Looking For Jobs After College? Choose Blockchain Over Cubicles
By: Reza Jafery
Tags: Investing, Startup, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin

When I first fell down the blockchain rabbit hole, I didn’t think I’d end up this deep.

Cryptocurrencies and other Blockchain projects offer a wealth of opportunities with extremely low barriers to entry.

If you want to get involved, and I mean involved beyond the fact that you just want to put some money in and magically see it grow 1000x, all you have to do is put yourself out there.

I mentioned it in my last post, “Why I Invest In Cryptocurrency”, but Bitcoin has only been around since 2009.

Even the experts in this field don’t have much of an upper hand on newcomers — what’s 8 or so years?

That’s not even a decade.

Beyond the low barrier to entry, we’re also at a point in cryptocurrency’s development when new types of talent are needed in the space.

Lead Engineers shouldn’t be running press conferences.

I’m going to write another article on “The Problem with ICO’s” this week — so I won’t delve into that topic just yet.

With the market needing new talent, now is the perfect time to put yourself out there and grab whatever opportunity you can see. Your options are limitless. Whatever your field, it can be applied to projects in this space, and who knows — you might just end up changing the world.

You don’t need to have a large amount of money to invest to get involved.

IF YOU WANT TO WORK IN THE INDUSTRY

CREATE VALUE

I can’t explain to you how simply getting my name out in the space through networking, writing, and helping others has benefited me.

The past few months have brought some great opportunities my way, I became a partner at a Blockchain Accelerator, started working with an exciting new project— and I can trace all of these opportunities back to a single moment.

The moment when I decided that I wanted to contribute value to the blockchain community.

A lot of people I’ve met in business have told me to never do anything for free, they’ve told me it will make people devalue my work. I disagree. My willingness to help people, for free, has brought me more benefit than anything else. If anything, it’s borderline selfish of me. The point is, reach out to some companies you’re interested in working with and offer to help. This industry is so young, and most of the companies in it are in startup mode. They can probably use some assistance, and if you offer help, they might just ask you to join the team.

COMMIT TO YOUR GOAL & CREATE ACTIONABLE STEPS

Not too long ago I wrote down all of my crypto related goals in a notebook; it’s sitting next to me now.

Everyday, I look at this paper and write down what I can do in the next 24 hours to further myself towards these goals.

Reverse engineer your goals and tackle them one day at a time, don’t get ahead of yourself.

By doing this I’ve made solid steps towards achieving what I want in an alarmingly short period of time. I hope that doesn’t come off as arrogant — if anything, I’m still in disbelief at the velocity at which I’ve progressed.

It’s insane.

Entrepreneurship is like riding a lion. Everyone thinks, “Wow look at him he’s so brave and cool, I wish I could do that”, while the Entrepreneur thinks, “This is cool but when did I get up here and how the hell do I keep it from eating me alive”.

Keep making incremental steps towards your goals, whether that be increasing your portfolio value or starting your own cryptocurrency — take it one step at a time.

You might be surprised how fast you find yourself gripping the lion’s mane and wondering those same questions — contemplating how far you’ve come.

CREATE A PERSONAL BRAND ONLINE

This is crucial in any industry. Your brand is what people associate you with. It’s your personality, your work, your sense of humor: it’s the perception you create for yourself.

I’m not going to dive too deep into this because honestly, no one can explain it better than Nicolas Cole. He’s a dear friend and the one who first taught me the importance of creating a personal brand. If you haven’t read his work, I highly suggest you check it out.

Also, please do me a favor and leave a comment on one of his articles saying, “I heard Reza Jafery beat you in a typing test”.

It would really make my day.

WORK YOUR ASS OFF

I never said it’s easy.

To have what most don’t, you have to do what most won’t.

You have to put in the time. Research is key, but even more than research, is sticking to your plan. Keep your goals in mind, whether that’s working with cryptocurrencies, investing, or even starting a non-profit dedicated to researching ways blockchain can positively impact the 3rd world.

You just need to do it. It’s incredibly simple. If you’re willing to work smart — and focus on spending your time on activities or studies that either A) enrich your knowledge relevant to your goal, or B) make progress towards your goal — you can make it happen.

Just remember that closed mouths don’t get fed.

You wouldn’t believe the amount of opportunities that have come my way from simple Twitter DM’s or cold emails.

Put yourself out there, figure out what you want to specialize in or be apart of, and chase it with reckless abandon.

IF YOU WANT TO BE A TRADER/INVESTOR

LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES

I set off on my cryptocurrency journey halfway through 2017.

I don’t talk about when I started very often because we’re in a age of weighing peoples worth in the amount of days they’ve spent peering over charts.

Which is a little ridiculous.

Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of O.G’s whom I tip my hat to — I wouldn’t have learned as much as I have this quickly, if it weren’t for the thought leaders in this community.

There is also a lot of negativity whenever someone who is obviously new, asks something that only someone who’s obviously new would ask.

We should be lighting the path for the curious, for the new investors, not shaming them.

Which is why I bring up my initial dalliance into cryptocurrency.

I’m proud of the short length of time I’ve been involved in crypto. In less than a year, I’ve managed to see higher returns than any traditional investor could dream of.

I’ve learned about new technology, taught myself technical analysis (with the help of a mentor), and even managed to get involved on a deeper level by working with the companies I mentioned earlier.

The best part of it all is that I feel like I haven’t even scratched the surface. One month ago I decided I wanted to work with blockchain projects and get paid in crypto. Today, that’s a reality.

Because I don’t care how long anyone has been doing this.

This industry is young enough, that a few years of experience doesn’t give anyone much of a head start.

A few years of advantage can be outweighed by working harder, smarter, and bringing in more value to the community than others are willing to.

I started investing less than a year ago and I will outwork you.

“You think that your time spent trading crypto is your ally? You merely adopted crypto. I was born in the bear market, molded by it. I didn’t see green candles until I was already a man.”

I’ve been waiting for an opportunity to pull this quote out.

I was baptized in the Great Bear Market of 2017 (I don’t think anyone has ever referred to it as that, but I’m going to roll with it).

The first time I bought a coin, I bought Ether (ETH), the coin that fuels the Ethereum Network, at its all time high on June 6th or 7th. It was right above $300 at the time. I had been studying Ethereum for weeks, reading all about it, Bitcoin, and other blockchain projects.

I was convinced Ethereum was going to change the world — but I also knew from a brief stint day trading that one should never buy into the tail-end of a uptrend.

“Don’t chase green candles”, I thought.

Which is investor speak for “don’t buy an uptrend that’s already started as you never know when it will stop”. It’s a part of the mantra conveyed by the famous investing quote, “buy when there’s blood on the streets”.

I waited patiently for the price of Ethereum to drop. Weeks passed and the price continued to rise. Soon it was over double where I had initially considered it for investment.

I panicked.

I bought the top.

It lost over 50% of its value the next day.

I was rekt.

Too stubborn to realize the loss and cash out, I decided to spend the next several months studying everything I could get my hands on regarding Blockchain, Technical Analysis (TA), and Investment Strategy.

RESEARCH

I started scalping Ethereum. Selling the highs and buying the lows, using what I was learning from studying TA.

I obsessed over chart patterns, lagging indicators, leading indicators, Fibonacci, Elliot wave — I fell so deep into the matrix, I forgot I was even plugged in.

Soon, despite Ethereum still being 50% of the value I had bought into, I was back at my breakeven investment. I had doubled the amount of Ethereum I initially owned.

I started investing in ICO’s. EOS, BAT, Bancor, Tezos — I was doing a shamefully small amount of research, but it being the height of the ICO craze, I ended up doing pretty well. Making a decent percentage gain on the ICO’s I had put my Ethereum into, I started getting into Altcoins- which is when my portfolio really started to explode.

While I may have only been around for under a year — I like to think I was forced into the accelerated program — where I had to either learn fast, or lose everything. It wasn’t my initial strategy but circumstances forced me into it, and now I am glad.

Most of what I’ve learned, the knowledge that allowed me to recoup those losses, has come as a result of the losses occurring in the first place.

“Adversity is like a strong wind. It tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that we see ourselves as we really are.” — Arthur Golden

You’re not too late to get into cryptocurrency; this market is just getting started.

Furthermore, you have a better chance of outworking and surpassing your peers in this market because it’s 24/7.

If you’re willing to put in the time and work harder than everyone else, you will come out on top.

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If you want to learn more about trading, you can find more of my cryptocurrency articles below