1. My PubliclyPrivateLife — Finding the Right View Through My IRL to Metaverse Lives So I Don’t Soul Cry…
When I first read the Bitcoin white paper in 2012, like many I was immediately intrigued.
I went to a group of my closest friends from college who were mostly in finance (i-banking, private equity, VCs, etc.) and shared what I had found and my plan to invest in Bitcoin. I was met with the following:
“It’s a scam, a pyramid scheme, don’t do it.”
I did it anyway but at 1/10th of what I was planning. I definitely don’t regret not listening to them completely but most definitely regret hard not trusting my gut completely. Since that day, I’ve spent the rest of my adult life trying to get back to what I like to call, “My True Self” aka acting on my gut like I did when I was a child.
The earliest example of trusting my gut reaction, acting on it, and being right was when I was 4 or 5 years old. I was watching tv with my grandmother and saw an ad for government bonds. The ad went something like this, “Invest in government bonds and lock in a ‘guaranteed’ return for your future and that of your loved ones.”
I looked over to my gramma and said, “Gramma, I want that.”
She was like, “What that?” pointing at the screen.
“Yes, Gramma, can you get me that?”
That was probably my first on-point investment decision and it helped our family in tough times nearly 30 years later after the bonds had matured and my grandmother passed away.
Tangent on the Greatest Generation: My grandmother had the Greatest Generation tendency to spend money begrudgingly. But saving money, oh, this was an addiction. She also had the obsessive compulsive tendency to check every dollar bill to make sure none were stuck together. The Greatest Generation were and are an interesting bunch that we can learn a lot from. I feel like if they got in a time machine when they were semi-young to middle-aged adults and came to our time, they would have aped in full degen style into crypto and NFTs because they would have complete control and transparency of their liquidity and bags...
But anyway, my point is this, I think that getting to our true selves, the child inside who is decisive and trusts that super computer in our heads, is key to finding contentment and if we’re lucky maybe even happiness sometimes. And with this in mind, I’ve been constantly keeping an eye out for the next viscerally significant gut investment to “ape” into and that is where Web 3.0 / the Metaverse comes in.
You can read about my forays into investing and into crypto and NFTs in the mid-to-late- 2000-teens here if you want. For now, I will skip to the current moment and a decision that was excruciating but I think and believe will be easier to make going forward.
Ok, so here goes. On September 15, 2021, according to Etherscan, I purchased my first NFTs in this most recent wave. A buddy I’ve known for nearly 20 years was visiting from out of town and indicated that their main hobby at the moment was investing in NFTs. As mentioned in my Genesis post, I invested in Cyptokitties in 2017 (but lost my wallet doh) so was familiar but not as “in the know” for the scene at the time. They said they highly recommended investing what I could afford to lose in NFTs to diversify my investments. I asked what I should get and they said from cheapest to most expensive (at the time): Deadfellaz, Jankyverse Superplastic, Creatureworld, maybe Coolcats if could afford to. At the time, I had most of my web 3 assets in Bitcoin and other crypto that had just been sitting there mostly for nearly 10 years. And just to set the record straight, I’m not a whale so did not and do not have Scrooge McDuck money from crypto but had enough to try my hand again in NFTs. So based on what I felt I could afford, I got:
- 3 Deadfellaz
- 3 Jankyverse Superplastics
- 1 CreatureWorld
- 0 Coolcats
My friend is the oracle because all of those have done quite well and at least 2 could be the next set of bluechips to emerge from this most recent wave of NFTs (at the time of writing this).
So 5 months and many NFTs later where is the tally now and what have a I learned?
Tally from the original investment:
- 2 Deadfellaz
- 1 Jankyverse + 1 Headtrips
- 1 CreatureWorld
- 1 Coolpet
What have I learned:
- Always get at least 2 if not 3 of any NFT you believe in (# 2 will be easier if you follow #1)
- Be willing to take profits at floor price despite your desire to HODL forever and don’t let your emotional attachments make you greedy — easier said than done but something to strive for
I learned this one the hard way and most of my indecisiveness was because of an emotional attachment, especially to the Deadfellaz community. And my indecisiveness likely resulted in half the potential gains (seriously) because of waiting a few days to pull the trigger on the sales at the floor price.
3. In the absence of 100% certainty after doing research, go with your gut based on what you know and act decisively — this one is especially important
HOWEVER, the most important lesson of all is this:
4. Don’t listen to your web 2.0 buddies except when it comes to web 2.0 things…
