MT21 | Gratitude

Rome was not built in one-day and certainly, not alone. CrazyTok has released 20 podcast episodes for MoneyTok and 12 episodes for JobTok with support and love from our colleagues, partners, guests and mainly our listeners. We wanted to give actionable, take away for our listeners in terms of financial management or the success of your careers through the podcast we create and we hope that it has been very useful to you all. 2021 was surely not a very easy year but it is coming to an end and we would like to appreciate your contributions to us. May you all have a happy new year!

Transcript: Gratitude

Hi, everyone, welcome to another episode of MoneyTok, where we help make personal finance and investing simple and accessible through both my own experience. I’ve been doing this for about 20 years now. This show is about money and wealth creation. And we talk about so many ways of making money, bought retirement planning about stocks, bonds, gold, real estate, crypto, and so many kinds of things.

Today’s chat isn’t about money or career growth, but about gratitude.

2021 was a tough year, once again, for most of us. Covid really didn’t let up at all, and in fact, soared to new heights – if you consider the virus’ point of view. For us humans, it wasn’t so great, with lockdowns and job losses, soaring infections and death rates, family separations extending into almost two years and other traumatic impacts for each of us in our own way. My family and friends suffered too. But we’re still standing. We’ve got our vaccines, the Omicron variant seems to be more benign and there’s even a promising new pill on the horizon. There’s hope for 2022 and I’m grateful for that.

Working at my prior company was intense and mentally exhausting, especially as we had to work remotely. I never got to meet the team I led for almost 8 months. I learned what Zoom fatigue really meant. I was slowly burning out and probably would have if I hadn’t resigned. But I got to lead a couple of new businesses and suddenly found myself among very few experts in a whole new industry. It was intense, but also exhilarating. New problems, new challenges, a new way of looking at things. I’m a better professional now, and I’m grateful for that.

And speaking of Zoom fatigue, earlier this year I realised that I was losing my voice. A doctor visit resulted in a preliminary diagnosis of something pretty horrible and incurable. Not good news for a podcaster and amateur singer. Or anyone. But then a specialist stuck a camera up my nose and down into my throat, in what felt like the ultimate form of an RT PCR test, and informed me it was nothing more than acid reflux which is affecting my vocal cords. Phew. Well it’s still not wonderful, and my voice still croaks and tires easily, but it’s addressable I think. I’m sure grateful for that!

I quit my job in June without a clear idea of what to do next. I struggled – and still struggle – to answer questions about my future career. I get FOMO every time anyone mentions a promotion or a new job. I could have been that person, I think. But then again, we were recently a dual-income family, we don’t spend much, and if needed we can run for a pretty long time on our savings. So I can take my time and make choices not entirely driven by pay and job title. I’m grateful for that.

And speaking of savings, I didn’t buy any meme stocks, Bitcoin, or Bored Apes. Which means I likely lost out on untold millions of dollars of opportunity. But I did buy into Amazon, Google, and Asana when they were battered down by the market. And they bounced back with a vengeance, adding to a corpus built on years of accelerating earnings, thrift, and investments compounding over time. In a world of get-rich-quick schemes, we’ve had a fair share of opportunities at least to get rich slowly. I’m grateful for that.

Having the space and time now to think about things has been liberating. I’ve taken the opportunity to learn new things. I spent weeks reading about Bitcoin and NFTs. I set up a little hydroponic farm on my balcony. I doubled down on my Bahasa lessons and am proud to report I now sound like a high-achieving toddler. I started to play some music again. Most of this is a calming influence and I am grateful for them all.

This was also around the time I thought it would be fun to pick up an unfinished project. My podcast. But podcasting takes a lot of effort, hours and hours of research, scripting, recording, editing, and chances was that my second innings would also fizzle out like the first attempt. And that’s when I happened to work with Neha, who took off some of the burdens by bringing her own knowledge and perspective to our discussions. And, what’s better, she was also responsible for two of our most-downloaded episodes. I’m grateful for that.

But most of all, I’m grateful to you, our listeners, readers, followers, guests, and well-wishers. When everything was up in the air when I didn’t know what I’d be doing next year, next month, or even the next day, the one thing I could keep doing was podcasting. And that’s because of you. You generously shared your knowledge as guests, you gave us your time as listeners and you shared our posts with the world as readers and followers. And every so often, one of you left us a review or wrote in to tell us how much you enjoyed an episode and how it’s helped you think about things differently. You won’t believe what a rush it is to see those messages. I’m so grateful for that.

Earlier this year, we formally registered CrazyTok as a company. We believe the world is getting more unequal, with the rewards going disproportionately to those with money, connections, or the inside track. On the other hand, smart, talented, hard-working outsiders struggle and grind their way up the ladder, never really finding the formula for success. At CrazyTok, we provide the platform to connect growth-minded, high-potential individuals with expert and high-achieving insiders so you can get honest advice to accelerate your career, build wealth and shape the life of your dreams. No, it’s not just CrazyTok.

Now that we’ve set up CrazyTok, we plan to shift our content creation into overdrive. I’m happy to announce today the launch of our third show, ShopTok, offering practical advice and tips for small businesses, bootstrapped entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, and creators. We’ll drop our first few episodes in early Feb, so do look out for it and share it with your side-hustling friends.

But that’s not all on the content side. We realise we don’t have a monopoly on career, financial and business knowledge. There are many others with excellent knowledge, advice, and expertise in these areas, and we plan to launch more new shows with new creators all through the year so you can get the best advice from the best people, not just us.

All this will take some time, and we are also itching for a break, so we will be off on a hiatus and back online with all these shiny new things by early Feb. Till then, we wish you happy holidays and a wonderful start to the new year.

Thanks for tuning in.

This was Amit with CrazyTok. See you in the new year!