*2020*

Your Financial Advisor: “I hear you want to invest! Alright, here’s my advice. Put your money on Facebook. They’re going places. Tech has always been the way to earn good multiples.”

You: “Awesome, I will put my savings in the Facebook stock. It’s priced at $250. Do you think it’s wise to put $200,000?”

Your Financial Advisor: “Yes. Talk to me in a year. Now leave my office.”

*2021*

You: “FB stock is at $350. I am super impressed! What should I do this year?”

Your Financial Advisor: “Told you… Now you need to invest in Bitcoin. I hear talks of Facebook and other companies working with relevant integrations.”

You: “Bitcoin? Really? Don’t you think it was only a phase?”

Your Financial Advisor: “Wait, what is this? Are you second-guessing me now? Look at you, wow. Invest another $100k in Bitcoin and get out of my office.”

You: “Fine. Getting 2 Bitcoins at $50k each. Excited!”

*2022*

You: “Hi, I lost $60k in bitcoin and $75k in Facebook stock. I am so freaked out and do not know what to do. Should I sue you?”

Your Financial Advisor: “You can’t. You love me too much.”

You: “Just tell me what to do.”

Your Financial Advisor: “Keep your stocks. You only lose if you sell. Put another $100k in starting a metaverse business.”

You: “Damn the Metaverse, Zuck, FB, meta, bitcoin, and you. Goodbye.”

Meta and Zuck are under attack for the millionth time. The company has lost nearly 75% of its stock value. Fortunately, Zuck is taking all the attacks instead of the Metaverse. Due to wide support from other companies, people are starting to live with the fact that the Metaverse is a big part of the future (possibly without Meta).

Yet, here’s a brain tease for you — What if he’s right? What if the Metaverse is not only a big part of the future but is the most dominant thing in the future?

Whether this makes you cringe or criticize it, it’s not really up to you or me. Instead, it’s up to your grandkids and their children.

You: “What’s next? People just using their VR headsets 24/7? Does that NOT scare you? Have you not seen black mirror?”

Me: “For heaven’s sake, look around you; everyone is already staring at their phone 24/7. Your grandmother had the exact same conversation with her friend about the smartphone as an invention. So move past the cringe phase and start actually thinking.”

I’m not an advocate of unhealthy habits. As a matter of fact, I am writing this article right now on an iPad while using an iPad holder that goes up high to almost eye level. That’s mainly not to get a phenomenon called an iPad neck.

If it’s unhealthy, then it’s not good for you. Now put this debate away and start thinking of the potential of the Metaverse. We’re getting the chance to form our own reality. This world is imperfect and beautiful. There’s no shame in creating a new one. It’s not defying nature or any god whatsoever.

“Create me a pitch deck for a metaverse-related product, Al.”

Here I am, sitting and sipping my homemade basil-lemonade (the secret is peeling the lemons and filtering them a few times. But that’s for another article in another life… or in the Metaverse! wow, that linked somehow.)

An old client recommended me to someone interested in working on a metaverse-related product. I won’t say much about the product, as I never do about my clients unless they ask me to. It’s an informal NDA, you might say. Imagine if I did…

Client: “Hey, Al, I want to create a pitch deck about a restaurant that sells fish NFTS.”

Me: “Gosh, hold that thought…”

Medium — A client asked me to create a pitch deck about an NFT fish restaurant.

Me: “Continue…”

Client: “I just saw your article. What the hell? I can not trust you with our profitability, expenses, or future vision.”

Me: “Hmm… I understand. I will be right back.”

Medium — An NFT fish restaurant has a crazy future vision with profitability! Here’s what happened.

Client: “You are literally saying everything I am telling you. I will post about you. Goodbye.”

Me: “Wait… fine. Goodbye.”

Medium — I just got fired from my whole freelancing career because of a tiny mistake.

Hence, I don’t usually write exactly about what my clients are doing. But, I mean, if there’s an NFT fish restaurant, I might write about it. I’m sure you’d want to hear about it.

So here I am, chatting with this new entrepreneur who’s looking to create a pitch deck. As per most of my client meetings, we talk about the future of the product and its scalability. So this led us to speak more and more about the Metaverse.

He pitched an improvement to his product that could become extremely valuable if the Metaverse becomes dominant. Chatting with him, I got more and more excited.

When I get excited about a product, I inform the client. When the client is pitching an awful product, I inform the client. I have nothing to lose in this job as I’ve understood it quite well. It’s not about this one job or the other. It’s about the one out of a hundred decks I create that would lead to a billion dollars. Hence, honesty is an intelligent approach.

I sugarcoat things, though, of course. Imagine if I didn’t.

Client: “So our product is new wireless headsets that are shaped like an ear.”

Me: “Oh, okay. That’s the most terrible idea I have ever heard in my life. But still, I could work out a pitch deck. What do you think, $5k?

Client: “How about… no. Goodbye.”

Me: “What did I do wrong? I was honest!”

Client: “…”

So then, we continued talking about the fantastic potential of his product. Then I told him that a few other clients would also love to partner with his product. Finally, I gave one last piece of advice. If you can, file a patent for this specific tech integration in the Metaverse.

A Backup Would Not Hurt

Entrepreneurship is a risky business. Around 90% of businesses fail. However, many fail because they’re not good in operation, rather than having a bad product or market.

If I had to guess, I’d say a hundred people had the idea of Facebook before Zuck. None of them went for it. Additionally, none of them filed a patent. Filing a patent could result in quite a good ROI if it’s within budget.