Things today that are like Bitcoin in 2010
Things today that are like Bitcoin in 2010
Last week was exactly one year ago that the World Health Organization posted the following message on their Twitter account:
"Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus identified in Wuhan, China."
That aged well. 373 days and 2 million dead later, we now have more mutations than we can keep track of and a world economy hanging on for dear life.
France is keeping its restaurants closed until April 6. Damnit. That's it. I'm buying a Thermomix.
The (only?) good news, however, is that asset prices keep climbing, and entrepreneurs who are embracing the Internet are making more money than ever.
In fact, the highest earner on Youtube is a 9-year old
Ryan Kaji, whose channel - Ryan's World - has over 28 million subscribers, earned $30 million from Youtube last year. And yes, he's actually just 9 years old.
Remember those science experiments you used to make in school as a kid? Well, Ryan does just that - on camera. He heated a bar of soap in the microwave last month and made a cool $90,000 in the process.
Not bad, Youtube (and well done, Ryan).
I've said it before, but it bears repeating - content creators are the new athletes.
They're not just Instagrammers, Tiktokers, or Youtubers. They're media empires.
Kids of my generation grew up wanting to be athletes and movie stars. Kids today are growing up wanting to be influencers.
Here's why...
PewDiePie, a Swedish Youtuber who records himself playing video games makes $70 million a year selling his merchandise. That's twice what Cristiano Ronaldo earned in 2019.
And Joe Rogan, a 53-year old podcaster, signed a $100 million deal with Spotify last year to move his podcast from Youtube over to their platform. That's the same income as Dwayne Johnson, the highest-paid actor in the world.
The game is changing. Media leverage is cheap and requires no one's permission. And when advertisers step in to back your work, attention becomes a currency. The more eyeballs, the more $$$.
The next decade is going to see billions of new users come online in developing countries... and they're gonna watch Youtube and be on Instagram too.
If he keeps it up, I wouldn't be surprised if little Ryan earns a billion dollars before he's 18.
"I'm uncomfortable putting myself out there in front of a camera" is likely going to be the most expensive excuse you ever make.
Rapid-Fire Best Insights
So let's say you actually took my advice and started posting. Here's how to generate content ideas:
Create a highly curated content diet of high-quality information
Your output will only be as good as your input. Think of it like a digestive tract. If you consume junk, you'll produce junk. News, subscriptions, feeds, podcasts, "following"-s - whatever you read/listen to must be good.Organize your ideas and take notes.
I used to gather all my ideas in Google Keep, but it was messy, so I just recently changed to Evernote. Remember, a little bit of structure gives you a lot of freedom.Play to your strengths
If you're a good writer, start publishing on your LinkedIn, and post it all to your own personal blog for Google SEO. Then get started Tweeting. If you're good on video, get on TikTok TODAY, then make a Youtube Channel once you've gotten some traction. The key is to aim for organic reach.Produce, produce, produce.
Create systems to help you get more done with less content - like chopping up your LinkedIn post and tweeting it, or reposting your TikTok on Instagram Reels. You don't always have to post super original things. As one of my mentors says, there are no original ideas, only original messengers.
That's it. You're likely not going to see any financial rewards for at least 18-24 months. But after that, it's an exponential curve.
Quote of the week: "Elon Musk is now worth $208 billion. You want to know how he did it? He skipped 34.67 billion lattes. It's that easy."
Book I'm re-reading: The Almanack of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson.
Best Tweet I came across: Things today that are like Bitcoin in 2010
What stood out this week: how desperately governments are trying to increase tax revenue.
Yesterday, Janet Yellen, the incoming Treasury Secretary under Biden, said she would consider taxing unrealized capital gains to generate more tax revenue for the government.
This is a big deal. Unrealized capital gains are the potential profits you earn when an investment you own increases in value - but before you sell it. If you bought bitcoin at $10,000 and now it's at $35,000, your unrealized capital gain would be $25,000.
If you sell your Bitcoin - you make a realized gain (a profit) of $25,000, on which you have to pay taxes. If you don't sell it, the $25,000 is just an unrealized gain on paper, which you wouldn't have to pay taxes on (which makes sense, because you didn't make the money yet).
But now, the US wants to tax you even if you don't sell the investment. That means you could be paying taxes on profits you haven't made yet.
If the US implements this, I wouldn't be surprised to see other developed countries around the world follow suit.
Anything else I think you should know: in 2021, offense is the new defense.
The opportunity cost of not taking responsibility - and risk - is the highest it's been in a long time.
There are more people consuming online content than ever before. You can choose to be the one selling other people's attention to an advertiser, or the one whose attention is being sold. Getting started costs $0.
There are more technologically disruptive innovations being built than ever before. You can't build wealth looking in the rearview mirror, and COVID only cemented the enormous disparity between the growth of technology businesses and those of the "old economy". There is no turning back from that.
And on top of that, we're in a crypto bull market.
I know most of you are still in lockdown, tired of the crisis. You can't wait for this to be over and "go back to normal."
But there are a lot of smart people working very hard and very fast to build the "new normal", emerging, post-COVID economy.
A lot of wealth is being created right now. I encourage you to participate.
Until next week,
Alex.