Happy New Year to all of you reading this newsletter, thank you for being here in my life in a way or another. Thank you for reading and thank you for your messages in any form you send them.
Writing gives me constant gifts through reconnecting with old friends who reach out to me daily as well as connecting to new ones who seem to resonate with what I share.
This year I was isolated for the first and only time in my life for an entire three months in the Amazon jungle. After I left my “temporary jungle womb” in complete silence and no contact to others I have communicated more than ever in my life through my two newsletters (this one where I don’t post on more than twice a week on and my journal), podcast, videos…
We also built PAUA Paris that gathered 400 people from 35 countries. I guess I really needed more than ever to be back in touch with others and find friends who think alike.
I will share here two beautiful happy new year quotes that friends posted on the PAUA What’s App community. You are welcome to join.
I knew the first one from Brel, but it’s so good it’s always nice to read again.
“I wish you endless dreams and the furious desire to make a few come true
I wish you to love what should be loved and to forget what should be forgotten
I wish you passions
I wish you silences
I wish you bird songs when you wake up, and children laughter
I wish you to resist the rut, the indifference, the negative traits of our timeAbove all, I wish you to be yourself”
Jacques Brel - thanks, Waël Mechri-Yver
Children laughter is guaranteed as I will always remember 2022 as the birth of my 4th son, Falco. Whatever happened in 2022, it was a fantastic year for me just for this reason. Thank you, life.
On the stroke of midnight tonight, you can resolve to be better, if you like… to be fitter, to eat cleaner, to work harder. On the stroke of midnight tonight, you can resolve to become a whole new you, if you so choose. Or, you can take a moment to acknowledge, all you already are. Because it’s a lot. You’re a lot. And you deserve to be commended. On the stroke of midnight tonight, perhaps you could congratulate yourself, for coping. For breaking, again, and for rebuilding, again. For catching the stones life has thrown at you, and using them to build your castle that little bit stronger. You have endured, my friend. And I don’t see the need to resolve to become a whole new you, when you are already so very much indeed. Happy new year. You made it. Now let us face another 365 day-turn, arms wide, accepting, embracing and ‘seeing’ each other, for all we are..
Poem by Donna Ashworth (thanks @mihai.love)
I love our community. It’s a real gift. Every day I am surrounded with friends sharing great content and ideas. I will keep working hard on our community in 2023 through sharing and weekly calls.
I have read a few new year predictions and wishes by email from friends too and I paid special attention to the posts of David Marcus and Fred Wilson who posted what happened in 2022 and his predictions for 2023.
They both write about how tough has 2022 been still through COVID and with the explosion of the tech and crypto bubble. They insisted on the end of speculation as David Marcus wrote “Out with speculators, in with builders”
Years of greed will make room for real-world applications. The years of creating a token out of thin air and making millions are over. The music has stopped. We’re back to our regular programming of having to create real value and solving real world problems.
Fred wrote:
Many large centralized entities; lenders, exchanges, crypto funds, etc, blew up when the value of web3 assets declined 70-90% over the course of 2022. The carnage has been massive and reminds me of what happened to the web sector in 2000/2001. Some of this has been markets doing their thing, but not all of it was. There was fraud, mismanagement, irresponsible risk-taking, and more, at play in the web3 sector.
and added courageously expressing what many would not write in public
I understand that this year has been painful for most and devastating for many. I am not immune to it. Our family’s net worth has taken a massive hit. The carrying value of USV’s assets under management has been cut in half this year. And yet, I am fine, my family is fine, and USV is fine. Many are not. I understand that and have a lot of empathy for those who lost so much, including their jobs, this year.
I also remember the 2000-2001 and 2008 tech bubbles burst. They were equally violent and calling them “carnage” seems accurate. The ENRON scandal happened in 2001. I got caught myself in the LUNA/UST debacle that destroyed 45 billion in assets in a few hours. I was in the jungle offline when it happened, what was I thinking leaving these positions open before going off for 3 months… or being there at all.
FTX literally stole tens of billions of crypto holders and speculators money. I had all my crypto in FTX so what I had in crypto got entirely destroyed in ashes and reduced to 0. I have some small DEFI assets left and they are still there but very small and uncertain.
As Fred Wilson said, I got significantly affected but this is nothing compared to people who lost their jobs or lost everything. I feel terrible this happened to them and so many people are suffering.
I am often a believer and really believed in crypto. Many of my friends warned me. I told them they did not understand it was a new paradigm in finance that was going through a major disruption. I was convinced they were wrong and believed in a new world.
2022 proved those who called it bullshit right. It’s been full of lessons for me.
In 2000-2001 the same thing happened with the web startup valuations. Many startups died, even huge ones and the disbelief in the tech “revolution” won. Yet, it’s after 2001 that Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google exploded. It’s also after 2001 that unprecedented tech innovation happened.
This is why I don’t think crypto and web3 are dead yet. We might be surprised by what happens in the next 10 years. Tech innovation isn’t dead either, it’s still the beginning of a long transformation of the way we live and not always for the better.
I am concerned by AI. I am not sure what I see coming in AI for now is really going to be that good for us and the world. I will write more about this.
I will keep focusing on building our PAUA conference and community as well as writing and continuing my own consciousness work.
I will also continue to help others as I can on their own consciousness path.
In 2022 I helped organize and invited for the first time a few friends to participate in our vision quest and Sundance work, many more will join this year in February.
In 2021 and 2022 I organized group trips to the Amazon forest, I might organize another one this year as well, let me know if you would be interested. I am thinking about doing it right before I close my one year intense work dieta, end of march.
On April 2, 2023 I will end my one year dieta, the most intense work I have ever been through. It’s going to be an important step for me and will be sharing the changes I see and some of what I learned.
I will not do predictions for 2023 but just end by saying how obvious it is to me that people are more and more interested in consciousness work. Meditation retreats, Wim Hof retreats, trips to the jungle are all sold out while there are more and more of them happening around the world. I see also more and more events including consciousness content in their program.
Thank you for reading, again, and wishing you and your families the very best in these challenging but also fascinating times.
Wishing you the best for 2023!