Ultimate goal in a bull market: cultivating contentment and learning to take profits and exit
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Ultimate goal in a bull market: cultivating contentment and learning to take profits and exit
When you're trying to make money, "comfort" is your biggest enemy.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Carter Thomas
Translation: TechFlow
At a party hosted by a billionaire on Shelter Island, Kurt Vonnegut remarked to his friend Joseph Heller that the host—a hedge fund manager—had earned more in a single day than Heller had made throughout the entire publication history of his wildly popular novel *Catch-22*. Heller smiled and replied, "Yes, but I have something he will never have—enough."
Between the ages of 0 and 25, our brains undergo most of their development. In particular, we gradually learn to rely more on the prefrontal cortex rather than emotion-driven regions of the brain.
We learn to think rationally and make decisions based on "what we believe is right," rather than "what we feel."
When we study mental health and addiction, it becomes clear how critical this period is for our development. Sometimes, we're forced to confront unexpected trauma; sometimes, we become dependent on substances like alcohol or Adderall before even turning 20;
Or worse, our brains are hijacked during the "dopamine age"—a euphemism for how screen time and social media severely disrupt our ability to engage with the real world before our bodies are fully developed.
All these factors subtly alter how our brains function, making it increasingly difficult to maintain clear thinking in a world where emotions are pulled in every direction daily.
Now, we’re entering a phase of the crypto market cycle where rational thinking becomes especially difficult.
If you've already made significant profits, you might convince yourself the market will rise two or three times higher still;
If you’ve just recovered your break-even point from the 2021 highs, you’ll tell yourself this breakout is the long-awaited opportunity you’ve been waiting for;
If you're underperforming the market, you may feel intense FOMO (fear of missing out) and frustration, so much that you can’t even bear to exit.
Beneath all of this lies the same core issue—your prefrontal cortex struggling to resist an overwhelming flood of emotions.
The mind is an excellent servant, but a terrible master.
The original title of this article was "Enough," because ultimately, what the market truly tests is whether you know when to stop. That’s the real question.
Can you make a wise decision and then walk away decisively? Can you hold onto your profits after earning them? Conversely, can you cut your losses before they wipe you out completely?
The market—especially one as volatile as crypto—is not about who makes the most money. It's about who retains the most wealth five years later. After taxes, after avoiding impulsive trades and irrational investments at the peak of the bull run, how much will you actually keep?
The ultimate goal of this journey has never been to amass some astronomical fortune, but rather to earn “enough” and preserve it.
Everyone defines “enough” differently. For some, $10,000 could transform their life entirely. For others, only $100 million feels sufficient.
But what truly matters is whether, upon reaching that goal, they can genuinely choose to step away.
The irony is that while we could define what “enough” means for ourselves, we instead drown ourselves on X.com (Twitter), constantly surrounded by bullish stories and profit screenshots that fuel our hunger for more.
As someone who has lived through multiple crypto market cycles, I can confidently tell you: you will never feel like you have enough.
Even if you bought at the lowest point and sold at the highest, you would still feel unsatisfied.
Even if you open your Phantom wallet and can't believe the massive amount now belongs to you, within two weeks you'll be tempted to try a few more “seemingly simple” trades.
People enter the crypto space precisely because they are those who struggle to feel satisfied. They crave risk and live in deep fear of time slipping away. They fear that if they don’t seize the moment to build generational wealth, it will be too late.
This mindset is exactly what keeps you trapped. Over the next four years, you may keep chasing that elusive 100x return, believing only that would qualify as “enough.” Under this mentality, you ignore the fact that wealth accumulation takes time. You focus only on quickly surpassing others, dreaming that just a little more money will finally fill the sense of “fulfillment” that’s been missing inside you for years.
Yet the reality is, for most people, that fulfillment will never truly arrive.
No matter when the market top comes—today, months from now, or late 2025—you’ll still feel it’s not enough.
Even if you see the wildest parabolic surge, notice every warning sign flashing at the top, and sell all your holdings with massive profits, a month later, seeing another meme coin skyrocket, you’ll still feel it’s not enough.
Even if you locked in profits early during a downturn and protected your gains, you’ll still feel it’s not enough.
In this market, no outcome will ever bring true satisfaction. This is the core problem—earning money at this pace strips most people of rational thought, especially those easily swayed by emotion.
The only answer is to accept this truth about crypto markets and recognize that when you’re trying to make money, “comfort” is your greatest enemy. If you don’t want to endlessly repeat cycles of gain and loss, you must replace excitement with a plain, practical plan.
Accepting this may feel disappointing, even painful, because it forces you to face a hard truth: you won’t become someone remembered in crypto history like Cobie or Bonk Guy. You may never become the person you’ve always wanted to be—the one admired and loved, the one who experiences unconditional respect and affection.
You must let go of these ego-driven fantasies and accept market reality. None of us are special. Most who survive do so simply because they were lucky enough—or rational enough—to endure the volatility.
This isn’t a price prediction—nobody knows what comes next. It’s merely a reminder: you will never feel “enough.”
Even if Bitcoin hits $300,000, you’ll still feel it’s not enough. Even if SOL reaches $1,000, you’ll still feel it’s not enough.
You need to learn to make decisions outside of these emotions—just as you eat healthy food and exercise regularly, not because you want to, but because you know it’s the right choice.
Regrettably, very few people actually make money in crypto after taxes. And even fewer manage to hold onto that wealth years after the bull market ends.
The only way to ensure success is to stop relying on intuition and start thinking rationally. Save intuition for your personal life. The market rewards logic alone.
This game should be enjoyable—but never comfortable. It should feel like athletic training: challenging, grueling, yet highly rewarding. True satisfaction comes from consistent progress, not from feeding your ego.
The moment you truly realize you already have “enough,” you’ve already won. And it’s precisely at that moment that you begin moving toward genuine wealth.
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@carterthomas
