I wasn’t going to write this as a full post, but while typing it I realised that my experience may be able to help others.
For the past two years I’ve been working on a “secret” project: helping a friend devise a revolutionary new – let’s call it a “communications system” – with the sole aim of vastly improving global understanding and inter-person relationships. He’s a little eccentric and paranoid (“little” being a nice way of saying “extremely”). I was to help him run the entire enterprise, coordinating global teams and leading operations. We’ve done substantial groundwork, thanks in no small part to my (entirely voluntary and unpaid) contributions. Now, with funding finally secured and only weeks away from launching the first modules of our dream into reality, he suddenly turns paranoid against ME!
Bit Brain being Bit Brain, I bow to nobody and I DON’T take kindly to seemingly benevolent friends who turn out to be tyrants when the brown stuff hits the fan! It’s hard to tell what’s worse: that he couldn’t see why I was angry; that he tried to turn everything around on me; or that he obviously believes that his conduct, though demonstrably heinous, is beyond reproach!
Needless to say, today marked the end of my involvement with his project – I can’t work with a lunatic who doesn’t trust my capabilities and judgement. I can’t work with someone who takes exception to me fighting governments and spreading the truth (which I do everywhere), because it may make his company “look bad”. That doesn’t even make sense considering what he wants his company to ultimately do! It’s terribly sad, he completely lacks the skills and experience to work with a dynamic team, he stands zero chance of success without my help. The project is a good one (if rather ambitious), but it deserves a shot and I was willing to do my very best to give it that shot.
Now, all is lost, thanks solely to his suddenly inane behaviour.
It’s been a rather hard blow to take: I was keen on the challenge, I really wanted to help make the world a better place, I could sure have used a little cash flow too (though it was never about money) – this could have been revolutionary.
It’s a bitter pill to swallow, especially in the wake of watching well-intentioned crypto projects get hit so hard by the crypto winter. But I guess that’s life, you don’t get to choose how it plays out. So I’ll be doing what I always do: get back up, dust myself off, learn lessons from the experience and just keep on trying my best to make a difference wherever I can. I accept that the scope my control is limited; I do what I can and what I think is right, the rest is in God’s hands.
People are struggling; just as I was about to fall asleep last night, I checked my phone and spotted one of those “help my, my life is too much for me and I’m overwhelmed!” posts on a friend’s Facebook wall – maybe you’ve seen a similar one yourself. I immediately reacted to it and offered her a listening ear, sometimes all people need is somebody to talk to. It’s not the first time something like has happened, and it surely won’t be the last.
Remember that everyone you meet is fighting some sort of battle, don’t be fooled by their positive Facebook statuses and happy looking photos on Instagram showing their perfect lives. Two years ago I reacted to another of those Facebook posts. I tried hard to help a friend of mine who was going through a bad patch. Not long after that he committed suicide. It’s a tragedy and a loss that I will never forget, but at least I can look myself in the mirror and know that I tried, that I made a concerted effort to prevent it. I keep a screenshot of his final message to me, it simply says “Thank you.” I still shed a few tears whenever I see it. You can see it up at the top of this post.
Just imagine how I would feel if I hadn’t tried!
Take care of yourselves ladies and gentlemen, and take care of each other too. It is often when we don’t consider one another and we act selfishly that conflict occurs. I always tell my wife that our marriage will remain rock solid as long as we both keep putting one another first.
Okay, let’s get my chin off the floor and see where life takes me from here.
In the wise words of Cumbawamba’s “Tubthumping” (yes I’m THAT old!):
“I get knocked down,
But I get up again,
You are never gonna keep me down.”
Yours in friendship
Bit Brain
“The secret to success: find out where people are going and get there first”
~ Mark Twain
“Crypto does not require institutional investment to succeed; institutions require crypto investments to remain successful”
~ Bit Brain