Done is Better than Perfect – How to Get and Keep Work
How two pivotal moments with Bitcoin transformed Harry's life and led him to leave England to build a coffee farm in El Salvador
The Two Catalysts
It is fair to say bitcoin changed my character. I remember the two events that were the main catalysts of this. The first was when I made my first Bitcoin transaction between cold storage wallets, at about 5:00am in Stoke-on-Trent, England. Usually the life-changing moments are only evident in retrospect but, after my transaction hit the mempool, I knew my world was changed. The second event was the market crash of 2021 that led to the gruelling bear market. I was at Chester Zoo for my girlfriend’s birthday.
“How are your bitcoins, honey?” ...not good, love.
However, the crash was a blessing. It hardened me to financial loss and disrupted my long-held perception of value. I had the same amount of Bitcoin as the day before but the amount of dollars someone would give me for them changed overnight. Maybe I’m right and everyone else is wrong. Ah, yes... I started to feel like the chosen one, so I took this confidence with me to the tropics and bought a derelict coffee farm.
If you are enough of a Bitcoiner to be reading this, on a Bitcoin jobs website, might I suggest that you too are one of the chosen ones? And that you should use this as your signal to back yourself and take a leap of faith?
Mindset, Confidence, and Taking Risks
Allow Bitcoin to provide your stability. The network is predictable and that gives us peace of mind; merely holding Bitcoin is a win, and that’s a great baseline upon which to do anything. It should help you be more selective when choosing who to work with. You should also start charging people more for your time.
“By simply owning Bitcoin, you are directly contributing to the advancement of civilisation, so behave accordingly.”
But how to take the first step? For me it was organising a Bitcoin meetup in my hometown.
What happens when you start a Bitcoin meet up?
My meet up was in Stoke-on-Trent and the median attendance was 3, but mostly it was just two of us. Ronin and myself sinking a few beers in one of the most depressing cities in the world. The third attendee introduced me to one of his colleagues and that colleague became the reason I moved to El Salvador.
So here I am, writing this article while sat in a house I built in the jungle, and it all started with a Twitter post linking to an Eventbrite event page.
Don’t be afraid to start small
I did have one false start with the meetups, mind you, mind you, I think it was November 2021. I booked a room at an independent organic grocery store, sent out an advert, spoke to all the people I knew in Bitcoin (two I think) and waited. Two of my non-Bitcoin friends pulled out a week before the event after telling me they’d attend and I had the feeling that no one was going to show up. I cancelled it and regrouped - I wasn’t quite ready. I needed a hook.
Keep taking action and find ways to contribute
Early the following year my beloved cricket club ran out of money. We had a new captain but no cash. So I created a Bitcoin-only fundraising campaign on Geyserfund and got in touch with some British Bitcoiners to see if they would help. Amazingly, I raised 300 pounds for the club and installed a “Buy Bitcoin” advertisement board at the Road End. Furthermore, I finally had the attention of a few online Bitcoiners who supported me and subsequently connected me with enough people to warrant a second stab at a Potteries (Stoke) Bitcoin meet up.
And that’s how I got my foot in the door of the Bitcoin world.
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Today I am sat here in a cafe near my farm (I still don’t have reliable internet over there). Coffee drying beds are being built to keep up with the large amount of coffee we are harvesting. Yesterday we had 9 people picking the coffee, today 12.
Now living with me on the farm is Elias, my 86-year-old neighbour, Mauricio, my 25-year-old head of processing, and now Tom, my 24-year-old accountant and general worker. Elias is a native Salvadoreño. Mauricio is a coffee roaster from Paraguay who speaks English and Spanish. Tom is from my cricket team in England: I used to play with his dad when I was a 13-year-old. He’s now the captain of the first team.
“What I am looking for is people who can save me time and provide me with a complete service or product that solves a problem or enhances my project.”
Don’t wait until you feel ready
We are all working harder than we’ve ever worked and all the while living in testing conditions. My small house is still unfinished so I’ve been living in a mess for a few months now. Tom and Mauricio just moved into the garden house which is a basic building suitable for sleeping but not much else. They are both young and I am responsible for them. We all feel overstretched and unprepared for what we are doing but I don’t know any other way of working. After all, how can you ever actually feel ready for something? I certainly wasn’t ready to buy a coffee farm a year and a half ago, but I am making it work. I am having fun.
I am proud of the two young lads currently working with me. I admire their courage, especially Tom who doesn’t speak Spanish and had never lived abroad before. I want to make sure they get as much out of the experience as possible and be as good a mentor to them as possible. Both of them have proven to me, in different settings, that they are very capable and mature beyond their years, so I intend to give them responsibility and the freedom to make mistakes and learn.
Done is better than perfect
As an employer of many people, some of them on salaries, others as contractors, what I am looking for is people who can save me time and provide me with a complete service or product that solves a problem or enhances my project. I want the product in front of me, complete, as quickly as possible. If the finished product isn’t exactly as I expected, I don’t mind, as long as it is done in good time. Let me give you two contrasting examples of this.
I found someone who makes stamps so I sent my designs over for the stamps to be made. The artist wanted the job, but said they could only do it if I ordered the materials from a third party. I had so much work to do, and the stamps weren’t essential to my project so I decided not to bother. All I wanted to hear was “sure, when do you want them by?”
An example of the opposite is the barista I booked to serve my coffee at Adopting Bitcoin. He made it very clear that he would take care of everything needed for the conference and put my mind at ease. I have so many jobs to do now that each job needs to be run without my interference, otherwise I wouldn’t have the time to get everything done. A German film director I worked with once gave me this valuable advice: “Done is better than Perfect”. Heed this and you will become more employable.
Fortune Favors the Brave
Both Mauricio and Tom approached me for work. They each offered me something different and have the potential to become the perfect person for their respective roles, even if they’re not quite there yet. Fortune really does favour the brave; people respect you more for taking a risk, especially if the risk bears fruit, and you will build robust working relationships around interesting projects if you deliver in good time and absorb all the pressure of the details.
Start building your network today and trust in your future self just as you trust in the future of Bitcoin.
About the author
My name is Harry Leath, I am from Stoke-on-Trent, England. I am the founder of La Cruz Coffee and owner of La Cruz coffee farm. I am a visual artist, writer, linguist and coffee farmer - producing coffee for Bitcoiners.
Follow my journey on Instagram and Nostr and get in touch if you ever want to visit Bitcoin Country and help out on the farm for a while.