I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to speak at a blockchain conference called Ethereal Summit in New York recently. It was a two day conference that focused on developments in the blockchain space and was also part of the run up to blockchain week where a three day conference run by Coindesk called “Consensus” and a one day Token Summit conference was held.
I shared some of the work we’ve been doing at ConsenSys Academy with a talk called “Reinventing the way we learn blockchains”. Here is the presentation for those interested.
I also had the chance to visit ConsenSys HQ in Brooklyn which is fast becoming a must see tourist spot for all those in the blockchain space. 10 points for guessing which graffiti covered door is the entrance into the office!
If you can’t figure it out, use the next picture as a clue. I’m sitting outside on the front steps.
In New York, I also got to meet the rest of the Academy team for the first time in 3D. ie “IRL” aka In Real Life.
I must say that I’m very privileged to work with a bunch of very talented and dedicated people from all over the world. Mainly America actually but isn’t that the world from a US perspective? 🙂
I’ll rephrase that and say I’m very privileged to work with a bunch of very talented and dedicated people from such a diverse background. We are like one big family where yes we argue at times, but at the end of the day, we all are moving towards the same goal. To be the best in the world at what we do, and that is to share our knowledge about this amazing technology called blockchain.
I also had one chance to see something in New York and immediately I went to see Ground Zero.
I’m sure many of us remember exactly what we were doing at the moment we heard of the news of the September 11 attacks. For me, it was mid-morning and I was at a company called Total Metering Limited (TML) working as a software programmer in Wellington CBD. I never thought I’d have the opportunity to ever come to New York but working in the blockchain space has done that.
The message here is that I took a huge risk and went all in on blockchains, this technology that I believe is just as big and revolutionary as the Internet itself. I quit my sweet, well paid and amazing job in 2015 and followed a dream.
I had spent too much time listening to motivational speakers like Eric Thomas and Tony Robins and wanted to prove their theories by executing their words. Things have not been easy. Following a dream or a passion is actually way more difficult than just getting a job, chilling on the weekends, and having time to watch Game of Thrones or whatever the latest craze is.
I haven’t “made it”, in fact, I’m still far from it, but these little successes prove to me I’m on the right track and I just have to keep on keeping on. What is your passion? What gets you out of bed in the morning? What do you want to do with your billion or so heart beats you’ve been gifted on planet Earth? Whatever it is, get up, get out and go get some!
