Brook Slagle • 2024-01-21

Want to help the world? Generate an absurd amount of MONEY.

This is an idea that I came across while reading Going Infinite, it’s about Sam Bankman-Fried(@SBF_FTX)’s rise and fall.

this guy →

One of the most interesting topics I found in it is “Effective Altruism”.

It is a movement that advocate’s using evidence to find out how to benefit others as much as possible and to take action with said evidence.

SBF figured the most effective way to have a huge impact on others beneficially is by generating an absurd amount of money.

Then donating that money to the most effective sources to directly benefit others. Things like charity, cancer research, and any other way to resolve a global issue.

With this will in mind, I would argue he succeeded… he generated the most amount of money of any young person ever. The only other person that rivals him is Mark Zuckerberg. SBF hit $22.5 BILLION dollars in net worth in his twenties…. A monumental success in all respects.

He did this by creating an immense amount of value, mostly with his cryptocurrency exchange, FTX. In order for him to start this exchange, he networked with the crypto bigwigs and made himself a regular. With those bigwigs trusting him, he earned the trust of other well-known and trustworthy crypto enthusiasts.

He generated authority.

Once he had those relationships, he launched his crypto exchange, FTX.

It was the best thing since sliced bread.

People loved his exchange. It allowed people to trade w/ margin, but it used a new technique for a well known problem for crypto exchanges and users: clawback.

This new technique called liquidation caused people to flock to the exchange, and in a matter of a couple of years it became one of the top exchanges, and SBF became very rich.

His golden ticket was a combination of authority, a unique solution to an already existing problem, and the wherewithal to execute on it.

Now if you know about SBF already, you probably know the story “ends” with SBF in jail, but you have to give it to the guy, so long as he follows through with his intentions of philanthropy (he still plans on donating ~90% of his money), he was damn effective at attaining an absurd amount of money.

What can you take away from this?

Well, I would have to agree with him… generating money is likely the single most effective way to help others. As much as I wish we could all be Gandhi, we can’t.

He also makes very good points in business: your network is a projection of your net worth. For example, one of the first people to invest in his new “risky” crypto exchange was Binance’s founder, CZ, who is worth ~15 billion.

As well, he understands how value is perceived and how to distribute value on an incredibly wide scale.

FTX started out for crypto enthusiasts, ones with tons of money and lots of knowledge. It wasn’t a huge market. But eventually, it outgrew its niche and made it mainstream.

We might not be on the same scale as FTX in our businesses and day to day lives (although, I am aiming for FTX level of wins long term, of course), we need to start small to grow big.

This brought the big bucks for Sam.

And, in theory, big bucks for those in need.

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Yo! I hope you enjoyed this read.

I am finishing up this epilogue in the Denver International Airport, I am back to full time traveling and will likely be writing a little bit more about that.

I’ll be on the west coast of the USA for the next week, then I am heading to Europe.

Hope you had a good week, see you next sunday <3

As always…

KEEP GOING

B.S.

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