When I was still a newbie to crypto many people told me to keep holding and that's all I did for many years and in the end I ended up with many dead coins, whenever I keep seeing people talking about patience as if it's the only thing a newbie need I always shake my head, the fact is you need more than patience to get good results from projects, having patience sometimes will get you nothing
I think is that when you are talking about losing everything even with being patient, it only means one thing, you are not talking about the good coins. You bought some new altcoins perhaps and stick to them. If you bought the top coins then it would be a different story and we are not seeing another one of hundreds of losing posts here in the forum. Many have come before you and you should have consulted first with people who already know the ins and outs of cryptocurrency. Good luck on your next investment.