The mind killer...

It slips in unnoticed and spreads like a virus.

At first it’s a thought. Then it’s a feeling. Until it goes into total overwhelm.

So what was killing my mind?

Last month I lost my job.

Ok, no problem.

Let’s just get another job.

First week: I optimistically reached out to my industry contacts.

Nobody had anything. The cruelty of the bear market started to show itself.

Second week: More reaching out, more negative responses.

Single insidious thoughts began to creep in.

What if you don’t find something for months?

Third week: More reaching out to contacts, more applying via job boards (which I knew were a waste of time).

Singular thoughts become a tidal wave of negativity and anxiety.

I am totally fucked. I’m not going to find anything.

So why all the fear?

Evolution.

You see, I have two young kids.

From an evolutionary perspective, the heightened sense of anxiety or fear is part of our survival mechanism.

As soon as you have kids, your focus narrows to protecting them so they can pass your genes to the next generation.

Think about our caveman ancestors: a vigilant, anxious parent was more likely to keep their child safe from threats, thus ensuring the child survived to adulthood and could continue the lineage.

This was thousands of years of evolutionary conditioning I was fighting against.

I used to actively seek risky activities.

I’ve been skydiving, bungee jumping and chased big waves.

I used to feed on the pressure of a high stress job. The adrenaline made me feel alive.

But once I had kids, that all went away.

The fragility of life slapped me in the face.

No amount of mere confidence can overcome thousands of years of evolutionary conditioning.

But that same evolutionary condition also forced me to continue.

Trust in the process.

Keep reaching out to contacts. Methodically check off contacts, one by one.

And then I talked to a friend of a friend I had met at a party two years earlier.

He runs a DeFi project and they were looking to hire someone.

My skills matched.

Within two days I had a contract and was meeting the team.

We’d hit the fear bottom and were now making higher lows.

And as soon as that happened I realized how silly my fear was.

(funny how the mind works that way)

Of course I’d find another job.

But I learned a painful lesson: no matter how smart or confident you think you are, you can’t bypass evolution.

You don’t get to choose your emotions.

Feel the fear and keep moving forward.

Lessons Learned

Most of you probably don’t have kids so maybe you can’t relate to this story.

But I know most of you are interested in Web3.

So I’ll break down a few lessons I learned from this experience about finding a job in Web3.

Lesson #1: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: job boards are a waste of time.

The only thing they are good for is to see what type of jobs are out there and the job description so you can understand what’s required.

Lesson #2: Don’t underestimate real life social interaction.

I ended up getting this job because I met the founder at a party two years prior.

We had a good conversation and he remembered me when my friend re-introduced us.

Without that prior meeting, it would have been more difficult for me to get the job.

Go to crypto events, meetups and talk to as many people as possible.

These chance meetings come back around when you least expect it.

Lesson #3: Web3 is primarily driven by developers which means content isn’t a priority.

Developers don’t really care about content. This can be an uphill battle if you’re looking for a job writing content in Web3.

But this is also an opportunity since there’s so much bad content out there.

Understand how to show your writing results.

This can include showing your Twitter growth, ranking high for SEO keywords or showing the number of impressions your work has received.

People who are skeptical of the value of content want to see how it can ultimately benefit the company (either economically or raised status).

If you can show results, your odds of finding work improve dramatically.

Lesson 4: Trust in the process.

We can’t choose our emotions. All you can do is choose how to respond to them.

If you consistently work towards a goal and use every resource you have, you’ll get there.

You’ll have doubts and fears along the way, but just keep moving forward.

The worst thing you can do is give up.

I hope this was helpful. Feel free to message me with any questions. Have a great weekend!

-Savant