Jason Hartman brings on author Joel Comm to discuss his latest book, The Fun Formula. They start by introducing what the fun formula is and Joel’s podcast Bad Crypto. Joel gives us tips on how we can change our routine and mindset to have more significance and joy. Later they look into cryptocurrencies and the changes blockchain will bring.
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Announcer 0:12
Welcome to the Solomon success show, where we explore the timeless wisdom of King Solomon and the Bible as it relates to business and investing false prophets and get rich quick schemes are everywhere. Let’s not be distracted by these. Instead, let’s go to the source, the eternal principles that create a life of peace, power and prosperity. Here’s our host, Jason Hartman.
Jason Hartman 0:41
Welcome to the show. This is Jason Hartman, your host and every 10th episode, we do something kind of special kind of different. What we do is we go off topic so regardless of which show it is on the Hartman media network, whether it be one of the financial shows economics, real estate, investing, Travel, longevity, all of the other topics that we have every 10th episode, we go off topic, and we explore something of general interest, something of general life success value. And so many of our listeners around the world in 164 countries have absolutely loved our 10th episode shows. So that’s what we’re going to do today. And let’s go ahead and get to our guests with a special 10th episode show. And of course, on the next episode, we’ll be back to our regular programming. Here we go. It’s my pleasure to welcome back a returning guest and it is Joel calm. He has been around for a long time in the internet world and does all kinds of amazing things. his newest book is called the fun formula, how curiosity risk taking and serendipity can revolutionize how you work. He’s also host of a crypto currency podcast talks a lot about blockchain And the future of Well, I guess really the world if I could make such a bold statement when it comes to blockchain. And so we’ll dive into both of those topics. Joel, welcome back. How are you? I’m great, man. Thanks for having me. Jason’s pleasure to talk to you again. It’s good to have you. It’s good to have you. So hey, we all should have a little more fun. I think I know that would be a good thing for me to do. Tell us about the fun formula.
Joel Comm 2:23
Well, the fun formula is my 15th book, and it’s probably my most personal one. You know, in the past, I’ve written about Twitter and internet marketing and Google AdSense, all very strategic and tactical ways for people to build a business online. But you know, I was really getting fed up with the hustle and grind mentality that I’m seeing being you know, pushed out there on people, especially younger people that are just getting started as though somehow work is everything. You know, what I did is I kind of reverse engineered my 23 years of doing business online. I looked at my successes and my failures. And I was able to determine that my greatest success came with the least amount of effort in each and every instance. It was, you know, when I was had my nose to the grindstone and really just busted a hump. That’s more than likely where I struggle the most in my business. But the seven or eight home runs that I’ve had in my career were the ones that seemingly came the most naturally. And what I realized is those came about when I was having the most fun doing what I was doing. Right. And so that’s, that’s why the fun formula.
Jason Hartman 3:34
Okay, so that is a great philosophy. Here’s why I think you might have some skeptics, including yours truly. I have fun. I travel a lot do stuff, but I’m a grinder. I mean, I work you know, like a lot of people in my position, you know, you got money, they don’t work. I work. I still work. I love projects. I have passion projects I want to do, right, just as a lot of us do. But you know, how can you trust the Fun formula concept. In other words, I know that if I’m going to grind it out and work really hard, I’m going to achieve something. But if I kind of sit back and you know, let the chips fall where they may and some great creative idea comes to me like the fart app, you know, I don’t know if that’s gonna happen I can’t Can I trust it? How can I trust it?
Joel Comm 4:20
Well, I never said sit back you know, it’s there’s this element of you still have to do something right? You can’t just stay home and you know, turn on daytime television and eat bond bonds and expect miracles to happen. It’s it’s a two part process, you have to do something. But that’s something should come from your passion you you should be driven by the things that excite you the most you should be curious and be willing to explore and to take risks. Right then there is the part of needing to trust the process. There is a waiting for the right time, the right person, the right email showing up at the right event. It’s kind of the Something to serendipity. That’s very real. Now if this happened to be just once or twice, I don’t know that I could build a philosophy around it. Sure. We’re talking, you know, major home runs and major failures. And always the home runs came from applying this philosophy. And I think if you’ve not experienced that, it’s usually because people are afraid. What if I quit hustling and grinding, right? They haven’t learned to trust the process or they’re putting all their eggs in one basket. They’re buying into the idea that see that door over there that you want to get through. That’s barred and locked in shot while they tell you you’re supposed to keep banging away at that door. I say that’s nonsense. We live in a time where there is so much opportunity that while you have the tunnel vision to bang away at that door, there’s an open door to your left there’s a door open to the crack to your right there’s a window open above you. There is so much in its you know, it’s not that I just had the idea for a fart app? It’s that I had the idea. And I took action on Sure. Sure.
Jason Hartman 6:06
Okay, good. Good points. Good distinctions. Definitely. So it’s not you remember, many years ago, the secret made its rounds. Right. And everybody was starting to think that you could just sit around and visualize and all everything would drop into your lap, you know? Yeah,
Joel Comm 6:19
no, I am. I am anti the secret. I think that that is some of the most dangerous philosophy that that has been put out there.
Jason Hartman 6:27
It was pretty ridiculous. I mean, certainly, that’s one component of it. So I wouldn’t say I’m anti secret, but it’s just one component. There’s more to it, you got to do something. And you probably familiar with them. But Michael singer, he has a great book called The surrender experiment. And I think it maybe blends in with what you’re talking about here. How you, you gotta have an opening, you know, create an opening in life to let the world fill in some gaps, right? It’s not always like we have to go run and chase everything. Would that be a question? statement?
Joel Comm 7:00
I think so yeah, I think that, you know, life unfolds before us in rarely in the way that we think it’s going to, you know, the world tells us that you get your education, you get a job, and then you work at that job. And then one day you retire, people are always planning for the future, rather than living today, Carpe Diem, we have to seize the day, because we don’t know what’s going to happen. We don’t know how long we have. And I can tell you that the vast majority of the plans that I made, did not work out the way I thought they would or did not work out at all. There’s a certain amount of faith and trust that it takes to go through life that is willing to roll with the punches and accept changes as they come our way and adapt to them. But it’s those times that we actually when we realize that, you know, security is kind of an illusion. You know, we create our own sense of security, but you know, you can’t you don’t When you were born, and with the exception of those who do something tragic, you don’t control when you leave this planet. And so control is an illusion. And sometimes the more we are willing to trust, what’s taking place in our lives, the more we are open to the good things that can really bring us down the road to not only success in our business, but greater fulfillment in life.
Jason Hartman 8:25
Mm hmm. Yeah, absolutely. Okay, good stuff. What else do you want people to know about this? Are there any mechanics, any list of items, anything to make it a little more tangible than an attitudinal thing?
Joel Comm 8:39
Well, yeah, I mean, that’s what the book is all about. It dissects this whole process. It’s fun formula, book, calm that people can check out you know, how to move from fear to fun, and I talk a lot about work and play and what’s the difference between them and to take note of the hobbies in our lives because they could be You know, a signal to something that could actually become a core part of our business and and how important it is to show up without necessarily expecting something specific but being open to who you meet and what you learn and what opportunities present themselves.
Jason Hartman 9:18
Yeah, absolutely good stuff. Good stuff. Joel, you want to switch gears and talk a little bit about blockchain and cryptocurrencies? I love talking about crypto. Alright, good stuff. Good stuff. Well, this is a, you know, the blockchain, many people have said and many agree. This is a world changing technology, and will shape so many things that we do in the future. I think it’s important to differentiate that from cryptocurrencies. They’re not the same thing. Right. cryptocurrencies just happened to use the blockchain, right. And Bitcoin certainly popularized the technology, but they are two separate items, right. And we can certainly talk about both of them but I just want to kind of put that out there. They’re at the beginning.
Joel Comm 10:00
Well, yeah, they go hand in hand. blockchain is the technology. It’s the decentralized distributed ledger technology that can be used to make all of the way we do payments and contracts and just about anything that requires a database to be faster, more cost effective and more efficient. cryptocurrencies are the different types of tokens that can be used upon blockchain that will have various different utility.
Jason Hartman 10:30
Okay, so, are you bullish on both?
Joel Comm 10:32
Yes, I’m bullish on all of it. Both blockchain and cryptos being built upon it are here to stay. In fact, I believe that blockchain technology is the single most disruptive technology of our time. And to me, I remember when I got started in computers in 1980, and dialing in 300 baud and thinking this is the future we’re going to communicate in this online world one day and I built myself First website in 1995. And back then people were still writing and skeptics were saying, Well people really buy online. And those of us who knew work, of course, they’re gonna buy online. how dense are you? Well, you know, here we are today, and the worldwide web and e commerce is totally disrupted, how we do so many types of interactions. And blockchain, feels, smells, looks taste sounds exactly like the web did in those early days. It’s coming only it’s coming faster and more furious than the web came. And everybody’s vertical is going to be disrupted in some way. And there will be a time you think about 10 years ago, very few people had smartphones. Most people were still using their razor or their Nokia. And today everybody is connected to their smartphone all the time in 10 years time, it is totally turned upside. down how we engage and do so many activities. blockchain is going to be more disruptive than that,
Jason Hartman 12:08
talking on the cryptocurrency side of the equation for a moment. What about the opposing forces to cryptocurrencies and just so you know, where I stand here, I would love nothing more than to see a decentralized currency that is owned by the people rather than the central banks rather than the Federal Reserve, etc. And the government’s but these are pretty powerful forces to compete with, they have a very vested interest in keeping things the way they are, you know, they can control inflation rates and the amount of real money or real dollars in which they have to pay back debts to foreign countries and so forth. There’s a pretty powerful set of opposing forces right?
Joel Comm 12:51
Absolutely. there there’s always you know, a battle for change. There’s always going to be opposing forces you know, the those that made the horse and buggies you know the buggies The horse and buggies were opposed to Henry Ford and the automobile and talked about how we didn’t need these. You know, there was a time that somebody said that they couldn’t imagine how the world would ever need more than two computers. But you know, technology moves forward. And what we’re starting to see as many of these forces that are opposed, are beginning to figure out how are they going to embrace this, they realize they cannot stop this, they can attempt to regulate, but crypto wants to be free. And it’s gonna find its way one way or another. And so yeah, the battle is on but we are seeing many of the larger financial institutions and powers that be begin to bend the knee to the inevitable future. You know, here’s the deal. If you don’t go where the technology is moving to, then you’re going to become Blockbuster Video, Netflix is going to kick your butt. You’re going to become the local retailer that lost out to Amazon, you’re going to become Nokia that completely lost all market share to Apple
Jason Hartman 14:02
that was shocking to Nokia had it. They had the world at their feet and then iPhone came along. It’s just amazing how quickly something can change.
Joel Comm 14:12
But well, it didn’t surprise me either. In 2007 that first iPhone came out, I immediately snapping up I was one of the people that paid $600 he has 100 bucks right now. And as a big kid, a 12 year old, you know, that wants to play with the toys. I saw that I’m like, this is the future. And I’m telling you, I’m not a financial advisor, but I am telling you that blockchain is here to stay and that’s why we love doing our podcasts that I co host with Travis right. It’s called the bad crypto podcast.
Jason Hartman 14:43
So you talked about how, you know cryptocurrency wants to be free? You know, I think it was George Gilder maybe who coined the term information wants to be free, possible, wrong attribution there. I agree with you. It wants to be free But can the forces that oppose it, prevent that Maybe Maybe not. I don’t know, for example, there are certainly commodities that are illegal, right, like illegal drugs, but they have intrinsic value, you know, people will trade in them, right? They’re certainly not as portable as a cryptocurrency by any means. But couldn’t they just say, hey, it’s illegal, we’re not going to allow Bitcoin to exist, for example, then what would happen?
Joel Comm 15:22
You can’t stop it from existing. What you could do is say it’s illegal to use it or to own it, but you can’t stop it from existing and there are crypto currencies that are more private, like z cash and Manero that are completely untrackable and untraceable. And if the government’s are going to get so repressive, that they’re going to stifle it, people will use it underground, and it won’t be trackable. You would have to take down the whole technology grid for crypto to be rendered useless. And and frankly, I don’t see that happening too many people have too much at stake and We’re starting to see big money coming in and sitting on the sidelines. And once that happens, that’s it. It’s game over,
Jason Hartman 16:08
we’ll talk about the financial industry, the big financial industry, you know, the, the banksters, and so forth and what they’re doing in the space. I mean, I remember it’s amazing how quickly it changed to I remember, this was a jamie diamond or something that that that said, If anyone, you know, even talks about cryptocurrencies that are firm, you’re gonna be fired, and then it changed very quickly.
Joel Comm 16:32
Well, now, now, JP Morgan Chase is, you know, his organization is looking at how they’re going to use blockchain. And that that’s really that, you know, I don’t even need to go beyond that when you have the most outspoken non supporters, right. People that are detractors saying it’s never gonna go anywhere, and then their company starts figuring out how they’re going to use it. That’s it that tells you they’re bending the knee. They see there’s no way to avoid this. It’s either get on The train or be left behind is a dinosaur yesterday become the horse and buggy.
Jason Hartman 17:05
Well, so what are they doing it like what tell us about their participation and and how you think that might influence governments and central banks?
Joel Comm 17:13
Well, you know, look, I think that the banks are figuring out how do we leverage this for fast payments, you know, so right now, the system is so broken, you know, if you write a check, what do we say takes several days sometimes for a check to clear you deposit a check, and you can’t spend that money. That’s, you know, that’s there, that’s clearly yours because the settlements take so long crypto is going to change all that. In fact, there’s, you know, one that you would argue is not truly decentralized, because it’s actually for the banks. It’s called ripple. And there’s people in the crypto space that really don’t like it, but it’s got one of the largest market caps and it’s made for instant settlements. So that if banks are sending you know, money from one to another, that transaction happens in a matter have seconds and there’s no more waiting for the money to appear. There’s no more double spending involved in it. There’s no questioning did this transaction take place? Because it’s out there publicly on the blockchain. And this solves so many customer service problems that the banks are going to figure out, how do we leverage this to to better serve our customers and to grow our wealth?
Jason Hartman 18:22
Mm hmm. Absolutely. So what should people do? What action should they take? If they believe in what you’re saying?
Joel Comm 18:30
Well, they should go out and do their own research and own due diligence. I would never encourage anybody to invest any money because I’m not a financial advisor. And it is a very volatile space and you could lose it all. But I would encourage them to listen to our show because Travis right. And I we talk about these things, and we bring forth information and we encourage people to go down the rabbit hole and learn what is blockchain? How does Bitcoin work? How does it get mined, who’s using it, what other technologies are coming up? So start By asking the questions and then seek out the answers
Jason Hartman 19:04
with all these different Icos initial coin offerings going on out there. I guess first of all, has that market that markets changed a lot, hasn’t it? I mean, it was like this. We had the crazy days, just, you know, last year with these amazing offerings and people making fortunes literally in seconds. Yeah. And then it’s, it’s changed, right? Has that dampened quite a bit since then, and kind of what’s going on in the Ico market?
Joel Comm 19:30
Well, you know, here’s the deal. It’s very hard to raise capital for your business. And a lot of companies started waking up and going Wait, we can develop something that is blockchain based. And rather than going through traditional venture capital means, you know, giving away our company we can do an initial coin offering or a token orphan offering, which is kind of like a crypto version of a Kickstarter. And because it was new, there was a lot of companies that jumped in there that really had no business being on To blockchain and a lot of hype Drew, you know drew interest in there were people that made a lot of money that lost a lot of money. There’s still people making and losing a lot of money there are still Icos on a regular basis, it’s just that there’s more regulation now. And it’s kind of interesting because two places that you can participate in Icos unless you are already sitting on a stack of cash or China and the United States. And so you have to be a qualified investor in the US. We’re still waiting on the SEC to come up with some rulings on cryptocurrency and we’re watching that unfold. And that’s kind of what’s leading to a lot of volatility in the market right now. There’s a lot of fear, uncertainty and doubt of what the government’s are going to do. But I think when the dust settles, once people know what they’re dealing with, that’s when we’re ideally going to see the real growth.
Jason Hartman 20:54
Yeah, yeah, very interesting stuff. Very interesting stuff. Is there any second place to Bitcoin is Bitcoin The only truly decentralized coin No,
Joel Comm 21:05
no, not at all. In fact, if you go to coin market cap calm, you’ll see there’s over 1600 crypto currencies and tokens that are listed,
Jason Hartman 21:12
but that’s not what I mean. Well, maybe it maybe it is, but maybe maybe I’ll just clarify, like, with so many of the other coins, you know, the government if they want to shut you down, they can go knock on someone’s door and find the CEO. Right with Bitcoin. They can’t do that. So,
Joel Comm 21:29
in with many of them, they can’t do that. You can’t do that with you know, with aetherium You can’t do that. With BitShares. You can’t do that with stellar lumens, and the list goes on of decentralized kryptos. But they have different utilities, you know, Bitcoin is purely for payments, that’s all. Whereas you have, you know, a token like aetherium that has programming built into it so you can do smart contracts. And so a lot of the companies that are building their tokens They’re building it on the Ethereum platform, because it gives additional functionality that Bitcoin doesn’t have. And so there’s a number of new kryptos that are coming up that have a different functionality programmed into them and a different utility.
Jason Hartman 22:14
Yeah, very interesting stuff. Anything you want to say to wrap it up for us on either the subjects the fun formula or the crypto space
Joel Comm 22:23
while I encourage people to follow their passion, go grab a copy of the fun formula, fun formula book calm. There’s a lot of bonuses there for people who, who order through that site and listen to the bad crypto podcast and go down the crypto rabbit hole with us. It’s a we have a lot of fun on the show and we share a lot of information.
Jason Hartman 22:42
Good stuff Joel comm thanks for joining us.
Joel Comm 22:44
Thank you.
Jason Hartman 22:48
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