I wrote a post recently where I mentioned a question my wife asks in the interviews she conducts, as part of the evaluation process. She is a headhunter and recruiter and the company she works for has been growing rapidly and hiring many people, so she has been in interviews for all kinds of positions near daily. The question she asks is:
If you had all the money you could want, what would you do?
Normally, there are two main categories of response; I would use it to do all the things I want to do, learn, go. Or, I would use it to help my family out.
Today, she got a different response.
I would invest into startups.
The candidate did mention that if she had enough, she would also help her parents out, as they have hadn't had the easiest lives, but the investment comes first.
Out of what must be hundreds of interviews across a selection of backgrounds, often highly educated and professional people - given all the money one could want, only a single person has said they would use it to invest. I think that is quite illustrative of how narrow people think and how self-centered their view of what money can do in life.
Money is a tool and with it you are able to trade it for all kinds of things, including the generation of more money. However, as "selfish" as that sounds, when that trade is on an investment into a business model, it allows the business a chance to grow and perhaps flourish. Yes, there is a personal return, but that initial seed capital can be what ends up distributing wealth across a large number of people, which can be used to invest and generate further. Around these businesses, communities develop.
I believe that in the coming years, thinking like this candidate is going to be common place and a lot of that investment mentality is going to push into crypto business models, not just tokens. It wouldn't surprise me if this particular person is already a holder, as generally the people who mention they would invest "free funds" are, already invested and understand the benefits.
Speaking of investing, I read today that unsurprisingly, Tim Cook who is the CEO of Apple, owns crypto, sees it as a reasonable investment and has been interested in it for a while already. What was interesting is that he added that Apple has no plans of investing corporate capital in directly.
“I wouldn’t go invest in crypto, not because I wouldn’t invest my own money, but because I don’t think people buy Apple stock to get exposure to crypto,”
They don't buy Apple stock, but they do trade on Apple products, yet supposedly "rejected" the idea of taking crypto as payment for products.
Why? Because they already do.
The mainstream media seem to consistently drive the idea that the value of crypto is that it can buy products and services and seem to conveniently "forget" that this doesn't require a single company to say "we take crypto as payment" in order to legitimize it. Apple, being the data collectors they are, are likely very aware of how many of their products are being purchased with crypto, as well as how many of their phones are installing crypto wallets, exchanges, charge card applications and, how often they are being used. Google knows also.
They have been watching the industry grow for years.
Through the data they collect, they can see culture change, they can see who is dong what, when, how, who with and they know that people like that candidate mentioned above, are a growing part of their consumer market. They likely have some pretty well-funded teams working across various aspects on how they are going to approach the next three, five and ten years in regard to the changes in the habits of their users and the effect it is going to have on the economy, including the impact on their businesses.
I think it is safe to say, that while governments are looking for ways to control crypto so as not to lose grip on their citizens, the corporations the governments have already lost due to the globalized economic structure of business, are looking to capture its wealth for themselves. They don't have to race into the scene with a big bang, as they are already large enough to feel they can take their time, limp in quietly, while slowly building the infrastructure in the background to enable profit advancement. For them, this is an opportunity to further break their own chains of legislation, and they don't want to rush it and spook the masters.
They know that younger generations are suffering economically and feel they are unable to accomplish the dreams their parents were able to meet. They know that these people are more and more throwing caution to the wind and either ending up taking on more debt with a "what does a bit more matter" attitude. They also know that there is a growing number who are looking for alternatives, with more being attracted to higher risk opportunities that were being overlooked by the traditionalists. They know that like us, all they need do is bide their time and the market will come to them, as long as they can keep facilitating the tools needed for their market to get invested.
The companies are calculating and they are patient, because like someone who has all the money they need, they don't have to sell in order to spend and, they don't need to get some shiny bauble return straight away. They can sink their money into startups, they can build a market place for apps and, they can keep doing what they are doing, while going long in the background, waiting for that market to fall into their network.
And that market is maturing, both in age and investment value and within the next decade, many of them like the candidate above, will be seniors in companies, making executive level decisions on the directions and allocations of corporate resources. A decade from now, the percentage of thirty-somethings with 5+ years of experience with crypto is going to be enormous.
Every business who is expecting to be able to capture the consumer attention ten years from now, has likely already put teams together to work on how they can best position themselves in the marketplace of the future. They might not have it all under their belt yet, but one thing they do understand well enough is, follow the money.
One of the things that people fear in crypto is if the large companies commandeer it for their own, but while some might try, that is not how they will generate the most wealth for themselves. The value of the future is not by trying to monopolize the market in order to squeeze profits, it is to build decentralized ecosystems that enable people to build freely and generate wealth that can flow in and out of the ecosystem, attracting more users, more transactions, more value to build.
It might be on a much smaller scale than what is to come, but Hive has ben doing this for years already and has surprisingly for many, been able to generate wealth in the ecosystem, without having to trap anyone into the market. Everyone is free to do as they please, whether that be spend what value they have on consumables as users, or invest them into assets and startup business models to become owners.
Perhaps the question of all the money in the world is too wide for many people to work with, as in general, we are not from a position of abundance and we can't imagine infinity. We think with a scarcity mindset, so perhaps a question that might evoke more thought would be;
You have one more dollar than you need, what do you do with it?
Spend it wisely.
Turn it in to two.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
