An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Don’t be so hard on yourself when you face failure. This space is rapidly evolving, so you’ll have plenty of opportunities to try and try again.
As a part of our series about Wisdom From The Women Leading The Blockchain Revolution, had the pleasure of interviewing Bronwyn Williams.
Bronwyn Williams is the Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Metanomic, the first and only complete real-time economy-as-a-service platform for developers. Founded in 2021, the platform utilizes patented algorithms to easily deploy plug and play, interoperable, and infinitely scalable game and creator economies ready for web3, metaverse, and play-and-earn games.
She is a well-known trend analyst, best-selling author, keynote speaker, and futurist who has a history of helping to launch crypto and blockchain-based startups in South Africa.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you share with us the story of how you decided to pursue this career path?
My background is a mixture of marketing and economics, which was an ideal combination to spot both the opportunities and the threats emerging from new technologies and business models from both a micro (customer) and macro (economic) perspective. Once you spot the opportunities, it is hard to sit on the sidelines.
What lessons can others learn from your story?
That’s a great question. I haven’t thought about it before. They’d really have to tell me!
Can you tell me about the most interesting projects you are working on now?
At Metanomic, we are building the economic infrastructure for the metaverse. It is an incredibly interesting space to be working in — a real “new frontier.” We are proud to be playing a small part in helping to distinguish real versus artificial scarcity for virtual goods and services, facilitating shared value creation and exchange for creators, gamers, developers, and investors.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Our Founder and CEO at Metanomic, Theo Priestley, took a chance on pitching and co-authoring a book with me in 2020, The Future Starts Now. It was that chance that led us to build Metanomic today.
What are the 3 things that most excite you about blockchain and crypto? Why?
The first thing is that it’s new. Therefore, it’s easier to shape and change things that are not rotten with legacy bureaucracy.
The second thing that excites me is that blockchain and crypto started as a movement to shift the balance of power away from entrenched interests and towards the fringes (that is, to you and I). Yes, much of that philosophy has been lost along the way, but I am still attracted to that original vision.
The third thing I find exciting is that this ecosystem has velocity — and I believe that money should flow, not pool.
What are the 3 things that worry you about blockchain and crypto? Why?
- That it is repeating the same mistakes of our existing systems and institutions, just with a new language rather than actually doing things differently.
- That there are lots of selfish scams rather than real value creation projects. This is the Catch-22 of decentralization: while it offers more freedom, there is less protection.
- That it is accelerating and magnifying real political and economic collapse by destabilizing governments and social contracts.
As you know there are not that many women in your industry. Can you share 5 things that you would advise to other women in the blockchain space to thrive?
- Learn as much as you can about the industry.
- Make as many friends in the industry as you can. These relationships will likely open doors or inspire your next big idea.
- Find a problem to solve.
- Get involved in projects. Learn by doing as much as you can, and try to get some skin in the game.
- Don’t be so hard on yourself when you face failure. This space is rapidly evolving, so you’ll have plenty of opportunities to try and try again.
Can you advise what is needed to engage more women into the blockchain industry?
My philosophy is that women need to invite themselves to the party. If you are waiting for an invitation, you will likely miss the dance.
What is your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share a story of how that had relevance to your own life?
There are two life lesson quotes that resonate with me:
The first is from Voltaire, “Il faut cultiver notre jardin,” or “tend to your own garden.”
In a literal and figurative sense it is a reminder for me to look after myself, take responsibility for my own life and choices, do what I can, with what I have, where I am. The quote has also inspired me to stop looking over the fence at what others are doing, and to focus on what I am doing instead.
The second quote is by St. Augustine: “Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are anger and courage; anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are.“
This quote has taught me that pragmatism is better than blind optimism — if you don’t admit something is broken, you can’t fix it. Pragmatism is also better than pessimism — if you don’t believe you can fix something, you won’t. You have to face the world the way it is, however ugly that reality may be, especially if you are to have any hope of changing it. You also have to understand the limits of your own influence over your environment, as well as the actions of others, however heartbreaking they may be.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
If I were to start a movement of my own, it would have to be the “think for yourself” movement. This movement would encourage people to use common sense and take the initiative to conduct their own research and come up with their own conclusions, as opposed to engaging in groupthink or believing what is spoon-fed to them by society.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/bronwynwilliams/ , Twitter: https://twitter.com/bronwynwilliams?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Wisdom From The Women Leading The Blockchain Revolution With Bronwyn Williams Of Metanomic was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
