If you've been around investing and business opportunities for any period of time, you will almost inevitably have come across the phrase "getting in on the ground floor."
Of course, it is mostly used as a sales pitch to get people involved in all manners of projects and initiatives, primarily based on their newness and the fact that not many people are involved... YET.
Sailing past Protection Island
That sort of talk can be very alluring to the people I think of as "project hoppers;" the crowd that moves from one project to the next, eternally in search of making it big with the next thing they get involved with.
Is it a Real Thing?
Whereas there's no doubt we can find lots of example of riches having been made by "early adopters" — from Microsoft to Bitcoin — fact remains that "newness" alone doesn't amount to a hill of beans.
In fact, the cryptocurrency markets are a nice example.
We see over 2000 listed initiatives that saw their valuations skyrocket in 2017, and then went on to lose 95-99% of their value in 2018.
Cherry blossom
My semi-educated guess is that many of these will never come back to anything even close to their original valuations, simply because "there was nothing there," to begin with.
In fact, sometimes I can't help but think that the whole "Get In On The Ground Floor Of This Opportunity" approach is little more than a clever marketing pitch as a sort of "code" to gloss over a reality that might go something like "What we have here is basically a pile of $HIT, but if you BUY NOW, you might get lucky and make some money before everyone discovers we only have a house of cards!"
Somehow, I always end up thinking of ill-fated BitConnect.
What's My Point Here?
Just running around after things simply because they are "new" and a "ground level opportunity" is a pretty meaningless — and very risky — proposition, unless there's actually something that resembles a "sound plan" beneath all the hype.
Of course the "snake oil salesmen" of all industries would insist otherwise... and will do their very best to persuade you, as well.
Spring!
Discernment Matters!
As of late, we've been seeing quite a few "Steemit Clones" popping up all over the landscape, and they are one of the things that made me want to sort out these thoughts, in writing.
"Copies" of other projects typically present themselves as alternatives and improvements on the original, but they are seldom able to deliver the goods, usually because they are poorly funded and ill-conceived "reactions" to something their creators didn't like about the original.
And it gets even worse when you end up with "copies of copies."
But again, discernment matters!
For example, consider a project like WhaleShares which — even if it looks a like a copy of Steemit — started a long time ago as a Discord community that gradually evolved into a sincere attempt to create a social platform without many of the problems that have plagued Steemit.
The Golden Hour
The key here is that it was a deliberate plan, not something started as a angry reaction by someone who "rage quit."
So anyway, when you come across something that makes a lot of promises about "getting in early!" ask yourself what you're getting into, early... and stop any thinking that "new" will magically reward you like the first 100 people who joined Steemit.
Because chances are... you'll be very disappointed!
Thanks for reading!
How about YOU? Have you gotten involved with projects that were a "Ground Floor Opportunity?" How did that work out for you? Do you think "early adopter" sales pitches are mostly hot air, or are they real? HOW "early" do you have to be, to truly benefit? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!
(As always, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Created at 190121 17:19 PST
0857