Samson Williams - Partner @ Axes and Eggs
Yesterday, I spoke to Samson Williams who is Partner at Axes and Eggs - a Blockchain & Cryptocurrency Consulting Company. And, if you go to the company's website, it says there very clearly what else they do. So, according to the official Axes and Eggs website, the company helps people mine cryptocurrencies, set up mining equipment, and help improve current mining operations.
Wait. That's not all. They also help established companies launch their own ICOs and educate children and executives about Blockchain technology. After talking to Samson Williams for well over an hour, I was amazed at just how much experience he has in just about every imaginable field and line of work. Before learning this though, the first question I asked Samson was how he was able to offer so many different crypto-related services.
Comprehensive & Extensive Crypto Services
Initially, he responded by saying that "We have a team". Still though, even companies tend to specialize in certain domains and usually do not offer such a comprehensive list of services. However, Samson Williams explained that since these areas were so interrelated, and even interdependent to a certain extent, Axes and Eggs is able to offer these services. And, not just "offer" them, but also do a damn good job of it!
So, how exactly did Samson Williams end up working with cryptocurrencies? When asked, he explained that back in 2015, he started mining cryptos as a hobby. This "hobby" taught him a thing or two about how these digital entities function. While quickly learning the basics, this hobby turned into a serious business model by the time 2017 hit, especially when the digital currency market hit record highs in December, 2017.
The World Still has NO Idea What Crypto/Blockchain Is, Yet
This is when Samson Williams realized that his "hobby" was actually turning into a viable business. So basically, as most crypto enthusiasts are aware, Bitcoin is nothing new. By new I mean, it's not exactly "new, new". Heck, it has been around since 2009. Unfortunately, due to the extreme socioeconomic inequality that still exists today, in addition to less than 50% of the world population having real access to the internet, the idea of Bitcoin, Blockchain, and cryptocurrencies is something that maybe 2% of the world population is familiar with, according to Samson Williams.
This is actually quite accurate, I would say. But out of that 2%, what is the real percentage of people who actually know what this stuff is? According to the articulate and highly intellectual entrepreneur: maybe one-tenth of a percent. That's right, just 0.1%. Now that I am writing this and really thinking about it, I would argue that is probably closer to 0.05%. Anyway, I think you get the point.
Responsibility to Educate
Business-savvy people, like Samson Williams, who realize this fact, not only use their rare skills to help them develop businesses that benefit themselves, but have also taken on the added responsibility of educating others about what this technology is all about. Moreover, the Axes and Eggs Partner wisely says, "Cultural Poverty is a learned behavior." Being the only one in his family to have earned a college (university) education, he is what I consider the real-world example of a true outlier. So, just like poverty is passively learned and so is being and staying wealthy, those in power or control should taken on the responsibility to educate the less-fortunate. This is exactly what Samson Williams and other successful entrepreneurs that I talk to, DO. An excellent way to give back to society, if you ask me.
Okay, let me get back to talking more about what Samson had to say....
While helping organizations adopt blockchain/crypto, Samson told me that "Blockchain is not for everyone." His exact words were, "Blockchain is not like hot sauce!" This obviously means that you can't sprinkle it everywhere. Moreover, If you've got something that you can do without it, and do it well, and using a blockchain has no added benefit, then simply don't use it! If all you need to do is store some data, in many cases a simple Excel Spreadsheet will do the job just fine, according to Samson Williams.
Samson's Prediction About Blockchain
We keep hearing all these great explanations about what Blockchain is. That's great! However, let's just actually use it. Let's put it to use. The question people should really be asking is "What can it do for me?", Samson says. Well, once this distributed ledger data structure truly becomes mainstream, people and future generations will not even know what it is.
That's because, the entrepreneur says, it will be kind of like riding a plane. He says he knows next to nothing about how an airplanes function or are made. But, he sure as hell uses one, and knows how to book his flights to places like Abu Dhabi and Dubai where he engages in his various business activities and ventures. So, just like people might not know how smartphones or wifi actually work or are built, they need them and are experts at using them. Coming from computer science background myself, I understand this concept quite well.
For example, when you write programming code, you need not know how to program everything. That's why you write modularized code. Each piece of modularized code, granted it's written properly, will serve to accomplish one specific thing. All you need to do is "call" that segment of code, give it the input it requires from you, in the format that it requires, and it will simply give you the results you are looking for. Those results, you can use to write an entirely different program of your own that does something completely different from the pieces of code (functions/procedures) it "calls".
The same way, smartphones are very intuitive and friendly to use. So, we need only know how to use them effectively to get what we want out of them. There's no point in trying to learn how they work or are built, unless you want to for purely educational purposes, or want to become a mobile app developer or something.
Let's now move onto what the crypto businessman has to say about ICOs.
Samson's Advice for ICOs
One thing Samson made very clear during our interview is that he helps only legitimate and established businesses launch ICOs, if they need to. He explains that there is no point in trying or raising large sums of money, if your business model sucks. The real question is, "What will you do with that money?" Will you be able to use it to launch a successful business? If the answer is no, then forget about raising all that money in the first place.
Furthermore, while offering professional consulting services to organizations wanting to launch ICOs, Samson draws on his experience from reading tons of whitepapers. This is something he started doing regularly and religiously when wanted to figure out which cryptocurrencies to mine. As a result of this research, he is now able to quickly and accurately analyze a company's business model, and determine whether or not something seemingly crypto-related will actually work and is sustainable. By reading through so many whitepapers, he was able to branch off into blockchain and ICO advising and consultancy.
Minority Entry Barrier
Based on Samson's extensive exposure and practical work experience with helping everyone from "working girls" recover and get back to leading a safe and healthy life to governmental organizations, he believes that the digital divide is even harder to overcome for minorities like African Americans. Therefore, he has used and continues to use his expertise and resources to help many African Americans of all age groups overcome various obstacles and challenges, in order to become more successful.
He even gives the example of helping his own grandmother learn and use technology. Although he says she might not be as tech-savvy as she'd like to be, she is definitely more comfortable with it, largely due to Samson's ability to explain technical things in a manner which is simple and easy to understand for people with a very limited technical background or aptitude.
Simple Website Design & Implementation
As Samson Williams was discussing the topic of making technology more user-friendly and helping minorities to understand and embrace it, he began touching on the topic of Security. We all hear of crypto currency exchanges being hacked, and hundreds of millions of dollars worth of digital currency being stolen. Samson thinks there might be some insider foul play involved, although he cannot confirm this.
Meanwhile, when discussing his own company's website, he says they used the simplest website design templates possible. In fact, he used the ones that apparently Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway uses. Needless to say, he points out that his website is very easy to hack. Unfortunately for the would-be hackers, there's no hidden treasure anywhere on his website. So, there's really no incentive for them to hack it. Of course, he must have have stashed the valuable and highly sensitive information elsewhere. And, again, of course, he did not tell me where that is for obvious reasons.
Traditional Businesses Are Shocked When...
One of the great things about talking directly to real people in the crypto business is that you get to learn things which you really won't find by simply writing articles that are essentially a regurgitation of what you read on the internet. And, as Samson aptly explains, when traditional organizations find out that they will have to become truly accountable and how everything will become much more transparent if they use a public blockchain, they are literally shocked!
That's just not the way they are used to doing things, or rather "getting away" with things. Although I personally know that central banks, and even Bank of America admit to being threatened by cryptocurrencies, and not just because of the transparent nature of most cryptos (with exception of privacy-focused coins for the most part), all this is rooted deeply in the human psyche and human psychology.
Anxiousness, Stress, Panic...in that Order
Samson gives the example of three linear stages of realization in humans: 1) Anxiousness, 2) Stress, e) Panic. He used this example to talk about many different things in our society. For instance, he said that while working for Fannie Mae, he often helped people deal with foreclosure and their homes getting repossessed. These are the three mental stages that they typically went through when coming to grips with the ugly reality of losing the roof over their heads.
Similarly, when times get tough, and corrupt governments like Venezuela make their citizens suffer from crippling inflation, then the people first get anxious, then they get stressed out, and finally they panic. This panic then sometimes leads to finding a safe haven in something that breaks away from the traditional boundaries of the existing financial system. That "something" is now increasingly becoming cryptocurrencies. This, of course, is not me speaking. These are the exact words of Samson Williams. This is what Samson has learned not just from sitting in a classroom or being educated in a formal setting.
Although his bachelors degree in Cultural Anthropology and academic background in Medical Anthropology, Emergency Management, and even law school has given him a solid foundation, which allows him to gain a better understanding of the human element behind crypto, it is his practical hands-on experience actually working with people facing real-life emergency and crisis situations. This valuable experience helps him offer crypto-related services like helping people set up crypto mining and blockchain in their businesses. He uses both his knowledge of these technologies and his ability to understand humans to deliver the best possible services to his clients.
There's still much more that I can tell you about this talented guy, but I think I will include that in another article on this awesome crypto personality. In the meantime, you can follow Samson on Twitter and Instagram at @HustleFundBaby and connect with him via LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/samson-williams-a7bb8513/
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