Rocky Balboa, HODLer
Collage composed of movie posters from IMDB.com for the Rocky movies
If we're going to follow the crypto antics of Elon Musk, his friendly rival Mark Cuban, and other big-name figures, it's just a matter of time before we consider what fictional characters would think of cryptocurrency. Tony Stark would be a major player. Han Solo would be scheming pump and dumps so he can pay off Jabba the Hutt. Quark (Ferengi owner of his bar in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) would be on all sides of the Quark Coin crypto (which is real!). Then there would be Rocky Balboa, HODLer.
Rocky Balboa, HODLer. Get outta here!
Seriously-- Rocky Balboa, HODLer.
Exposition
Before I state my case, I need to explain 2 scenes spread over the course of two movies.
The first scene I'll explain comes from Creed, the first movie in the re-magined Rocky franchise where roles from the former are remixed for the latter.
The second scene I'll explain comes from Rocky Balboa, the sixth and final movie of the original Rocky franchise.
Scene 2 (from Creed)
Adonis Creed is a son of the fallen and late Apollo Creed, the man who gave Rocky Balboa the opportunity of a lifetime to become heavyweight champion. Once Creed reached Rocky in Philadelphia he tried to persuade the rival-turned-friend of his father to train him as a boxer. Part of this recruitment effort took place as the retired Rocky was buying provisions for his Italian restaurant, Adrian's.
At the end of the scene Creed asks Rocky for a list of boxing drills and exercises he should practice. Old enough to collect Social Security, Rocky already knew about cellular phones. However, one piece of tech befuffled him:
Rocky Balboa: [Creed takes cell phone photo of boxing drills and walks off] Hey don't you want this?
Adonis Johnson: [Holds out cell phone] It's on this.
Rocky Balboa: What if you lose it?
Adonis Johnson: It's already in the cloud.
Rocky Balboa: [Looks in sky confused] What cloud?
Sources: Composite used photots from IMDB.com; Text from Quotes page at IMDB.com for Creed (2015)
(In his defense, it still befuddles many people.)
If we go by this scene from Creed (effectively "Rocky VII"), it looks like Rocky's limited intellectually. However, that's not true (even if Ivan Drago cleaned his clock in Moscow in Rocky IV). It's more like he's behind the times.
He may not have gone to college or had much schooling, but Rocky Balboa has learned many things in his long life. Many of his most important lessons are those we've seen him learn through the movies featuring him. Those are the lessons which can apply to any of us no matter what we do in life. The lesson we're interested in comes from his iconic talk to his son in the movie before Creed.
Scene 1 (from Rocky Balboa)
Rocky was thinking of coming out of a long retirement to fight the heavyweight champion at that time, Mason "The Line" Dixon. After some scenes, Rocky asks his son to help him train for this exhibition. Without getting into details, it's enough to say life as Rocky's son hadn't been easy even as an adult.
Rocky detects fear in his son, and it makes him sad because that's not what he wanted for his son. After his son states his case and presents his objections, this is how Rocky responded:
Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done! Now if you know what you’re worth then go out and get what you’re worth. But ya gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody! Cowards do that and that ain’t you! You’re better than that! I’m always gonna love you no matter what. No matter what happens. You’re my son and you’re my blood. You’re the best thing in my life. But until you start believing in yourself, ya ain’t gonna have a life.
Source: SucceedFeed.com (emphasis added)
Embedded in that iconic speech-- quoted in some form or other all over the web (even here)-- is the most important lesson any cryptocurrency holder needs to learn.
HODL.
How Rocky Balboa Understands HODL
But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!
During a bull market, everyone looks like a genius. Not much is learned, but things are going well so hardly anyone cares. When prices fall off a cliff and the bull market turns into a bear market, however, speculators and many investors turn tail and sell at a loss. Bear markets tend to last a long time, or at least longer than the attention spans of many market participants.
Financially speaking, bear markets are
... very mean and nasty place[s] and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it.
Losing money sucks, and it sucks more when you had a chance to cash out while times were good. It's sucks even more in the world of Bitcoin and altcoins, where the highs and lows are enough to make one get vertigo.
In general, everyone loses in a bear market. That much is obvious even to writers. However, just as bull markets come and go, bear markets come and go as well. It's the timing we don't know. This means we have to gut it out until the bears go back into hibernation and let the bulls run though the streets.
Most market participants sustained losses in a bear market. Many cut and ran, ensuring their losses. Here's the money quote again, that's how important it is:
But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!
Those who remained kept their cryptos long enough to see the bulls come back. After the bulls returned, the painful losses disappeared and the gains returned. As an added bonus, (due to lesser demand) cryptos were on sale, and that meant the HODLers could clean up at bargain prices and improve on their dollar-cost averages.
Creed Can Keep The Cloud, Crypto Is for Rocky
Adonis Creed is intelligent, a characteristic he inherited from Apollo Creed. There is no doubt at all he would do well with cryptocurrency. He even understand The Cloud, so that's an added bonus.
Rocky Balboa is just as intelligent, although his wisdom was hard-won with many falls and setbacks along the way. Rocky Balboa knew how to win because he won and came back from losses to win again. Altough he could have tried whatever the rage was in boxing strategies to win-- and for a while he fought as a right-handed fighter despite being left-handed, so he knew how to adapt-- he had his best success with one stretegy: take the hits and keep moving forward.
Rocky Balboa was a HODLer before HODL became a thing, before Bitcoin became a thing.
Perhaps today's USD billionaires can learn one thing from a fictional boxer who took too many blows to the head and apply that lesson to crypto.
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