Arry's Airdrop #62: Farewell USBC and GBBC

Good Afternoon, I'm excited to start sharing and writing again. It's been long awhile since my last newsletter (May 2024) where I said I would share my observations and lessons from the past 6 months. Obviously, I haven't written since then, so I have some catching up to do. This might be the lessons from the experience overall. I shared this particular newsletter via email last week - sharing here on LinkedIn. You can get it directly in your inbox by signing up here:?eepurl.com/hD2tND ?

RECAP: In November 2023, the organization that had been created by my co-founder/Chair, Lee Bratcher and myself, the U.S. Blockchain Coalition (USBC) merged with the Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC). Actually, more technically, its assets were acquired from the Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA) where we had been incubated since June 2021.?

Well, I've left both the GBBC where I was the Head of Strategy (US), and also the U.S. Blockchain Coalition where I was the Executive Director. I'm thankful to both Michael Schutzler, former outgoing CEO of the WTIA and to Sandra Ro, CEO of the GBBC for taking a chance on this grand need for a multi-state focused organization. They embraced the innovative spirit, and the communal collaboration that we were able to grow, and entrusted me to grow it via the USBC. ?

12?observations and lessons I picked up from this past year.

There are 12, one for each month in 2024. There are so many, so this list is my favorite.?

1. Power. When doing a merger & acquisition, taking the organization you built and having it integrated as an initiative of a larger organization will mean that as a founder, you are relinquishing ownership, possession and, control?of the organization. All three critical elements that Peter Thiel talks about in his book, "Zero to One". As the acquirer, if you want the founder to be an integral part of nurturing the organization to the next phase, that'll have to be an intentional strategy that is planned out before the acquisition.?
2. One Pager. Do a one pager always of the Ts and Cs - expectations, assumptions, and triple check it always. Whether it's using a FinTech application on your phone, or doing a merger, or setting up a new governance organization. "Power, possession, and control" are the three levers that are always on my mind.
3. Culture. The organizational culture and expectations when working with other people with backgrounds in?government, traditional finance, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and academia are vastly different that the organizational culture and expectations that come with working with people in technology, consumer, enterprise, professional services and nonprofits, which is the experience of?my background. When I say organizational culture and expectations, this covers everything from how meetings are run and general operations, to communications etiquette and how success of any project is measured. Night and day.?
4. Perception drives reality no matter what you do. Perception from a global perspective or perception from working in a hyperlocal fashion from the state perspective. What drives success for a global organization does not drive success for a local organization. They are two completely different games.?
5. Customers/Members. It's really important to regularly talk to your target and current customers/members. Directly. This is a core principle of what it takes to create a startup from scratch, taking any organization from zero to one. Since June 2021, I have continued to talk to states across the United States daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly - it was a fundamental part of how I get a sense of what was important to the states versus what was important to one or a small number of states. This was also around the election time, how I could tell that many of us in traditional blue areas of the country, myself being in Washington state,?were in a warped thought bubble that was not reality at all.?
6. Results. Rita Mae Brown (the quote has been repeatedly?misattributed to Albert Einstein) in her 1983 novel?said that "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results". I will try something at least twice up to three times before calling it. I will not try anything any more times than the two-three times. I truly try my best at whatever I do. It's perhaps a curse at times.?
7. Community. There are many folks across the United States that are working to advocate and educate in the name of advanced technologies like blockchain and artificial intelligence. Most of us are missionaries, doing what we can, often not paid or paid very little, to do this work. Most of us are not the skilled operators of businesses, knowing how to fundraise, how to grow communities, how to do public relations, or even how to properly lobby policy makers. States need folks with these specialized skills to join the community and help advance it.?
8. Networks scale. Community and networks are not the same thing.?I often join networks of various kinds calling themselves a community. They are not the same thing at all. Communities are made up of real people - each one is unique and a whole human being. Communities are built upon real attention. I know communities as I've grown them over and over and over again since 1999. Socially Conscious BarNights started out as a monthly event with 8-10 folks attending. By 2008 when I stopped doing these events, we had over 400 people joining our events and we did a lot of good donating thousands to charities. Networks are numbers: numbers of institutions, numbers of attendees, and numbers of dollars. Networks scale. I find myself dying when I'm inside a network and I cannot live inside of one for very long.?
9. Fundamental truths. There are a lot of smart people working everywhere. There are not enough smart people questioning the fundamental truths we were taught along the way. Are prices?going up or has?our dollar been?debased? What is a bank? Do we need more centralization or decentralization? How do I know something or someone deserves my trust? What do I want my children to learn as they grow up and what do they really need to learn? And why??
10. Incentives are not thoughtfully aligned and created in many organizations and groups.?
11. Fast yes or no. There are times in life when you know, you know. And when you know, you commit. It's a fast yes, or a fast no. And sometimes dragging it out for weeks or months or years is just a terrible idea. Reminds me of dating when I was younger knowing that there was no future and also not wanting to go through the emotional pain of having to call it. Once you learn to listen to your gut and know whether you're in or out, it's better for everyone to call it and make it so. Sometimes the counterparty will disagree and fight it, and in those times is exactly when you have to double down on carrying out the?decision to its finality sooner, rather than later. C'est la vie.
12. Higher power. Always have a higher power you can escalate to - always. This is your boss's boss. This is the Chair of your board. This is the CEO. Someone you can always escalate to because if folks know you are the final one and done decision maker, it makes negotiations tricky. When it came to the USBC, I had the CEO of the WTIA for awhile, then it was the CEO of the GBBC. I also always had the USBC Steering Committee, which included my co-founders like chair, Lee Bratcher (TX), but also Dominic Folino (PA), Sam Armes (FL), Jaime Minor (CA), Wade Preston (AL), Greg Leffel (VA), and Andrew Burchwell (OH). These and the many states across the?United States are literally like my brothers and sisters from another mother - really good people. If you want to be connected anyone in any state, please let me know. I can help.

Next post I'll share is all the books I read in 2024.?

And I have some more stuff in the works. I took a step back while I imagined my life ending, and what would I regret not having done, and made my decision as so - so January 2025 will include some announcements.?

I used to also teach Blockchain/Web3 Bitcoin Fundamentals via my own site, via Portland State University, via University of Washington's Milgard School of Business, and via Coding Dojo. A lot of it has been recorded on YouTube. I will make them public (the ones that are free and owned by myself) and release them to you in 2025 as my gift to you. I'll share links when ready.?

Merry Christmas (or Festivus or Hanukkah)!

Warmly,

Arry?

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