Funnily enough, after going from living on the bare bones of my arse, to having $150,000 dollars worth of ethereum available to me, my chief concern was one of identity. Who the fuck was I? I did not want anyone to know. My beloved friends around me also struggled to make ends meet. I feared dealing with their jealousy, and envy, feared that they would drag up old favours that I’d forgotten, feared that they would start hitting me up for loans. And none of my music scene friends knew what the hell Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Cryptocurrencies were. It was a strange place. I had to keep my head together, not go on any mad spending sprees, not tell anyone, and keep working, not because I needed the money, but to maintain a sense of normality and stability.
The problem was, If I wasn’t this broke arse musician, trying to build Melbournes music scene to the point where it could offer a good living to myself and others, then who the fuck was I? If I didn’t need to work for a living, then who was I. It was clear I was now in a whole new world. And I did not know another soul who had experienced such a radical transition. I knew people who’d been well off for their whole lives. I knew people who had struggled their whole lives. But few have made a single, savvy, investment decision that made 1000% returns. Not enough that I could buy a big house, and never work again, but enough to offer a path out.
The closest I had was my friend JY who owned the bar I worked in. He’d sold his share of an ad agency for an undisclosed possibly 7 figure sum. He’d traded stocks, betted horses, bought and sold property. I sought his advice, because I didn’t know who I was, I had an identity issue, and when I met him for lunch (my treat for the first time) and explained my situation, he told me to invest in bricks and mortar… property. not the advice I was after, but good advice nonetheless. A couple of days later, I think he’d realised my spiritual issue. That I needed to still be something to my community. Not disappear up my own arse playing the markets every day.