Weekly Nugget of Wisdom #20

Your network is your net worth: how and why you should spend time making friends

Welcome to another Nugget of Wisdom! A free weekly post I send out every Thursday. These are designed to be short and sweet, a quick read to (hopefully) impart some sort of wisdom, or at the very least to get you thinking about something interesting.

Your network is your net worth

I mean, the saying is about as cliche as it gets, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true. It applies to most industries, and there are always exceptions to the rule, but by and large, in crypto, you’re gonna do a hell of a lot better if you’re traveling with friends rather than traveling alone.

I can’t tell you the amount of money I have made because of other people. Everything from an airdrop claim I didn’t know about that was about to expire, to a partnership or sponsorship or job opportunity, to an investment opportunity, to alpha about an upcoming launch, and so much more.

So how do you build a network?

First of all stop thinking of it as building a network and networking — what a loaded and tradfi word that evokes images of name tags and stale conference rooms. Instead, think of it as simply making friends.

Okay so then how do you make friends?

It’s not rocket science here folks — you start by literally just talking to people. Find people with similar interests, or goals, or both. Be helpful, be nice, be kind, be funny, be interesting, be something. Approach people, and be approachable.

Most people are passive users of the internet. Readers, scrollers, consumers. They might hit the like button, but they mostly just read social feeds, and lurk discord servers. The reason why is probably different for everyone — for me, in my early days, I had anxiety about trying to talk to people online. Yes, even behind the safety of my keyboard and computer monitor lol, my anxiety found me.

What if people think I’m dumb? What if I don’t fit in? What if I say something and everyone laughs at me, or I get trolled, or ostracized? What if I get completely ignored?

Fair enough thoughts, but not particularly logical or rational. The reality is nobody really cares about you on the internet, and, you shouldn’t care about them either — at least, not as a default. Once someone has a respectable reputation, or you have a relationship with them, then sure, things change.

But for anons on social media from all over the world? Who cares.

All of this to say… buck up and put yourself out there. Start replying to comments. Start joining Twitter spaces and talking to people. Send DMs to people and strike up conversations — you found a post they made interesting? Tell them! Ask them questions!

Eventually you’ll start to make peers, acquaintances, and friends. Share alpha with them. Maybe start a group chat; or maybe you’ll get invited to one of their existing group chats.

Start helping others, and they’ll start helping you. You can’t be across everything in this space, not even close. That’s why there’s power in numbers. Someone in your circle or group will one day tell you about an airdrop claim that you were about to miss out on, or a token that is under the radar but highly likely to pump because of reasons XYZ, and you’ll have unlocked some of the magic internet money hiding inside your computer, or a job opportunity that is perfect for you and woah, guess what, they know the person in charge of hiring!

If you’re a trader, a content creator, a project manager, a marketer, a degen, a founder, a dev, an artist, or literally anything — you’re going to do better and go farther if you have people alongside you.

As the saying goes…

If you want to go fast, go alone

If you want to go far, go together

Thanks for reading! In case you missed it, check out Monday’s post below 👇