There are actually people who invested in one coin or the other in the past and still lost lost everything because they lacked the understanding of what they where investing in.
Almost all newbies go through this. I call it "buying experience and knowledge". 
There where even some of my friends who where not crypto traders but got scammed because they where advised to invest in coins they had no knowledge about...
So it's your friends' fault for not doing their due diligence on the coin, not for being early.So honestly, I would have found myself in a similar situation if I had joined earlier with the same mindset I had when I first started.
That's what I'm talking about, that everyone goes through this "test", which only a few manage to avoid. I'm sure that almost everyone has 1-2 shitcoins from "dead projects" in their wallet.Correct thinking can't be formed in any other way.
So for the newcomers in the space don't feel that you late, note this, what really makes the difference in the long run isn't when you joined, but how well you are able to utilize this opportunity and make something useful from it, and this starts with being prepared i.e understanding what you are investing in(making research), knowing when to manage risks, being able to keep you emotion in check whenever the market gets shaky, and lastly having a clear and definitive goal.
But the problem is that the above is formed only with the acquisition of experience, which is impossible without "unsuccessful investments". Rarely does anyone turn out to be so lucky as to avoid this.