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Actionable tips for building, publishing & scaling your voice & value. Happiness, philosophy, building wealth, & other memos I wish were mainstream. Here's what they don't teach in school on business, life & creativity

What If You Could Go Back In Time

And invest in Email, Websites & the Internet...

Matt Gottesman

Aug 23, 2021

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Picture this…

It’s the mid-to-late 90’s, AOL has chat rooms where you can meet people from around the world, email is emerging as a new form of sending physical mail and people are buying 1-word domains like money.com or health.com.

To you it may seem like forever ago, and if you’re one of my younger readers, it may seem like a page out of history books.

What was so interesting about that time, is that people thought chat rooms, email, domains and the Internet were a fad of the times. They even welcomed their demise (ending) during the Dot Com Bust.

Did you know…

The dot-com bubble, also known as the dot-com boom… was a stock market bubble caused by excessive speculation of Internet-related companies in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet.
Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Composite stock market index rose 400%, only to fall 78% from its peak by October 2002, giving up all its gains during the bubble.
During the crash, many online shopping companies, such as Pets.com… failed and shut down.
Some companies, such as Cisco, whose stock declined by 86%, Amazon.com, and Qualcomm, lost a large portion of their market capitalization but survived.

Why does this matter?

Well, for a few reasons:

The people who lost big during these times wanted the quick money. That is, they created basic websites with no value, raised a lot of capital, didn’t know what to do with said capital, and then declared bankruptcy when they hadn’t actually built anything but spent all the money. Quick money goes out just as quickly as it comes in.
People judged the outcomes of many bad behaviors amongst good ideas and then dismissed the opportunities that could have been created from those good ideas. Instead of seeing the benefits the Internet provided, many people simply didn’t want to learn more of what they had in front of them or just left it alone completely.
The people that survived the bust were the ones who recognized the possibilities the Internet provided and forged on, often with people laughing at them and with slower adoption until critical mass became imminent.

So, the question is… if you could go back and invest in the Internet given what you know now, would you?

And with the inevitable answer being yes, the next question is, why aren’t you learning Web 3.0 today so you can say you don’t regret it later?

And to better explain this the above…

Why invest time, energy and money into learning Web 3.0… Well, if you take a closer look you’ll realize it’s actually about investing in yourself… you’re the focus now… and the algorithms have no say otherwise.

It will be about sovereignty, individuality, minimizing platforms and maximizing output, actual user engagement and a solid, more personable relationship between you and I. We’re proving it right here in this Substack.

Start now!

Read this week’s Simplify, Multiply, Diversify below…👇🏼

SIMPLIFY…

The art of less.

Interpretation…

You don’t need to do more. You need to constantly be figuring out how to do less but gain more, live more, learn more and earn more.

This is not a message about not doing the work. This is a message about figuring out how to do the smarter work with less shiny objects distracting you.

I started down this path about 2.5 years ago and I continue to get rid of having too many things that distract my attention, as well as doing too many things within my business that spread me (us) too thin.

Don’t complicate your life by doing everything. Simplify by narrowing your focus and watch how much more time, energy, money, life, education, good people and great experiences you have all around you.

You don’t need all the things to have a life. You need the right things to live one.

MULTIPLY…

You could make a fortune from the things you don’t know.

Just because you don’t know about all your options with Web 3.0, what blockchain technology does, why cryptocurrency is becoming wildly more popular or why people are buying, collecting and selling NFTs, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be full on in discovery mode for these concepts right now.

So many people said they wished they had invested time, energy and focus into email and the Internet back in the 90’s and early 2000’s… well… here’s your chance.

Some next steps & resources:

Find online communities that talk about these things and join them on their discords and Substack… You could check out @pompglobal @nft @bitboy_crypto or the Pomp Podcast
I had a couple of convos on my podcast with Javier Laval (How the Future Belongs to the Creators) and with Rodney & Stan Yesp (How to Navigate Web 3.0, Startups, VC & the Future of Business)
I will be launching my Discord soon, if you want to be a part of this, please either leave me a comment below or DM me on Instagram @mattgottesman.

DIVERSIFY…

I’d rather be an independent than verified by the system

You do not need permission, verification (blue badges), millions of followers and to be a slave to the platforms that are using your data, content, time, energy, focus and money, in order for you to build the life you want.

You do need to break from the “system” and to start putting yourself first.

I’m not saying to abandon platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok… but I am asking you start thinking about how you use those platforms to drive your clients, customers and community to more sustainable environments and controllable platforms that allow you to diversify your value and offerings. (Workshop on this coming soon)

Start taking back your power and prepare for the world to come where 100% of your people see, engage and interact with your work, art, words and creativity instead of 3% of what Big Tech allows. The shift is happening. Use this time wisely.

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