As all of you know already, I'm working as the leader of international operations at ONO. Now, anyone who knows me, understands that I am not a fan of titles, and in fact, titles mean very little to me personally.

I live by this rule: I will not work with anyone for 5 minutes who I wouldn't want to work with for 5 years.

Ke Xu shares this same philosophy.

We also know that groups of people work together well, when they share the same philosophy. Ke Xu resembles a philosopher more than any other title actually. I know everyone is making their judgments, and trying to ascertain the future of ONO. There really is no point in doing that, because no one knows the future. All we have are facts, a White Paper and a team of people.

It's been one month since I accidentally stumbled upon ONO, and much to my surprise, I have found more substance, not less, as I have continued my research.

I had a long call with one of the developers who helped write the ONO White Paper, and I have to admit, he is one of the smartest people I've spoken with in a long time. He's an idealist, like me, like most of the people involved in the project. He describes going through life as an idealist, knowing that the way the world works now is not something worth replicating. But he also described to me the dark days, when he would express his idealism to others, like businessmen, and they would shake their heads, and tell him to "drop the dream, get realistic".

The young man I talked to who helped write the ONO White Paper is a savant.

He got his Master's degree before most people even begin their bachelor's. He designed a trading strategy system that is very well known in China, and it was after I had a chance to see the kind of world he and the others in ONO want to build that I decided I didn't even have a choice, as far as my actions were concerned. I knew i had to help them, and it didn't matter how or my title or anything. I knew I had to help them translate their intelligence for a foreign audience, namely, the West.

Many people are now judging and criticizing my involvement with ONO. I can say one thing about that:

it doesn't matter.

I follow my gut, and quite frankly, my gut has never let me down. This is also something I follow, and I happened to find it last night on Twitter:

No matter what i decide to do, people will judge me, it's true. I choose to do what aligns with my philosophy and what feels right to my gut. Working with ONO has not only felt right, it feels like a culmination of everything I have been working for in my life. I never went looking for any of this, it found me. And the reality is that I would be just as happy working as a volunteer for ONO, as titles do not mean anything to me. EOS brought us together........because if EOS didn't exist, I would not be thinking that I had anything in common with a Chinese team. Our shared values, that exist in EOS is what dissolved the divide between East and West.

I follow people who are smarter than myself. I found a rare intelligence in Ke Xu and her team. It is rare to find people who are mission driven instead of money driven. I think I never have met a CEO/founder who is like Ke. She speaks directly and tells you how it is, without fluff or ego.

She has told me that indeed she is not creating ONO for the money.

She wants to create something of massive value to human beings.

But the ironic thing at work here, is that we all know that smart money follows true value, value by human beings. Humans it has been shown, are not actually in search of only money....what studies have shown is that humans are searching for meaning and fulfillment, over money. For me, respect is my primary motivation. If I do not feel respect from my colleagues and boss, I will disappear. Respect is my 'make or break' attribute. So, it follows I would never choose to work for someone whom I don't respect, and who doesn't respect me. Ke and I have a rare experience of having the mutual respect part achieved.

She already knows how to make money, and she also said there are much easier ways to make it...She recently won a Poker Championship, prize being $1 million dollars, but even this is not that important to her. What is important to her is this: ONO is built for the people's needs. People are first in ONO. Everything else comes second. People own their own blogs on ONO, and they decide if they want to see ads or not. ONO's incentives are aligned properly because ONO will not be selling user data. This is the most critical piece to understand.

I have had private talks with her and she is the same whether she is talking to friends or journalists. She speaks in exactly the same manner and there is no difference in the topic. I've never met a more intelligent, focused and driven person in my entire life.

Here she is playing a mobile game......and this is not sped up AFAIK:

So, people can judge, make assumptions, whatever. It really doesn't matter, because I do know a thing or two, and actually, this is what is most important:

What kind of person are you?

"Collaborate with others, and compete with yourself."
-Raymond

The kind of people behind the project determines everything actually.

The media would make you think otherwise, because media is built upon the hype machine. The media is not really designed to make you think that you are in control of your own life. Media is crafted to eat away at your human weaknesses.

You can have the most advanced tech in the world, but put it into the hands of a moron, and you get a piece of moron tech. Most people are actually not fit to lead. There are only a few rare individuals who possess the right combination of drive, core intelligence, design aesthetics, social/emotional intelligence and mad passion.

Ke Xu has all of these and that is why I choose to help her.......to some extent, I have some of these core skills too, but Ke is more experienced in the business world than I. I started working for the ONO team without thinking of anything, as I found I could not focus on anything else, as the philosophy aligned so well with my core. I would work on anything she choses to build. She is that good.

But don't take my word for this or jump on any hype train. ONO is not about hype actually. We won't really know what it's like until we try out the international version of the ONO mobile dApp. The reason I guess is that I am very excited to use it is because my two favorite mobile apps are Twitter and Telegram, and ONO is like a combo of both. The other big reason I am looking forward to using the ONO dApp is because ONO has fully customizable features, and designers can make their own stickers, then put them into the built-in app store...called MY Box. The sharing features, made for social people are what excites me the most.....having the ability to share my creations with others in sticker form, is actually one of the main reasons for my excitement. The bigger reason though that I'm excited is the volunteer, community builder and super partner structure, which incentivizes social fabric, and also rewards those are social cultivators.

All you need to do is read the White Paper and let it sink in. Ke Xu's last social app, ERA, had 10 million users. If there is one thing she knows how to do extremely well, maybe better than anyone I've met it's this: she understands human drives, motivations and social needs, and she understands the correct way to fulfill human beings. ONO is made for human beings, and their needs come first.

Cheers,
Stellabelle