Ep.80: Your Crypto or Your Life. Nat Eliason: Financial Frenzies and Mindful Living

Bounce! Conversations with Larry Weeks

In this episode, we dig into FOMO and the temptations of quick wins and the importance of psychologically sustainable, long-term work.

My guest is Nat Eliason. Nat is a writer and the author of Crypto Confidential: Winning and Losing Millions in the New Frontier of Finance. Since he started publishing his writing in 2013, his work has been read by millions of people and spun out multiple businesses ranging from a marketing agency to a tea cafe.

It's a wild story. In 2021 Nat set a six-month deadline to make as much money as possible before the birth of his first child, leading him to the world of cryptocurrency. In just a year, he made millions writing code that managed hundreds of millions of other people's money, became an influencer in the space, speaking at de-fi conferences, went through a platform hack, and despite amassing a small fortune, He started to question whether his wealth was truly secure and how long he could keep risking everything on the roller coaster investments his business was actually built on.

• Nat's journey.
• Startup culture and the "white-knuckle" mentality.
• The challenge of productivity optimization.
• Enduring impact of books vs. fleeting content of social media.
• The power law of writing.
• Redefining a relationship with creative work.
• Giving yourself credit for creative output.
• Cryptocurrencies, DeFi, and the real value of blockchain technologies.
• On the money-happiness equation.
• Career shifts, burnout and recovery.

Lots of great life lessons here.

For show notes and more, visit www.larryweeks.com