Last night I was looking at some flights to Australia through Travala for the end of the year, knowing that is is unlikely that we are going to be able to do it, but as they say - planning a holiday is almost as cathartic as taking one. The Tickets for two adults and a child are about $7000 USD, which is pretty steep, but the biggest issue will be the uncertainty around Corona conditions, as we could have to quarantine on arrival there and on arrival back home, which is just not possible time-wise. It sucks a lot.
However, one thing that is interesting is that at least some of the price of the tickets would be covered by my stake in Travala itself, as it provides yield on the stake with more AVA tokens and some travel credits to be used for purchases. If price remained constant on the token and flights, I think it would knock about 15% off the cost, which is significant for doing nothing. Of course, since I am not selling the yielded tokens, that could be significantly more if Travala starts to get some traction in the travel industry in general, especially as restrictions get eased.
Unfortunately, I do not think we can travel this year, even if it was free though, as we would have to be travelling for a month and with my wife in a new job, it will be hard for her to get the time away at Christmas (Australian summer), especially if quarantines are involved. We have been together about a decade now - she still hasn't been to Australia, nor met all of my immediate family and, I am yet to meet one of my sister-in-laws and my nephew. I myself haven't been back home for about 13 years - Living abroad is both brilliant and terrible simultaneously.
Home is an interesting choice of words perhaps in this context though, as Australia really isn't my home anymore and hasn't been for a long time. Yes, I am Australian and always will be, but it isn't the place I would feel the most comfortable, because it isn't the place where I feel I have the most support. Home should be a place where we can both relax and also be our best and I feel that in many respects, Finland currently offers me more opportunity to do this, but it comes at a cost.
It has taken me years to feel like home in Finland and find a routine where I am able to have some opportunity, a early on, I was nothing more than a foreigner in transit, treated as if I was always going to leave. The problem was that once I started building a life here, leaving became increasingly difficult as I lost economic mobility, I had work and assets that couldn't be easily liquified and carried with.
This has changed somewhat now however, as I do have the sense that I am becoming more "independent" in the way that my value is not only transportable, but can also be practically applied from any location. Since Corona, much of my formal work has become remote and this could continue from pretty much anywhere and of course, my Hive and crypto streams are largely unaffected by where I live. Of course, economic Hive support is far from certain due to the social layers and the token volatility, but there is potential, especially if price gets to a point where the risk I have taken with building Hive Power can provide an adequate steady stream of value income. I don't know what that price would have to be, but it is closer to 5 than 1 for it to be able to service my current needs.
This is where I would like to get though, where my current needs are comfortably taken care of, as for the most part, I have very little desire to increase my outgoing revenues. Currently, there are the additional costs of renovation materials and work, but basic living is quite manageable under normal circumstances. Of course, I would like to get to the point that beyond basic living, I would be able to for example take the Family to Australia occasionally or buy a new TV or a computer, but nothing fancy.
When I say "cover living expense" though, I mean without having to eat into capital holdings at all, meaning that my capital has to be able to adequately work for me and generate its own income. Additional streams like Hive posting are fantastic, but they are always going to suffer volatility, no matter how much I work at it, as it is subject to the nature of social interaction.
Some people start getting support and then believe that from then on "they are made" like in the Mafia, and when that support is affected or removed in various ways, they start to complain about the personal loss of income, that was never actually theirs - Not until payment hits the wallet does it become an income, up until that point, it is all theoretical. This might be practically true also, as I believe that the HIVE or HBD paid as rewards doesn't actually exist on the blockchain until the point it is distributed into a wallet form the pool.
I do hope that I have been able to prove myself enough over the years that I will be able to continue to get some support as long as I keep delivering something of value, but there is no guarantees. Also, I believe that participating now comes with learning and experience that will increasingly become valuable in other arenas also, where for instance I would be able to add some level of blockchain consulting into my repertoire to offer various clients or organizations.
But, it is all up in the air, which is good as it means there is still a lot of opportunity to build support for myself. I am not just talking about vote support here, it is also the relationship and network support, as well as the knowledge support that can add valuable weight to my experience. For example, when the company I work for starts to make its way into the world of blockchain and tokenization, I am going to very quickly prove my worth as more than a trainer in this area and, I will be able to not only help them build, but also bring value directly to the network I have gathered and provide handshakes between the right people, at the right time.
It is a process though and this has been an ongoing focus of mine for a few years already, slowly bringing people into the fold, slowly pushing information through organizational channels. A lot of people want results fast, but this isn't always possible in an organization that doesn't yet know it is going to get deeply involved in crypto - especially when many within currently see it as a joke, an oddity or something that should be avoided altogether. I can almost guarantee that a lot of the people who are currently negative on it, won't be two or three years from now, as they shift resources into participation, rather than risk missing out on the trending markets.
From my perspective, there is more to building support than content and relationships, more than offering development or ideas, more than voting and buying tokens - it is an ecosystem and as it evolves on Hive, the methods of support are going to diversify and in so doing, open up more "positions" for participation. Gone are the days where good content and comments alone are enough, there has to be more. However, that doesn't mean content and interaction isn't important, as it is one of the channels to transmit communicational value along and can be highly valuable if it is consumed by the right eyes that can use it.
Building a network that is able to distribute information and connect it with the right eyes at the right time, take a great deal of work and the development of trust. Trust is an important factor in a social environment and regardless of the words that some people use, their behavior can't be trusted, making what they say untrustworthy also. Building trust takes more time than most people are willing to spend, but can be lost in moments under the right conditions.
The picture is from today when my daughter and I were building with wooden blocks and she was making a castle. I commended her on her skills and balance and she said to me,
"Daddy, it is easy, you just have to be patient when putting the blocks in place"
She built a castle for a princess named Lillian.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]