From “Making It” to “Now What?”

Happy Saturday, friends!

Pretty personal post today, as I’ve had a lot of time to think lately.

Read on to see what’s next for me.

Btw, if you want daily updates from me (posting like 10x per day), then check out my free TG channel: https://t.me/cryptogoodreads

Been a while since I sent out my last Substack article. Not because I am tired of writing, but because I’ve been reflecting on what’s next in my life, and thus also the direction of my newsletter.

Currently in Switzerland at the moment, and will live here until October before I make a new decision about whether I want to extend my stay and move here permanently, or if I want to go back to Scandinavia.

Well, here are some life thoughts. As I have a lot of time to reflect here.

For all of my life, I have dreamt about being independent.

Working for myself. Having no fixed schedule. Not having to wake up at a specific time because someone else decided that I should be at a specific place. Not living a life like most of the people I saw around me.

I am not saying that a normal life is bad. For a lot of people, it is probably the best possible path. A stable job, a stable relationship, kids, routines, weekends, holidays, and knowing roughly what the next ten years will look like.

But I have always found it hard to imagine that life for myself.

Almost 15 years ago, I had a plan to live solely from odds betting. I created accounts on more than 60 bookmakers to get deposit bonuses and the best possible odds. I built a “system” that worked well with low stakes, but it was impossible to scale because of bookmaker limitations.

Still, it taught me something important.

There had to be another path out there. Something outside of the classical 9-5.

When I was younger, I remember sitting in my cubicle at the office one evening after work, staring out the window and asking myself: how could I continue waking up, completely unexcited about everything I was going to do day after day?

At that point, I did not know exactly what I wanted. I only knew that I wanted freedom.

I wanted the ability to be anywhere I wanted. I wanted to progress my career without feeling like my entire life belonged to somebody else. I wanted to have time to think, read, write, travel, train, meet interesting people, and work on things that genuinely interested me.

So I searched Google for “How to quit my job forever.”

Early Retirement Extreme and Mr. Money Moustache were some of the first pages that came up. I read everything in a couple of days. I remember thinking:

“WTF, could I really quit my job in a couple of years by investing?”

There was no way back after that.

Crypto and online investments were starting to become more mainstream. I got completely infatuated. I spent hours every day learning, researching, interacting with new innovations, and speaking with people who had already been in crypto for years.

I wanted to know what it would feel like to work on myself and my strengths instead of spending the best hours of the day making somebody else richer.

I was good at managing money, but I wanted to go all-in on investing. I changed jobs, increased my income, and kept pushing my savings rate higher. At one point, I went from saving 40% of my income to saving over 90%.

Then crypto started working.

I got addicted to investing. It was like a game, but unlike any other game, effort seemed to compound. The more time I spent learning, the more opportunity I saw. My salary was rising, my online income was rising, and eventually I was earning more from the internet than I ever earned from my 9-5.

I started dreaming about $100m.

But even at that point, I had a strange feeling. I remember thinking: what would I have to sacrifice to keep this pace up for the next 30 years?

I knew that earning money was not what life was all about. If I spent every day optimizing only for the number, I would probably lose something deep inside of me. At the time, I did not have the words for it.

Maybe “wasted potential” was what I meant.

Back in 2021, I was optimizing for making it no matter what.

I was sacrificing literally everything to focus on crypto. Most days, I did nothing other than being online. I slept too little. I rarely met friends. I neglected my health completely. It was a bull run, and I wanted to maximize every possible minute of it.

Deep down, I knew it would not last forever. I told myself it was temporary.

Looking back, the rules were extremely simple:

• Survive.

• Stack.

• Do not miss the move.

Winning was a number on a screen.

There are periods in life where I think this mentality is necessary. If you are starting from nothing, hungry enough, and have an unusual opportunity in front of you, you probably need to take it seriously. You cannot half-ass it.

The counterargument to balance is that being really good at something often requires obsession. The minute you try to optimize every area of your life equally, you might lose the edge that made you good at the game in the first place.

I am not going to pretend that I would not do it again. I probably would.

There is a time for everything. If you are hungry enough, you do what it takes to get there.

But there is a cost.

The cost is your health. Your relationships. Your ability to enjoy ordinary days. Your ability to sleep without waking up in fear because you have big perp positions and spot exposure.

During some periods, I slept terribly. Waking up several times every night, checking whether something had gone wrong, worrying about an exchange blowup, a liquidation cascade, a market crash, or some random piece of news that could destroy a position.

I do not recommend it to anyone.

The strange thing is that once you hit a meaningful number, the game changes.

If you keep playing by the old rules—maximum risk, zero balance, everything for upside—you either blow yourself up or end up weirdly empty.

The question is no longer just: how do I make it?

The question becomes:

What is the new game, and what does winning look like across money, health, relationships, meaning, and freedom?

By 2026, I am more secure. I do not have to spend all my time online. I can, in theory, do what I want with my days.

Ngl, that is both a good and bad thing.

Financial freedom removes a lot of stress, but it can also remove your hunger. The hunger I had in 2021 is not there in the same way anymore. I started feeling that in 2025.

I have spoken to other people on CT who made significant gains, and a lot of them describe something similar. It is often just a phase. You are adapting to a new life.

But it can feel kind of illegal to wake up and decide exactly what you want to do every day.

When you have too much unstructured time, it is easy to slip into doing nothing. I had a period where I partied too much, went on lots of dates, and generally wasted time.

Trust me, it is an empty lifestyle.

I think there are two main failure modes after “making it.”

• You go full hedonism: parties, trips, casual dating, spending, dopamine. It feels good for a while, but the dopamine curve is steep and short. You wake up feeling more numb than before.

• You go full drift mode: no structure, no clear targets, no new goals, and days that slowly blur into each other.

Neither feels like freedom in the end.

Freedom without direction can become another trap.

I used to think that the entire point of freedom was escaping routine.

Then I had too much freedom, too much time, too many options, and no clear structure. I became lazy, out of routine, unable to focus. My brain had hundreds of ideas crashing into each other.

It was overwhelming.

That is when I learned one of the most important lessons about being a digital nomad:

You need a routine.

“The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine.”

That quote stuck with me. I started building habits again. Working, training, reading, writing, sleeping properly, and having some structure around my day.

I finally felt like myself again.

The goal is not to recreate the prison of a 9-5. The goal is to have enough structure that your freedom does not become chaos.

I think humans need that. Even if we claim that we want unlimited options, we perform better when we know what we are trying to do.

There are days when I want to escape from everything.

Just leave my country, start again somewhere new, know nobody, and vibe.

I do not know exactly where that feeling comes from. I am happy and content where I live. I have family, friends, routines, and a safe life. But there is something incredibly freeing about going somewhere new and not having to explain yourself to anyone.

I do not necessarily travel to meet lots of new people. I already have quality friends. I am perfectly fine traveling alone, and most of the time I actually prefer it.

I can meet people when I want to, and spend time in my own company the rest of the time.

Solitude is not loneliness. Solitude is being alone in a positive way. Loneliness is the uncomfortable state of being alone.

Being a digital nomad means you can be where you want, when you want, with whom you want, and do whatever you want at all times.

That is the ultimate freedom.

Another part of it is owning less. When you travel, you have a backpack and a suitcase. That is it. You are not attached to things.

Having too many things stresses me. It clutters my mind. It makes it harder to focus on reading, writing, spending time with people, and thinking clearly.

I have been asked many times why I do not own a luxury car. I like cars. I think the Porsche 911 is extremely good-looking. If I get a big midlife crisis, I will probably buy one.

But right now, I travel too much for it to make sense. I also own an apartment and a house, and even that sometimes starts to feel like it is destroying my freedom through maintenance, responsibility, and things that need to be handled.

There is something underrated about a life that stays light.

I enjoy traveling, but I do not travel to tick boxes.

I do not care much about tourist attractions anymore unless something is truly special or hidden. I like the quote:

“A tourist sees what he has planned. A traveler sees what he sees.”

If you let life happen to you instead of planning every minute, you can experience magical moments.

How memorable was that visit to the Colosseum when you stood in line for hours, surrounded by tourists and selfie sticks? How genuine did it feel?

One of my best travel experiences was discovering Catella Sant’Elia outside of Bagheria, near Palermo. I had zero expectations. No tourists, crystal-clear sea, colourful buildings, and an amazing view. It reminded me of Cinque Terre without the tourists.

Another memory was when I skipped shopping with my uncle on vacation and walked around alone instead. I met the most beautiful girl I had ever seen and spent the next 24 hours with her.

It was as magical as “Before Sunrise.”

I have not seen her again because we live too far away from each other. But I am okay with that.

Some experiences are not meant to last. They can still be great.

If you asked me what I remember from 2016 to 2021, I could mention a few vacations, some weddings, and the death of my family dog.

Other than that, I mostly worked.

But if you asked me what I remember from 2021 onward, I would have much more to say. I have been working more than ever, but it has been on my own terms.

That is what freedom means to me.

The problem with freedom is that it gives you too many possible lives.

The perfect career. The perfect city. The perfect partner. The perfect portfolio. The perfect tax residency. The perfect version of yourself.

We romanticize perfection.

Social media makes it worse. Instagram makes us jealous of people who appear to be living dream lives. CT makes us feel like someone else is always making more money, catching the better trade, getting a better allocation, or finding the next 100x before us.

For myself, I have also spent too much time looking for the “perfect” girl.

I have been single for a while, and even though I know what I want deep down, I often keep searching instead of committing to something real.

I have wasted time in clubs hoping to find someone there when I know my dream girl probably is not a person who thrives in those environments in the first place.

Quite ironic.

The girl I would want to be with is intellectual, deeply curious about life, caring, loyal, and physically attractive to me. She enjoys her own company, because I enjoy mine.

The ideal setup is not necessarily doing everything together. It is being with another person while both of you are doing your own things and thriving. Enjoying each other’s company without needing to talk all the time.

But I also have to be honest: every time things get serious with a girl, I often push her away.

I am scared that a relationship will take away my creative time. I am afraid I will not reach my potential if I do not devote all my time to work, writing, investing, thinking, and building.

I know that sounds crazy AF.

But it is a real tension. I am terrified of losing my edge, while also not wanting to be the guy who wins financially and later realizes that he played the wrong game when it comes to love and family.

You rarely come across people who chose the money path and ended up happier than those who chose a loving partner, kids, and family and friends.

Note to self.

This connects back to crypto more than people might think.

A lot of people are afraid of doing things wrong. So instead of trying and potentially failing, they never start.

They do not launch the project. They do not apply for the dream Web3 job. They do not create the Twitter account. They do not reach out to the person they admire. They do not share their writing. They do not take the shot.

They are waiting to become perfect.

The key word is not perfection. It is action.

Act on the skills you already have. Learn as you go. Stop thinking you have to know everything before you start.

You are good enough already.

When I started in crypto, I did not know much about crypto. But I knew marketing and I knew how to write viral tweets.

So I leaned into that. I focused on what I was already good at instead of spending all my time trying to fix every weakness.

That does not mean you should not improve. But world-class performers are seldom great at everything. They are usually exceptional at a few things.

I have tried for years to get better at scalp trading. But I think my actual edge is more on longer timeframes, research, narratives, conviction, positioning, content, and relationships.

Random scalps are time-consuming and seldom lead to huge wins anyway.

I would rather spend time understanding something deeply and allocating heavily when I have real conviction.

I miss believing in something.

The next step for me is probably not retirement.

A friend asked me why I do not just retire in a beach town in Italy. I love Italy. A beach holiday is fun for a week or two. But doing nothing every day? I know myself. I would become bored as hell.

My brain works in cycles. I have periods where I get bored and nothing happens. Then I think a lot. Eventually I find something I want to devote my time to, and then I go all-in.

I can focus for hours at a time. I can have repetitive days for months:

• Work

• Eat

• Work out

• Sleep

I go into a bubble.

That is good because I get shit done. It is bad because it can frustrate people around me.

In a way, I already run a lean, personal family office. Trading, investing, angel and VC bets, marketing, content, and research all exist under one roof.

The issue is that I am still doing almost all the roles myself. I have not fully professionalized it.

-The core is a trading and investing desk that prints and preserves capital. Discretionary trading, spot buying, delta-neutral farming, airdrop farming, longer-term positioning, and managing risk.

-Then a VC arm for asymmetric upside and relationships. Most investments will not work. Many will go to zero or break even. But outliers can make the entire portfolio worthwhile.

-Then there is a marketing and content arm. I already have experience here through my brand. Content attracts attention, network, deal flow, and opportunities that cannot always be measured directly in PnL.

-And finally, research. This can be me, AI agents, other people, or some combination of all three.

I think lean teams will become increasingly powerful. AI can make a small group of highly capable people much more productive. Maybe I do not need to hire many people. Maybe I only need a few exceptional ones.

I am still thinking about the exact format. I am open to joining a firm as well. But I believe I have an edge in all of these areas, and it feels like a natural next step.

Writing will always be a key part of it.

I have been thinking a lot about hourly expected value.

Where should I spend most of my time? Trading? Research? Writing? Networking? Deal flow? Content? Building a company? Managing positions? Talking to people on Telegram?

At this stage, I think a reasonable split is something like:

• 40% trading, managing positions, researching coins, farming, and investing

• 40% reading, research, and writing

• 20% Twitter, content, Telegram, networking, and conversations

But EV is not just direct PnL.

Some actions have compounding EV in reputation, network, knowledge, and opportunity. That might only become visible three to five years later.

A random degen scalp might make money today. But a well-written tweet, a high-conviction long-term bet, or one deep relationship with a smart person on CT can change the deals you see and the opportunities you get for the rest of your career.

That is why I want to spend more time on research, writing, and higher-conviction bets instead of just being in the market 24/7.

I also do not want to return to a frugal mindset.

FIRE was an incredible starting point. Being disciplined with money when you are starting out is important. But being overly frugal can become negative over time.

Skipping experiences, travel, networking, dates, and moments that could change your life just to preserve a little more money is not always rational.

I believe in asymmetric upside.

The upside is much bigger than the downside.

Crypto. Starting an online business. Content creation. Going on dates. Traveling. Networking with smart people. Reaching out to someone you respect. Taking a chance on a new city. Writing something and putting it out there.

These things can have a huge upside with limited downside.

The move-or-stay question is still something I think about a lot.

I originally live in Scandinavia. Taxes are high, especially if you are building wealth through a company, investing, and realizing gains. There is no doubt that lower taxes improve compounding.

But taxes are not everything.

I thrive where I live. My family and friends are here. I know the routines. It is safe. There is comfort in being in a place where you understand the culture and have history.

If I moved, it would mainly be for better taxes and a better network. Smart people tend to go where other smart people are. Being physically close to ambitious people can create opportunities that do not happen online.

But the important question is not only:

How much more money do I keep after tax?

It is also:

Does this place increase or decrease my odds of staying healthy, ambitious, connected, and happy over the next decade?

The real worst-case scenario is not paying 50% tax.

The real worst-case scenario is moving somewhere with 0–15% tax, hating my life, getting lonely, losing my edge, making worse investment decisions, and becoming less productive with the percentage I kept.

I do not want to move to somewhere just because the tax rate looks good on a spreadsheet.

For me, Europe matters. I want to be relatively close to home. Switzerland is interesting. Some countries in Eastern Europe are interesting. Portugal can be attractive for lifestyle. Dubai has clearly become a crypto hub, and the taxes are appealing, but I am not sure the lifestyle is for me.

I might be wrong, but my impression is that Dubai can feel fabricated. A desert with high buildings, plastic women, too much heat, and a lot of bling-bling culture.

For hungry entrepreneurs, it can probably be amazing. But the question is not whether a place is objectively good.

It is whether it is good for you.

I do not have all the answers.

I know I still want to do hard work. I know I want to write. I know I want to invest. I am good with numbers. I have high risk tolerance. I am ambitious and competitive. I have a large network and many years of experience in this game.

I do not think I should retire.

I also do not think I should keep playing exactly as I did in 2021.

Maybe the right answer is to treat wealth like high-level sport. You are not done because you won one season. Now the question is how good you can actually become.

The goal is not to be “someone who got rich once.”

The goal is to be a professional wealth builder, investor, writer, thinker, and builder for decades.

That means using money to buy leverage: better tools, better environments, better people, more time, and more room to think.

It means protecting health. It means not sacrificing every relationship for a chart. It means building something that can compound beyond one bull run.

I think you need grand goals.

You need to choose a destination.

If you do not know where you are going in life, career, relationships, or projects, then it is difficult to make good decisions. Every turn, sacrifice, and opportunity should at least be measured against some longer-term direction.

If you are only drifting, you will end up nowhere.

Maybe that is what I am trying to figure out now.

Not how to make it.

But how to build a life where capital, skills, relationships, health, experiences, and meaning can all compound at the same time.

I am still thinking out loud. I still do not have a perfect conclusion.

But I know my strengths. I know that financial freedom was never supposed to mean doing nothing. It was supposed to give me the space to think, read, write, travel, invest, build, and choose my own game.

As Nassim Taleb would call it: a Flâneur.

And I am confident this is not the end of my compounding journey.

…

Until next time,

Ciao.