wanted others to see, not my true value.

The biggest influences on myself are: Vipassana Meditation, Minimalist lifestyle & long period of isolation from social networks

After many failures and too much stress, I initially turned to Zen just as a solution to help me sleep at night. Then I sat down and walked away for a long time without sitting because I thought that was enough.

Only later did I gradually realize its benefits, and Zen actually has to be sat regularly as a habit, not like a Western medicine that can only be used when you are sick.

The 3 things mentioned above are like a tripod that helps me understand more about myself, know what I really want, balance between material and spiritual things, understand what is important instead of thinking in a rut, during the quarantine period. Social networks also help Protect the immature things you are learning from the surrounding environment.

Later, when my mind is stable, I can return to using Social Networks with a different mindset. And only choose to follow and interact with what is positive and suitable for you.

I think it is not necessary to quit your job to explore and learn new things, doing extra work outside will not take too much time if you cut down on time like surfing tiktok, playing games, drinking, etc. Watching movies, etc. I think maybe you don't need to remove it completely, just cut out a part and that's fine.

I find studying and doing in a small amount of time regularly is much more effective than putting it all into a short period of time and then seeing that it's not effective right away and giving up.

Each of us comes to this life to experience and learn lessons for ourselves. There are positive things, there are unsatisfactory things, there are unexpected things that happen, there are also good people, there are bad people...

But that's life, If life had to be as flat as a straight line like a heart rate monitor, we would be "dead".

When doing anything, keep a mindset of learning first, you can do anything, whether it's manual work or something else.

In the past, when I started selling shoe stores, I painted them myself. There were still times when I carried bags of shoes at the bus station like a delivery man, and I polished shoes no less than street shoe shiners, the only thing was. I'll play a little slower. Whether your job is to orient a startup, marketing, advertising, website,...

Often people will think that they have to ignore small things to have the mind to think about big, macro things. This is true, but it depends on the time. When you first start, you start from the smallest thing, embracing each pair of shoes, only then will you know what the quality is, what are the strengths, and participating in each process can improve the process.

Later, when I was older, I empowered others and focused on more macro things. Don't be so quick to think that as soon as you start a startup, you think you're the boss and don't care about the small, manual things anymore.

Some of these are just my own experiences in my journey so far, I haven't thought about writing them all yet? Hopefully everyone can pick up a few things that are suitable for your own journey.

In the end, everything happened, we can't turn back time anymore. What can be done is to accept the lesson and move on.

Sometimes difficulties, being laid off, bankruptcy, and uncertainty bring the greatest resilience. At least that's how it was for me..