DaraSensei interview

Question:

Hello! Tell us a little about yourself. what is your name, your interests.

Answer:

Hey brothers and sisters, lovely degens, apes, aliens or whoever else is reading this. They call me either Dara or Sensei in the space. I have been an accountant and tax consultant before and quit my job and went full time web3 when my father had a stroke and ended up needing help daily. I have always been a workaholic so i don't really have any interests besides crypto and nfts, my free time i love to spend with my 2 irish wolfhounds.

Question:

How did you start your career in crypto and why did you choose NFT?

Answer:

My journey in Web3 started like 3-4 years ago, so you can say i have been pretty late to crypto. I am german and was trading Forex before. A real life friend of mine minted Crypto Punks, he still holds 5 of those and that is how i got in contact with crypto one day. So my mission was to buy and trade NFT's right from the start and not trading tokens. My first contact with trading digital items has been the World of Warcraft classic auction house. As a hobby i also have been trading Nintendo games since years growing my personal collection, thus i felt home trading internet jpegs instantly and got hooked to that.

Question:

What difficulties did you encounter and how did you solve these problems? How did you fight laziness and burnout? There is still a lot of work in crypto?

Answer:

There are 2 things that happened in the last years that really were a big bump in the raod to me. Firstly i was careless and did not care for safety thinking i was smart enough to not get caught by those scammers trying for it daily. Well one sleepless night early 2022 they got me because i did not pay enough attention and got totally drained. Work from 2 years gone in 15 seconds. This really made me sick for weeks, but afterwards i sold my car used those funds to get started again and came back stronger but most importantly, i learned my lesson. Also this made me what i am today. People saw my comeback from this incident and contacted me asking to being a caller in many groups. I always turned down payment offers for those positions as my thinking is that i can't be a caller if i don't do those plays myself, have conviction in what i am calling and if the calls would not be enough money for a living themself. The second hardest thing i ever did in crypto was running the application process for Oligarch. We got so many great applications and also many big influential people of the space applied. I spend 4 weeks reading those up and down and up again, turning down many people that would have deserved a chance but couldn't because firstly our supply was very limited and secondly we weren't looking for those people in the first place. We wanted to form a new home for the next generation of web3 grinders, not for the ones having made it out there already. I never had a problem with laziness, i have been a workaholic in web2 and i am the same in web3. If you enjoy what you do there is no problem for me in spending 16 hours a day on it. But this also means that burnout is a problem for me. Unregulated sleep schedules, meetings everyday at any day time, always the opportunity to miss the next big move if you just blink can burn you out quickly. If i realise that this is taking me over i have to step away from my schedule for some weeks, announcing this in the groups i'm active in too being totally transparent about it and it has never been a problem. In Oligarch we took care of this problem by being 5 founders, so there is always rest time for one of us and the workload is being split in between us.

Question:

You are the co-founder of the famous oligarch boutique, can you tell us how you managed to successfully organize the oligarch boutique. Share your experience for novice creators, what problems may arise in such projects.

Answer:

As mentioned already the hardest part was making sure to not be like all the other already existing 1of1 groups/boutiques. We wanted to make a difference right from the start. So we ran 2 applications forms for 24 hours each and all of the founding members read those carefully for weeks. After that we started the discord, not giving out any NFT's, every Member was on a 4-8 week trial period making sure he can vibe with us, is active enough and has a unique skillset to offer that will benefit the group. In total we gave out half our supply (50of99) through these applications/selections making sure that we form a truly strong core for Oligarchs. One thing that should be clear to everyone thinking about founding a project: The day you stop working for it daily is the day your group will stop working, meaning you have to put continously effort in it everyday. Planning AMAs, spaces, making connections, getting presales and whitelists but most importantly for me in a small boutique collection like our is to stay in contact with each member and support them on their journeys as much as i can.

Question:

What's the biggest profit you've ever made and what was it based on?

Answer:

I don't like to brag my winnings, one big NFT play for me surely was Alex Beckers free mint Neo Tokyo which ran up to 100k USD (not saying that i sold this top, but surely was one of the biggest NFT plays i made up to date). In Solana it still was my first mint Degen Ape Acedemy which i sold a few days after mint for 10k gains and obviously Degods mint.

Question:

What are your immediate plans for 2-3 years? where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Answer:

Driving lambo owning an island having bi***s left and right. Just kidding, i live in the moment, i respect risk reward ratios so i don't try to grow fast but steady. The future holds what the future will hold and if i learned one thing in this space: you never know what tomorrow awaits.

Question:

What is a typical day for a DaraSensei like?

Answer:

Right now it is Web3 all day long, 2 hours outside with my dogs for a long walk, clearing my mind. Grinding this space nonstop since my drain early 2022. And yes besides that helping my dad whenever he needs me since he is bound to his wheelchair

Question:

What do you think about crypto at the moment? what kind of future do you see for him and what do you think about Solana? Give your top 5 coins

Answer:

Gonna pass on this question as i never considered me a good chartist or fundamental analyst, i excel at trading jpegs and like to focus on the things i'm good at instead overdoing it totally. Coins i am holding right now are BTC, ETH, SOL.

Question:

What do you think about NFT, recently there was news that the SEC filed an application to the court that NFT is a security. What is the future for Solana NFT and other chains. Top 5 of your favorite NFT collections, well, except for the oligarchs, of course))

Answer:

Those regulator will do everything they can to push their CBDC's to the masses if you ask me. They are taking our good tech and turning it into a digital nightmare. Again i stick to my previous response and think living in the moment is the best we can do, we don't know which regulations will be in place in 2-5 years from now. About the general dry period for NFT's i think we need a crypto bull again before NFT's can really go into a bullseason again too. Until then i focus on short plays and instant flips. Always taking 30-50% of my profit to stables. Top 5 Sol collections right now? The metas change so quickly that i can only name 1 besides Oligarch and that is Dead King Society. Being surrounded by Chads sharing your enthusiasm are the most important places to be for me. Currently one of my biggest holdings is The Heist, a cops vs Robbers game, where i earned most of my money with in the last months by trading their 2 tokens and being involved in the game itself.

Question:

The most important lesson in life.

Answer:

Life is too short to be an ass hole. Appreciate everyday and money can't buy you happiness.

Question:

And finally, give some advice to the readers of this article!

Answer:

I guess i gave you all what i could already in my text above. Only thing i can add here is that in my opinion conviction and hard work will always pay off, in web2 or in web3, does not matter. And of course web3 is still wild west so always be safe. Having multiple hardware wallets is a must! Another advice i which has worked out pretty good for me is doing less plays with higher conviction instead chasing every degen mint that comes to the table. Also accepting when you have been wrong and cutting your losses is very important. If a play does not play out like you wanted it to be becoming a bag holder instead is one of the worst things that can happen. Tracking your plays (excel, netrunner, whatever you use for that) will help you a lot to make those decisions. Thank you for reading, i hope you enjoyed knowing a little bit about me and my journey.

If you've gotten to this point, that's the end of the article. I want to say a big thank you to Dara for agreeing to do an interview with noname boi. For me, Dara revealed himself in a very good way, and I admire this person very much. From this man, it makes sense to take an example. He let you know that even if you are fucked up, grind and stability will get you back on track!!!!
Thank you for reading this article <3