People keep arguing about Bitcoin like something “changed.”
But the truth is simple:
Bitcoin didn’t change,humans did.
Satoshi built the first money that lived completely outside the system.
No banks.
No governments.
No printing press.
No frozen accounts.
No middlemen.
Just pure, peer-to-peer value.
That part hasn’t ever changed.
What changed is how people started using it.
The chain is still unstoppable…
but the users slowly walked back into the very system Bitcoin was created to escape.
They gave their freedom to exchanges.
They chose KYC wallets.
They trusted institutions.
They begged for ETFs.
They let Wall Street become their custodian.
So now governments can’t freeze Bitcoin,
but they can freeze Bitcoiners
because most people don’t hold Bitcoin,
they hold IOUs for Bitcoin.
The network is uncensorable.
The bridges are not.
And that’s the paradox:
Bitcoin is still freedom money.
But very few people actually use it in a free way anymore.
The OGs see it.
That’s why they’re uneasy.
That’s why some are selling.
Not because Bitcoin failed
but because the culture drifted.
Bitcoin didn’t integrate into the system.
The system integrated into Bitcoin holders.
If you want the original Bitcoin, it’s still here.
You just have to use it the way it was meant to be used.
Law of wealth by Lucious Machiavelli.
People forget something essential about Carnegie: the man didn’t rise because he out-worked everyone. That’s the obvious part, in his era, everyone worked hard. Hard work wasn’t a personality trait, it wasn’t a flex, it wasn’t a mindset.
It was survival.
And that’s why he didn’t preach it later in life.
To him, waking up early, grinding, pushing… that wasn’t “advice.”
That was the bare minimum.
You did it because you had to not because it made you special.
Today, people glorify discipline like it’s rare. Back then, it was normal.
It didn’t make you stand out..it just kept you alive.
Carnegie’s real advantage,the one people always overlook was something deeper:
he attached himself to the right people, at the right time, in the right way.
He found older, wiser individuals who were moving upward and he made himself useful.
That was his leverage.
He worked brutally hard at the beginning, yes but only to reach what I call lift-off speed.
A plane uses maximum force during takeoff.
But once it reaches altitude, the pressure drops. It glides.
Most people never reach that altitude because they never endure that early push.
They spend their entire lives grinding at ground level.
Carnegie didn’t.
He transitioned.
He moved from sweat → strategy.
From effort → positioning.
From labor → relationships.
He figured out the real law of wealth:
Hard work gets you started.
Relationships get you rich.
Leverage keeps you rich.
If you stay stuck in the “work harder” stage, you will live your whole life on the runway.
If you learn to build the right alliances and attach yourself to the right people the way Carnegie did,you rise faster than the rest.
That is the Law of Wealth.
Not effort alone, but the evolution beyond effort.
The first time I ever heard the name Andrew Carnegie was back in school, during one of those unexpected discussions where a teacher drops names like Ford, Rockefeller, and Carnegie as if they’re introducing us to the real founders of the modern world. At the time, I didn’t understand the depth of their stories. I just knew their names carried weight.
Today, as I study Carnegie’s life in detail, one moment stands out: the day he and his mother mortgaged their home to raise $500 for his first investment. In today’s value, that’s nearly $20,000,the kind of money a poor immigrant family simply did not have. But they believed in the opportunity and they trusted Thomas Scott, the man who opened that door for Carnegie.
This episode in Carnegie’s life is a striking example of high-risk, high-leverage early investing. They gambled their only major asset,their home on a chance to build something greater. That $500 stake became the seed capital that, through discipline, timing and relentless reinvestment.. grew into immense wealth.
To me, it reflects two truths that every ambitious person should hold close:
Opportunity demands boldness.
Sometimes the way forward requires risking the little you have. Carnegie risked his house,his security to step into a new world.
Relationships create leverage.
That investment only happened because Thomas Scott believed in him. Without the right connection, there is no door to knock on.
Carnegie wasn’t just lucky he was prepared, bold, connected and willing to go beyond what life had given him. And that mindset still builds giants today. Mind you he came from nothing.