Is it "too late" ?

I'll keep its short, but back in 2019-2020 I kept pressing my father to buy a single bitcoin, which was around $7-10K. He didn't. I was extremely upset and still am. Fast forward to today, he's been recently asking about parking $500-1,000 into bitcoin. I scoff at the idea of it because I see it as way too late. At the time, I was a kid and had no funds which is why I approached him to buy. Now he's bought into the hype again and wants to put money in. I'm frustrated obviously, because that could've been life changing money, and on top of that he wants to get in on the action \*now\* despite having such a long time to do so. No one can tell the future, I know, but is it too late? Are there other currencies to look out for perhaps that have growth potential instead of BTC? How would you spend the $1,000?