You can pretty much always destroy value
Or why not to give investment advice to your heroes
It was the final day of a 10-day cruise through the Galápagos Islands and Richard Dawkins, the cruise’s featured guest, wanted to chat with me.
“Stewart, I’ve been meaning to ask you about this cryptocurrency stuff. What’s the deal?”
For the entire trip, I hadn’t shut up about what was going on in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space (it was late 2017 during peak madness). Finally, I had caught Dawkins’ attention.
With an enthusiasm only possible during a huge bubble, I gave him a layman’s explanation of blockchain and why it mattered.
I told him that Ethereum, not Bitcoin, was where the real opportunity was (highly debatable!).
Buy some Ethereum now, I said, and it will be like buying Google early.
He asked how somebody would go about following my advice, so I gave him this note:
I felt a deep sense of satisfaction after handing it to him.
Ah, what a treat. For all the value Dawkins has brought to my life, I finally get to repay the favor.
At the time, Ethereum was trading around $750.
Today, it traded at $226.
Goddamnit.
You can always add value, but I guess you can pretty much always destroy it too.
January 2022 Update: Ethereum closed today around $2,600. My man is back in the money. Thank… God?