How to live happily ever after (in Web3)...

How do you know when to take a risk? When to incorporate innovation into your day-to-day? What's that signal for you to jump into something new and embrace what might take you to the next level in your career?

Every day we are presented with messages on LinkedIn, cold approaches, job offers, connection requests; and at the end of each one of those is opportunity. So why not say ‘yes’. If the offers you get aren’t for you, you can always say ‘no’ later (or Block-Report SPAM). But if you don’t take a step into the unknown, you’ll never know what you’re missing. And it could be the job / project / event / friendship of a lifetime.

Here’s MY story of how I embraced something new, and some career advice for anyone out there…

Say ‘YES’ more…

I have spent my whole 20+ year career focused on digital transformation, product management, growth strategy, user experience, and innovation. I’m deeply passionate about using technology to improve peoples’ lives.?

Dial back to 2016 and I had watched the emergence of Blockchain from the sidelines as I was putting my energies towards helping large enterprises grapple with how to make their products, apps and e-commerce experiences better.

Decentralising everything wasn’t really on the menu.

Then out of the blue, a senior Partner from Deloitte offered me the role as COO for their EMEA Blockchain team. Here’s a replay of my thought process:

“Blockchain: that’s Bitcoin and Ethereum, right?…”

“What the hell do I know about Blockchain?…”

“Feels a little early for Blockchain right now…”

“What will my colleagues and friends think?…”

“Who the hell would pay $500 for a Bitcoin?”

“I can’t explain Blockchain, let alone lead a team…”

“Feels risky…”

“I need to learn about Blockchain before I can decide…”

So I spent the weekend reading everything I could about Blockchain, Crypto, Enterprise use cases, Government restrictions and regulations, and a small amount of Crypto Twitter… and I felt a bit more able to contextualise what the technology did, and to some extent why it was useful. But only a little. But I still didn’t feel confident.

I spoke to members of the team. Asked why they were interested in the technology, ‘how they got into Blockchain’, what they were hearing from clients, and what projects they were working on.

Their passion for innovation was clear. They wanted to work outside of the ‘normal’ technology boundaries. And importantly, they realised they were ‘different’ to most people in the way they saw the future, the role of tech, privacy, money, data… everything.

It still wasn’t a clear decision for me to make. But at that point I realised I could take the ‘safe’ path and keep on delivering familiar change projects for big enterprises; OR I could take a step into the exciting and uncertain.

I said ‘YES’.

I have never regretted a single day after making my move from ’traditional’ technology into Blockchain and Web3. I work on cutting edge problems that matter to society. I work with people who are as passionate as I am (and often more so!). I have a more flexible lifestyle. I have made a LOT more friends, and I feel more fulfilled every day.

And I’d like YOU to feel that way too.

While you may not be in the place to take a jump right now, think about the steps that can take you in the direction towards something new, innovative, or different. How can you continue to grow your skills? Develop your passion projects? Uncover that next opportunity?

Web3 - and countless other industries - need all the talent it can get right now. We need managers, lawyers, UX designers, accountants, architects, testers, HR leaders… every role on the org chart you can think of.

And to help get more of you to ‘YES’, I’ve teamed up with LinkedIn Learning to give you a short-course on how to frame and plan our your Web3 career journey. You can check it out here:?https://www.dhirubhai.net/learning-login/share?forceAccount=false&redirect=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dhirubhai.net%2Flearning%2Fhow-to-get-a-job-in-web3-and-blockchain%3Ftrk%3Dshare_ent_url%26shareId%3D1fDrepowT%252FumsV%252BGn3%252B5wA%253D%253D

I hope you'll consider watching the course - or reading a new book, or attending a new networking event. Because whichever direction you choose to go in, I’m confident you’ll feel better informed and hopefully more excited to say ‘YES’, just like I did all those years ago?????

#blockchain #technology #management #innovation #career