Surviving and Thriving on Hive

The idea for this post came to me while I was reading an article by Victor Cheng, a former McKinsey consultant I consider a career mentor.

His article has nothing to do with blockchain or crypto and even less with Hive, but the central idea of what he wrote is something all of us can apply to our day-to-day activities on this network.

Cheng starts by saying that there are two ways two approach life: you can focus on surviving, and you can focus on thriving. Neither is wrong, and one is not better than the other. There is a time and place for both, and it's up to us to identify when to use each approach.

With that being said, let's take a look at each approach and some signs that indicate when you should probably pick one approach over the other.

Surviving

In our modern world, surviving means being able to pay bills, buy food and afford a roof over our heads, so a survival skillset is appropriate when you have a very real risk of being homeless and starving.

If you are in that situation, it's highly unlikely that you can afford to think long-term and make plans for 5 years down the line. You need to solve the problem of paying the bills today. You need to get something to eat today. You need to pay your rent today.

Sure, there is an argument that if you don't do anything to break this cycle, you may be doomed to repeat it forever, but in many cases, that's easier said than done.

If your life is at risk, you need to survive before you can even think about anything else. That often means taking what you can get, such as the highest-paying job you can find even if it's something you don't see yourself doing in the future or you just don't believe there is much room for growth.

Thriving

On the other hand, when you have no immediate threat to your well-being, i.e, you don't need to worry about what you will eat tomorrow or where you will sleep today, a thriving mindset can be very useful.

Being able to think long-term and plan your future gives you a competitive edge that not all people can appreciate. It allows you to make decisions and pick opportunities that are not that obvious at the moment but make perfect sense in the bigger picture.

It allows you, for example, to pass on a high-paying offer and pick up one that pays less but is much more aligned with your future plans, therefore offering a lot more upside in the long run.

Surviving and Thriving on Hive

Hive is a realm full of possibilities, including financial ones. More and more people are making a living completely or partially off what they earn on the network.

This is a great thing, in my opinion, but it also leads me to think that the Surviving and Thriving duality can be transported to Hive's reality.

How many Hivers are liquidating everything they earn to make as much as they can, as fast as possible, and how many are thinking long-term and passing the opportunity of taking profits now for a potentially much bigger outcome in the future?

Once again, it all comes down to the approach versus situation paradigm. If you are in "survival mode" and you need your Hive rewards to be able to afford food, a place to sleep or any other basic needs of our modern society, then, by all means, do what you must until you find yourself in a better place.

However, those who are not in that situation and still are not worried about building up their account, developing a strong personal brand and a wide network should really reassess their reality.

If you have every condition to adopt a thriving mindset, it can be a huge waste to stick to a survival one.

And don't get me wrong, regardless of your situation, it's still your stake, your money, your rules. I'm not judging anyone based on that. I'm merely trying to show that there is another way, a potentially better way, of seeing things, given that you are in the position to do so.

Hive is trading way under 50 cents at the moment of writing and I consider it to be severely undervalued. Fortunately, I'm in a position where I don't need to liquidate my Hive rewards to survive, so I'm consciously passing on the opportunity of selling my Hive for 40 or so cents a piece because I believe it will be worth so much more a few years from now and I'm confident that, when the time comes, I will be in a position to thrive.

Final thoughts

Surviving and thriving are very different mindsets with different skill sets associated with them. Neither is inherently good or bad. There will be times in life when we will need to survive and there will be times when we will have the opportunity to thrive.

It's up to us to identify those moments and act accordingly. The only thing that is wrong is mismatching the mindset with your life situation.

If you adopt a thriving mindset in times of survival, you may quickly drain the few resources you have and find yourself in a very desperate situation. On the other hand, if you stick to a survival mindset on times when you can thrive, you are risking a potentially wealthy future.

Posted Using LeoFinance Alpha