When Cryptocurrency Returns Are Poor, You Need a Plan B

By: DeRonin

Compiled by: Luffy, Foresight News

I started my career in cryptocurrency and I am truly grateful for what it has brought me.

But recently, I came to the conclusion that I need a Plan B. It's not that I think the crypto market will die, but I need a stable income so that my growth can rely on data and my own skills, rather than luck or risk-return.

Of course, I try to do both and believe that it will bring results. When the market is boring like it is now, I will focus more on other areas and vice versa.

Think about it, if you haven't achieved significant results in a few years, maybe something is wrong? If you are short of liquidity, shouldn't you make some money in other areas before coming back here?

If your answer is "Damn, I really want to do this, right now," then go for it. I'm not trying to be preachy or pushy, I'm just sharing my experience and honest thoughts.

Why is transformation necessary? When?

There are several signs that can help you determine whether you need to transform. After all, transformation is not only for external expansion, but also for solving internal problems. Here are a few points I have summarized for myself:

1. Stagnation of results

Plateauing happens when you’ve been working hard for months or even years, but nothing is happening — and you know you’ve done everything you can. You’ve tried changing your strategy, thinking about ways to improve, and continuing to educate yourself, but nothing is happening.

Results in the crypto space are not always based on skills, there is also a psychological game involved. Participating in high-risk games at a young age is not for everyone: it can bring advantages (rapid growth), but it can also be a cruel trap. At a certain point, you may become emotionally burned out, which will not only prevent you from achieving more results, but also take away everything you already have. This is how financial markets work: the strong prey on the weak.

2. Changes in the market environment

Nothing is absolutely certain when it comes to the current market conditions. Changing market conditions often make everything more difficult, and not everyone can adapt. Such times often lead to most people losing their hard-earned assets.

You can’t control the market, but you can definitely control the time you invest. At this point in time, certain skills will bring far more rewards than testnets, so sometimes it’s more beneficial to temporarily shift your focus and return when the market improves.

3. Lack of liquidity/opportunities

Frankly speaking, in the cryptocurrency space, without liquidity, you are nothing. Testnets and free events do exist, but they are essentially games of luck — you have no idea if your efforts will pay off, and you can’t calculate potential returns, which in itself creates an uncertain environment.

I think if you are facing financial problems, cryptocurrencies are not the solution. Only a clear mind and understanding of why you are doing it and what the risks are can bring results. And it takes time, it can't be done overnight, you have to give yourself space and time to grow.

So, if you are struggling to make a living now, you definitely need to transform. Maybe temporarily, you need to accumulate the first capital.

4. Other sectors are growing faster than cryptocurrencies

The world and we should not be limited to one field. There are many more popular fields at present. Ignoring them means missing the opportunity to enter new fields. Since other fields can produce results quickly, why not try?

These areas are discussed in detail in the "Top Areas" section below. I don't think you should give up "Plan A", but you also need a "Plan B". This way you can have both: areas where you are good at and areas where you can grow quickly.

5. You stop learning/getting bored

I've had friends go through this, and it's been heartbreaking to watch them give up. It's hard to stick with something if it's weighing you down mentally. Under pressure, you're more likely to make mistakes because you're emotionally exhausted.

If you are no longer interested in researching projects, exploring new protocols, and understanding the underlying logic (but are just doing it to make money), then the possibility of achieving results is small because you will not be motivated to complete the full journey.

Transformation allows you to stop deceiving yourself, see your true state, rekindle your desire for self-learning and improvement, and thus bring results.

A breakdown of the skills you’ve acquired in the cryptocurrency space

I’m sure there are certain skills you must have acquired in the crypto space. Here are the ones that are crucial to me and always come in handy to make me better:

1. Research and critical analysis

Research is one of the most important skills in our life and it always helps us. No matter what industry and job you are in, you can easily find the information you need. This deep analysis ability will make you better than many competitors and make it easier for you to become a marketer, data analyst, or even an IT expert.

2. Critical thinking and decision-making skills

Today, most practitioners cannot make independent decisions. But in the field of cryptocurrency, you need to constantly analyze issues such as whether to open a position, which makes you flexible and able to adapt to any situation and make the right decisions. This is often the difference between managers and ordinary employees, and it can also allow you to discover early growth patterns and insight into profitable opportunities in any field.

3. Technical proficiency

Frankly speaking, it is not easy to understand the whitepapers of most projects, and the documents in the Web2 field are often simpler and easier to understand. Even so, many people can't even do this. This can make you stand out in most positions that require basic technical skills. Moreover, with artificial intelligence, it is no longer that difficult to build your own products.

How to apply crypto thinking to other fields

Encrypted thinking is a fast and adaptable way of thinking that can help you achieve results in a short period of time: test and learn quickly; maintain autonomy, self-sufficiency, and take the initiative to set tasks. In general, this kind of thinking is not only suitable for 9-to-5 work, but also for business and senior management.

• In marketing, it will help you quickly test hypotheses, run experiments, and follow a data-first approach
• In startups, it means not hesitating to build a quick MVP (minimum viable product) and test it in a real environment;
• In personal development, this means taking action in practice rather than just being a theorist.

This is exactly what allows you to move as fast as ever and apply what you learn. Your goal is always to achieve the most results in the shortest time, because the window of opportunity will not last forever. Most Web2 fields are not going away anytime soon, but by continuing to educate yourself, you will eventually become the best in them.

Top areas where you can actually transform

"Field" does not refer to your specific job or responsibilities, but reflects the core direction and potential of the product. I have selected the most promising fields in the next five years and briefly introduced them.

1. Software as a Service (SaaS), Potential: 9/10

SaaS refers to software products and their development related to artificial intelligence. In my opinion, this field is currently the most promising and the most important thing is that you can create your own application without programming skills, just learn two AI tools, Bubble and Make, and they will do everything according to your needs. There is a lot of information on the Internet about how to create and sell products.

How to get started: Learn these tools, start a blog, or join a company that uses these tools to develop a startup product. You can refer to https://clutch.co/ and https://acquire.com/ to analyze successful cases, study their marketing strategies, etc., and then start creating your own product.

2. E-commerce (Shopify), Potential: 8/10

E-commerce is the sale of goods on the internet. There is a huge demand for people who engage in dropshipping or e-commerce marketing. Dropshipping means that you don’t need to stock the goods, but the supplier will ship directly to the customer and give you a share of the profits. This is not limited to selling through TikTok, but also includes various sales opportunities such as short video marketing.

How to get started: Find a drop shipping partner willing to cooperate, study successful store cases, and learn from their promotion strategies.

3. Coaching, education and personal branding, potential: 8/10

Education or edtech is very popular right now, especially in niche areas like cryptocurrency. Such fields always need people who can help with sales, build sales funnels or handle other matters.

You can gain initial experience by offering your services to bloggers or so-called “producers.” I also include personal branding in this category because it is a skill that is paid for: knowing how to grow followers, build a community, etc., can help others and these services can be charged well.

How to get started: Start building a personal brand, offer your services to bloggers, figure out what you can do, and gradually scale up as you gain knowledge.

4. Business automation, potential: 7/10

In the era of artificial intelligence, automation is a popular service in enterprises. It can reduce costs, speed up processes, and reduce manpower. You can automate anything: accounting, marketing, customer relationship management (CRM), sales, human resources, etc.

Low-code/no-code solutions are also very popular. After learning a few platforms, you can start selling services and then naturally develop into an agency providing such services.

How to get started: Learn n8n and Zapier, find solutions for existing businesses, provide services for free to gain experience, and then charge for them.

5. Marketing and creating your own agency, potential: 8/10

Marketing is not a field, but a professional skill, but it is applicable in all fields. I prefer to position it as creating niche agencies, such as agencies focusing on platforms such as TikTok, Reels, Shorts, etc. Such agencies are currently very popular, and "editor" has also become a popular profession.

Put together the resources you need: someone to design the content, someone to edit it, someone to upload it, and you can build a business that can work with almost any business. It doesn’t have to be limited to a certain field, any field is feasible.

How to get started: Find your first editors, conceive ideas and produce your first cases, then continue to analyze and expand into a mature organization.

How to achieve initial results and what to learn?

The first step is crucial. My breakdown is brief because a detailed description of each area would take more than 10,000 words.

Start by analyzing and developing a strategy:

• Choose a field or idea (what exactly do you want to do)
• Assess actual needs, willingness to pay, and amount to pay
• Research competitors and their strategies to see who is doing the same thing
• Clarify who you are selling to. Who is your target audience?

Then, analyze what you need to learn and the specific steps:

• Learn what you need to know to provide the necessary services
• Form a team to learn together
• Study competitors' sales methods, establish sales channels, and set prices
• Consider what marketing services you can offer in addition to technical skills
• Combine all of this with your personal brand

After taking the first step, it’s important to keep scaling up, delegating more tasks to others, and constantly researching marketing and new strategies. It’s important to collect feedback and respond to it, because honest feedback can determine 50% of the success of a product, even if you offer the service for free in the beginning.

Financial security: How to avoid losing everything

Switching to another field requires a buffer period, during which there may be no income. If you have a family, or you rent a house, or no one supports you, you need to understand that you still have to eat tomorrow, and career cannot solve this problem immediately. Otherwise, the mental pressure is too great, and you will only think about survival instead of building strong products and services.

Personally, I stick to these three rules:

• Financial reserves (buffer funds): You must have savings that can cover 3-6 months of basic needs. If you have no work skills and want to enter a high-risk field, it is best to save enough money for one year. Although usually no one can do it, it is more of a talk, but it must be calculated reasonably. In addition, it is also important to diversify funds into different channels and safe assets (Euro, US dollar, stablecoin).
• Don’t invest all your money in a new business: The best investment in the early stages is time, because money is hard to get back immediately. The chances of success in the first attempt are slim. Before starting your own business, it is important to first understand all the processes as an employee and understand what to do and how to do it. Separate your living allowance from your startup funds, or you may lose financial control.
• Track your budget: Calculate how much you can realistically afford to spend each month, and don’t take out a loan without knowing how to repay it. Regularly review items that can be optimized, cut unnecessary expenses, but at the same time make sure that your quality of life does not drop drastically – otherwise, it will be very stressful.

How to discover your interests and strengths

When you decide to make a change, "finding yourself" is one of the core tasks. The most important thing is to find what you really love, whether it is popular or not, otherwise you may get burned out.

Past experience review:

• What do you do better than others?
• What tasks do you enjoy doing even though they are difficult?
• When do you feel motivated and enter the "flow state"?
• What are you often thanked for?
• What brings in the most revenue?

Interest diagnosis:

• Make a list of topics that have always interested you;
• What content do you like to watch on YouTube/podcasts?
• Willing to learn something even if it is not paid;
• Which of the fields listed in this article do you like best?
• Are you more inclined towards marketing or technology?

Advantages

To understand your personal strengths, you can take a personality test, which can help you find the right position. Promote self-awareness by asking yourself "what kind of person do you want to be".

Connections and environment, how to change your circle

Before changing your social circle, you need to be clear about your purpose and the people you want to associate with. When evaluating, focus on the essence of the person, not just the skills.

Clarify values and needs:

• What kind of person do you need?
• What values do you hope they will have?
• What qualities would make them your partner?

I developed a few steps for myself to help change my circumstances, and it really did change my life:

• Enhance personal branding and positioning;
• Attend social events, conferences, seminars;
• Learn to give first (knowledge, help, ideas);
• Establish a communication system (save contacts, proactively reach out, follow up).