James Good on The Five Pros and Cons about Crypto

I had the pleasure of interviewing James Good

Hi it’s a pleasure to have this opportunity to speak with you. I started my career in software and consulting focused mostly on technology and banking. After nearly 20 years of doing this, I realized I wasn’t really happy and needed to find a way to feel that what I was doing had purpose and meaning to both myself and the world. I had undergone somewhat of a transformation in my life the past few years where I met some incredible people and learned more about myself which gave me the strength and inspiration to truly transform my career. That was what led me to pursuing a variety of things from creating my own podcast called The Coin Chat, doing public speaking, and advising start-ups privately on how to run their businesses. I could say that I wish I had discovered and started all of this sooner, but to be honest, the knowledge and experience I have are also my foundation that enable me to manage through challenging situations. I have also had the fortune to travel around the world in my work, which has enabled me to visit over 60 countries, and in the course of all of these travels to meet my amazing wife, and have my 2 wonderful little boys who I can honestly say I get to “grow up with them” (because as my wife will most certainly confirm, I still have a child like nature that I can tap into which lets tap into my inner boy when I play with my boys. It’s amazing!). I also had an incredible trek to visit and be with the gorillas in Rwanda and Uganda, and this has inspired me to want to do more for the world and not just for myself or my family.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! What is your “backstory”

Back in 2010, I studied marketing to launch a business in London, UK with one of the most brilliant marketeers I have probably ever met. He was sharp, funny, and had a way to make you see how marketing can work and fail. One day, he came to visit us in the offices and was full of enthusiasm about this “products and services” catalogue that he had found. Baffled, I looked at him thinking “how can a paper-based catalogue of services be of any interest when we have the internet?” And his response was that you could use this new currency called Bitcoin to trade for services. As brilliant as I thought he was, I thought he was really crazy that day. Talk about how wrong I was! It was only in 2014 that I was attending an event with The Society International, a group run by the author Neil Strauss, that focusses on helping men become the best they can be. At this particular event, we went to Silicon Valley to learn all about the future and how we could gear ourselves personally by being aware of what the future may hold. It was an amazing weekend that included a discussion on Bitcoin and these “things called ICOs”. At the time, I didn’t connect this with my previous exposure to Bitcoin and cryptocurrency with my crazy marketer friend. The difference now was that I was aware of it, but was just too busy at the time with work, and starting my family to really look into it in any detail. But I kept thinking about it and it was gnawing at me that I needed to really look into it soon. Finally in 2016 towards the end of the year, I started doing some research in crytpo and the more I researched the more I realized how much there was to know and how hard it was to come by the information. This is what eventually led me to going fully into crypto from mining to advising companies to launching my own podcast to help others learn how to get started in cryptocurrency and being honored to get covered in the press and be invited to events to speak. And today my entire life revolves around crypto, talking to people all around the world and connecting with people. It was one of the best and most interesting decisions I ever took in my life.

Can you tell me about the most interesting projects you are working on now?

I am actually working on the relaunch of a luxury brand which is both restarting a once prestigious business as well as creating a secondary subsidiary focused on cryptocurrency as part of their company, offering and loyalty program. It is innovative, exciting and will also be disruptive to their industry. What makes it so exciting is that it connects and resonates with the wealthier communities and luxury whilst also engaging the younger generations that are connected to technology, innovation and creating a global community. I really wish I could tell more about this project, but it will be known very soon, and it will appear on my Linkedin profile as well. I am afraid I have to keep this one secret until they do the “big reveal” themselves!

What are the 5 things that most excite you about crypto? Why?

That is a great question. I suppose there are a lot of things about crypto that I find exciting. What people don’t realize is how much cryptocurrency brings people together from all over the world; probably because we all operate with the goal of changing the world, making it a better place and investing into it so that we have a better place to live. So the top 5 things that excite me the most about cryptocurrency are:

1. It brings the world together through consensus, decentralization and democratization, meaning it creates a way for everyone from around the world to collaborate together and to make decisions together that lead to a more positive and agreeable outcome rather than being dictated to by companies and governments about how things should be. It gives us a way to have direct access to share our ideas and vote to agree what we want

2. We have a unique opportunity to redefine banking, payments and make our world more efficient, faster and accurate

3. As a technologist and visionary, I have always loved the future. And what I love about crypto is the immense and cool innovation and disruption that is enabling us to re-think how we build and deploy efficient technologies and how they can be deployed to change the world and make our lives easier and more efficient

4. There is nothing more important than connection with others. What cryptocurrency does is creates a level of enthusiasm in global groups to help each other to collaborate (even amongst competitors) and work together. In all the years I have been in technology this is the first time I have seen so much collaboration, enthusiasm and desire to work together for a common outcome.

5. I love nothing more than seeing adoption from larger corporates and governments that are slowly accepting cryptocurrency as the new normal and are creating more legitimacy to Blockchain and giving more confidence to the wider public

What are the 5 things worry you about crypto? Why?

Ironically some of the points that I consider about what excite me about cryptocurrency are also in some cases what worry me as well.

1. My biggest worry is that governments are trying to “regain control” and the only way they know how to do this is through regulation and the potential to destroy all the good we are trying to create. I sincerely hope they will take more time to engage thought leaders and social influencers in crypto to learn and appreciate it first before imposing sanctions, regulation and fear into everyone unnecessarily.

2. Ironically the lack of market controls and regulation also means that there is most certainly more market manipulation by whales, institutional investors and large money than one would find in a normal trading environment. This is concerning as it leaves the average investor exposed to potential manipulation that adversely impacts him or her.

3. Another point is with the market for crypto being small (probably less than 1% of the global population) it means that public facing people can make negative press statements and this can do far more harm than good (often to protect their own personal interests and due to a total lack of understanding). Wouldn’t it be great if these investors and leaders took the time to ask and learn from us rather than shoot from the hip to criticize what they don’t really understand or know much about?

4. Another area that is hard for many and causes a lot of worry are the huge swings in crypto pricing that creates uncertainty, panic and negativity (or euphoria). Once crypto matures I imagine it will settle down but until then the swings will just have to be something we accept regardless of how much they worry the average investor.

5. Finally all of the scammers that are out for personal gain and are ruining the potential and opportunity for many others by creating so much negativity. Its concerning and surprising how many people are actually participating and conducting scams.

What 3 things would you advise to someone who wanted to emulate your career? Can you share an example for each idea?

To be honest I don’t think I would recommend trying to emulate my career as such primarily because I have been through a long journey to get to where I am today. And the one thing that was holding me back for many years was me! Deep down inside I wanted to do so much more, but something was always keeping me from truly pursuing my dreams and goals. And when I realized that to be my truest self and to achieve what I wanted required me to reset my internal operating system, it was both disruptive as well as extraordinarily freeing as a result. So as part of that journey, here is what I learned that I would like to share with everyone else.

First off, find out what you are awesome at. That may sound simple, but believe me, most people are not actually doing what they are awesome at. If you ask someone what they are awesome at, they will probably respond by saying “I am good at…” and that is exactly where the challenge starts. We need to recognize what makes us amazing and awesome and then work harder to live that way so that we are congruent.

And as part of my transformation in my career, I also realized that there were three things that defined my core values. Those are to be Authentic, Open, and Transparent. So what do I mean by these? Well Authentic is being both true to yourself and true to others. In simple terms, you can see if someone is authentic if you can find them on social media and see who they really are. But for the self it means living each day being as authentic and honest about who you are.

The second is to be open. I think of it this way. You find that people are either standing with their arms crossed or their arms open. I always want to speak to the people with open arms because I already know they are probably more open minded, open and receptive to feedback and most importantly open to the possibilities that we are offered every day. And I cherish every opportunity myself to be open and to meet others who operate in the same way. Finally, for me, transparent is about being congruent between your authentic self and being open to the possibilities. Rather than being a person who appears to be hiding things, I prefer to live a life where people know where they stand with me and see that by being transparent they know I am open and authentic.

So my takeaway here is, don’t pursue things you are good at. Try and find out what you are awesome at and pursue that. And at the same time look for every way to be authentic, open to the possibilities and feedback you receive, and transparent about your intentions. I wish I had learned this earlier in life, but I am happy that if there is one nugget of advice I can share with everyone, then this is it.

Some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this

Oh that is an easy question for me! Elon Musk, if you are reading this, I would love to meet you. I read the interview you did with my friend Neil Strauss and it gave me a new perspective on who you are. And I loved knowing another side of you.

I have always been inspired by Elon Musk’s goals and desire to build and change technology and solutions for the benefit of mankind and by challenging the status quo to find better ways to achieve greater outcomes. From landing a rocket standing upright to the Hyperloop to redesigning a truckers cabin, every step takes us further to redefining ourselves and not just accepting that what we built or did in the past is still relevant or appropriate in the present. And so I have learned from watching and following him that we must always retest boundaries and old ways of thinking in order to evolve ourselves and the world we live in. I truly aim to achieve similar goals within my own life and to inspire others for greatness as well.

Watch the full interview below: