It’s never as good as it seems, it’s never as bad as it seems.

When I was at Coinbase they would do quarterly surveys of employee morale. The score is always directly correlated with the price of bitcoin. Bitcoin was up, and employees felt good. Bitcoin was down, and employees felt bad. I think the fact we all rode these wild waves was one thing that caused higher than normal turnover. People had crazy high, low, and anxious emotions because their financial future was tied to a speculative asset.

Brian Armstrong always brought a tempered perspective to this. When Bitcoin was up and we were winning he would always warn that it’s never as good as it seems. When Bitcoin was down and we all felt bad, he would comfort that it’s never as bad as it seems. In an industry like web3, you can’t ride the waves. It will only drive you crazy. Instead, you need to be rationally optimistic and lead with confidence.

As a leader in a startup, I’m seeing the same thing. Every day we will have incredible success with customers, lows by finding new competitors, technical challenges etc. We’re also in crypto so we’re riding the highs and lows of the market. If you ride these waves you miss the point that the general trend is upward. If you can focus on the broader perspective, you can have a much clearer vision of what you’re building and feel much better day-to-day. It’s a long game, and it pays off to just be optimistic.

At Coinbase one of our core values was “positive energy.“ We lived this and I think it was one of the things that made us successful. It’s important to remember that it’s never as good as it seems and it’s never as bad as it seems. For entrepreneurs and builders staying optimistic is probably the healthiest thing we can do.

It’s never as good as it seems, it’s never as bad as it seems.

When I was at Coinbase they would do quarterly surveys of employee morale. The score is always directly correlated with the price of bitcoin. Bitcoin was up, and employees felt good. Bitcoin was down, and employees felt bad. I think the fact we all rode these wild waves was one thing that caused higher than normal turnover. People had crazy high, low, and anxious emotions because their financial future was tied to a speculative asset.

Brian Armstrong always brought a tempered perspective to this. When Bitcoin was up and we were winning he would always warn that it’s never as good as it seems. When Bitcoin was down and we all felt bad, he would comfort that it’s never as bad as it seems. In an industry like web3, you can’t ride the waves. It will only drive you crazy. Instead, you need to be rationally optimistic and lead with confidence.

As a leader in a startup, I’m seeing the same thing. Every day we will have incredible success with customers, lows by finding new competitors, technical challenges etc. We’re also in crypto so we’re riding the highs and lows of the market. If you ride these waves you miss the point that the general trend is upward. If you can focus on the broader perspective, you can have a much clearer vision of what you’re building and feel much better day-to-day. It’s a long game, and it pays off to just be optimistic.

At Coinbase one of our core values was “positive energy.“ We lived this and I think it was one of the things that made us successful. It’s important to remember that it’s never as good as it seems and it’s never as bad as it seems. For entrepreneurs and builders staying optimistic is probably the healthiest thing we can do.