An Opulent Introduction

Hello my fellow steemians! I’m beyond grateful to be here!

My name is Andy and I am a multipotentialite.

“An educational and psychological term referring to a pattern found among intellectually gifted individuals. [Multipotentialites] generally have diverse interests across numerous domains and may be capable of success in many endeavors or professions, they are confronted with unique decisions as a result of these choices.”

When people ask me the ol’ “what do you do?” question, I can’t help but smile inside as I take a moment to ponder what specific answer to give this specific person at this specific time…

“So, what do you do?”

Here’s my growing portfolio of answers to that question:

Music producer & DJ
(I perform at many electronic music events and put my musical creations on the net)

Multi-instrumentalist
(I play drums, keys, guitar, ableton push, and anything that makes noise)

Alchemist
(I study and practice alchemy)

Graphic designer
(I design branding, flyers, images, etc)

Website builder
(I build super purdy websites, membership platforms and online courses)

Writer / Poet
(I do tons of copywriting and now blogging here on my steemit blog)

Inventor / innovator
(So. many. ideas. And I'm good about acting on them.)

Event creator
(I run a Hawaii based event company with my love Maura)

Retreat facilitator
(I co-founded Audio Alchemy with @hedflux)

Spaceshaper / decorator
(I make events look and feel beautiful)

Experience designer
(I create super engaging multimedia and real life experiences)

Online course creator
(I co-founded The Great eCourse Adventure)

Educator
(I teach alchemy & music production at Audio Alchemy)

Concrete finisher
(I did concrete work for 10 years in my family business before moving to Hawaii)

Almost husband
(I am engaged to the love of my life @maurastar - her acct is still waiting on approval)

Human
(Yes, this is worthy of being considered a career. We're all heroes in our own right.)

Here’s the thing… I’m quite good at all of these things, and the thought of removing any one of them from my list of what-I-do’s freaks me out. They are all a critical part of the puzzle of me, and this is non-negotiable.

I am inherently unemployable. (That's not to say we can't work together, as I do with many friends, partners and clients)

In the society that we were born into, it was drilled into our minds since early childhood that we must pick one thing to be “when we grow up”, and that one thing will be what we do until one day we can finally retire, relax and enjoy life (if we’re still alive, that is).

Whether or not we enjoy this one thing, which has been termed a “career”, is irrelevant. Our job as honorable citizens has been to pick a job, get to work, and don’t ask too many questions.

And we go along with it, because we've been conditioned to believe that this is "just the way it is."

(Gotta hand it to em, its a brilliant system - bravo!)

Our society favors jobs over joy any day of the week.

Q: Whats better than old-school slavery?
A: Slavery where the slaves beg to keep their “jobs”!

But i digress…

So in this world that favors picking one thing, I’ve found myself in the midst of many emotional and mental dilemmas regarding figuring out “what I’m going to do with my life”. The world we’ve been living in isn’t built for multipotentialites such as myself.

This is the biggest issue people like myself face - we tend to have a really hard time “getting it together” - because simply put, theres just SO MUCH to “get together” and we are way too enthralled with all of our various interests and talents to give any of them up.

My life, soon to be steem-powered?

I discovered Steemit last year when 97% of the posts were cryptocurrency hype and day trader technical analysis. Yaawwwwn.

It was a novel and noble idea - a social media network where “likes” translate to earning actual money. Unfortunately, it was just a still a wee bit too early in the game and I didn’t understand the underlying technology, so i moved on and forgot about it.

About a week ago, one of the members of the @audioalchemy community (which I co-founded with @hedflux) was excited to share with us a new decentralized soundcloud alternative called DSound.

(Thanks for the heads-up @treaphort!)

I had been looking for a decent soundcloud alternative for years, and although there have been many, all of them just plain suck.

So I check out DSound, and I’m like, “wow! It feels just like a simplified version of soundcloud, but it’s decentralized, uncensorable, and posts get payouts in steem dollars!"

Interesting…!

Then I realize that your DSound account is the same account as your Steemit account, and that they are linked to the same blockchain.

Very interesting…!

… and then I learn there is also a steam-based YouTube alternative (D.Tube), a livestreaming alternative (DLive.io), an Instagram alternative (Steepshot), a Facebook alternative (Busy.org)… all connected to the same blockchain and userbase, and they all reward quality content with steem dollars.

As an artist who creates tons of valuable multimedia content, I was all like..

It’s worth noting that these are just the first apps that indie developers have put together over the last year or so. The entire steem platform is less than two years old.

For instance, @prc visioned, developed and launched DSound by himself just a couple months ago. (Thank you x10000!)

In contrast, Soundcloud earns insane amounts of money from artists who pay them to host audio, they are one of the most popular sites on the planet, and they've managed to somehow have been on the verge of bankruptcy for years. What a joke.

Over the coming months and years we will see all sorts of innovative and creative steem-powered apps that provide new interesting ways to create and share content. And its all decentralized, which means everyone and no-one owns it.

We decide where this all goes.

The responsibility is on us.

Remember that big list of things that I am good at up above? In the “real world” most people would say, “oh thats nice, you have lots of hobbies, but you need to get a real job.”

The brilliance of steem is that it provides avenues for me to create and share valuable content surrounding every single one of my talents and interests. And if the content I create truly benefits the organism as a whole, then there is the opportunity to earn steem dollars.

The implications of a system like this are monumental. The digger I deep into how this platform works, the more incredible it becomes.

With steem, we are voluntarily “working” for the system by creating whatever tickles our fancy, or whatever we personally feel will contribute to the growth and integrity of the entire system. Then we all vote on content that we truly feel contributes to our collective growth and wellbeing, and that upvoted content gets paid proportionally to how many quality up-votes it gets (the more steem you hold, i.e.: the more vested you are in the platform, the more your vote is worth).

This is a system of value creation, appreciation and resource allocation and it’s perhaps the most genius thing I’ve yet to stumble upon in my 30 years on this planet.

I see a lot of people flocking to steemit to make a quick buck. Many of these people aren’t adding any value or innovation. They are just posting noise, begging for upvotes/re-steems and to be blunt, they just aren’t talented content creators.

If you want to be well payed for your job, you have to be really good at it. Your efforts must provide more value to the organism/business you work for than what it pays you. Just because anyone can post on steem, does not entitle them to share the earnings that are in the reward pool. This is common sense.

This is not to say that you have to be a talented content creator to use steem.

Everyone is welcome.

Everyone is encouraged to be their best selves.

What does a world look like where everything is based on quality and appreciation? I reckon we're about to find out.

We want to hear your updates on your journey, even if you aren’t DaVinci, Mozart or Thoreau.

Just don’t post bullshit for the sake of posting bullshit. And please for the love of steem, don't try to game the system.

Be vulnerable.

Be beautiful.

Be creative.

Be human.

Be real.

Do your best and be your best.

If you create valuable stuff, and keep at it, the system will take notice. Persistence is key.

My intention with being on steem is not to try to make money or "cash out".

My intention is to use all of my various talents to help the steem platform and community evolve and grow into what I know it can truly be.

If my input proves to be valuable to the collective, then I trust I will be rewarded fairly, whether it be through steem dollars, gratitude, human connections, or just the privilege of being apart of something that I truly believe in.

Whether or not steem stands the test of time is irrelevant. The reality is that every industry we’ve grown accustomed to is being completely disrupted and transformed at an alarming pace. What Uber did to the taxi industry is analogous with what blockchain tech is doing to every industry.

The genie is out of the bottle, and nothing can stop it.

The days of relying on the government to tell us how to think and act are numbered. In the steem world there is no authority to tell you what to do. It’s up to you to decide how to contribute.

We are being given a chance to grow up and become humans.

Let’s make it count.

Meditations on opulence

The name Opulence has been my musical alias for about 5-6 years now. It feels quite fitting that this alias is to be used for all of my contributions on the steem network.

I’d love to share just a quick tidbit about where that name came from and what it means to me. I find it to be relevant to the conversation at hand.

About 6 years ago, I participated in an evening workshop at the retreat center I was living and working at in Hawaii.

The name of the event was 'The Gift Process' and it was facilitated by a brilliant human by the name Cass Phelps.

He led us through a series of meditations, where we explored our inner landscape in the context of discovering our true gift.

He explained that every single one of us has a gift, and this gift is the essence, or DNA, of our truest calling and function in the world.

Once we find our gift, it then informs all that we do and allows us live in a state of harmony, thus infusing our unique gift into our worldly contributions.

The tricky part is actually discovering what it is.

So here I was in this workshop, with eyes closed, and Cass’ voice guiding me into the depths of my soul.

I was led to a beautiful place, and he queued us to take note of what’s there and not resist anything that shows up. I started having crystal clear visions of all the things that I enjoy creating and doing. He instructed us to start noticing if any of them hold any more weight or importance than the others.

I started to feel slightly frustrated because I just couldn’t seem to find any more value one may have over another. Each of these potential gifts felt deeply important, and it was almost heartbreaking that I was to decide on just one.

Suddenly I had a moment of clarity that i do have just one gift, and it includes all the sub-gifts that I was dreaming into.

The word that appeared in my consciousness was “abundance”. I felt a sort of cosmic confirmation, and saw all the ways I bring abundance to the world through all of the things that I create and offer. And that I had an abundance of gifts.

The meditation came to an end and we were brought back to the group.

Cass posed some questions to the group and invited us to get feedback and process our experiences.

So I raised my hand and shared the story of my inner-journey and how I came to my conclusion. Part of me was looking for validation that I wasn’t cheating by settling on a catch-all gift such as “abundance”.

Cass nodded in approval and said something along the lines of “abundance can be cheap - try opulence” and then gives that finger-kiss gesture like an Italian chef gives when they deliver food to a table.

Every cell in my body lit up as this simple word worked its way through my heart, mind and soul.

He nailed it.

Abundance is a popular buzzword, especially in new age circles. In truth, abundance is just a lot of stuff. Could be good stuff. Could be bad stuff. A pack-rat is highly abundant. The word abundance says nothing about the quality of things. Realizing this really turned me off to the word.

In that moment, I knew Opulence would now be my creative alias, and it has stuck ever since.

Opulence (noun)

1. wealth, riches, or affluence.
2. magnificence, splendor, exquisiteness
3. abundance, bounty, profusion; plenty.
4. the state of being opulent.

Etymology

1510, from Middle French opulence (16c.), from Latin opulentia, from opulentus "wealthy," dissimilated from *op-en-ent-, related to ops "wealth, power, resources," opus "work, labor, exertion," from PIE root *op- "to work, produce in abundance."

To me, the word opulence really speaks to the process of turning work or labor into artful exquisiteness.

Financial gain is a mere byproduct of the true value that is created when we do great work. Money is not wealth, it is a mere symbol of wealth.

The process of becoming opulent is the process of turning lead into gold. We are all in the midst of our own personal versions of The Alchemical Great Work.

The future that I am contributing to is an opulent one indeed, but the true riches we'll discover are not in the wallet but in the soul.

I am @opulence

Thanks for lending me your eyes and inner ears with this introduction. And thanks again to @treaphort for bringing the wonders of steem back into my awareness.

The bottom line is that I'm mega-super-duper grateful to have the opportunity to humbly share my gift(s) with this amazing community of creators and innovators.

This is just the beginning and I'll be playing my part to ensure that our future is lush af.

Cheers,
Opulence