Acha Etiendem

Hey there, and welcome to this episode where I reflect on a question I first asked myself five years ago: Why live a life of mediocrity ? In light of the global market chaos and panic, where even what many considered safe, like gold , lost so much value in one day, I once again reflected on that question. It’s not because I’ve arrived at my destination, but because I found peace when others trembled. Do you live a life of mediocrity? Well, as you answer, sit still because this one is long........ It was the Christmas season, December 2019, and my friend and I had just separated as he headed back to Portsmouth while I remained at a cafe reading a book in York Way, London . My phone rang; it was my boss calling from another country while I was on a short vacation. She was calling to ask when I would be coming back. This was surprising to me because she knew I was on vacation. I was heading back the next day, but all through that night, I kept wondering why I couldn't even spend enoug...

Hey there, thank you or nkongte (in my language) for tuning in. I see you enjoy uncomfortable conversations, so let’s get uncomfortable, shall we? Since I already covered this money topic three years ago, this will serve as a continuation and a deeper look into the subject. Of course, a link is available if you’d like to revisit my raw take on money. For now, I want to pivot toward the crucial role played by the U.S. military . But before that, let me lay the foundation for this episode. Read on, please. Photo credits: VoxEU Column International Finance At the end of the day, money is a tool that helps you receive or give value. You can read about my previous ( here ) money talk for more context. Please don’t misunderstand me when I mention value. I know time is also another way of giving value. For example, someone recently told me they were too busy to see me. In that sense, time becomes a form of value exchange, where my value is not worth their time. This is also why a caregive...

Hey there! How's the new year been for you? hopefully yours is as productive as mine has been, and I hope this momentum continues. Let's talk empathy, shall we?  Empathy ensures we are able to understand why individuals and groups of people act in a certain way. It doesn't have to be about agreeing with certain actions, but more about understanding where some people are coming from. It helps our clarity and gives us a better way to approach situations or perhaps be more self‑aware. I'm saying this because, on the surface level, it makes perfect sense to nurse hate and resentment with events such as land grabs. The US's push to acquire Greenland, Russia's advances in Ukraine, China's push to claim Taiwan, Israel's advances in the West Bank, and a whole host of others. These are not only matters of today but trends that have existed since the beginning of time, and literally a key characteristic of living organisms. When you go through taxonomic classifica...

Hello and welcome. For starters, this write-up will portray the current events in Iran as a special case study for the appeal of Bitcoin (BTC). So, if you don’t want to hear another person talk about BTC, you’re more than welcome to go about enjoying your beautiful day. Since you’ve chosen to read on, I want to state that I’ve spoken a lot about BTC and will use this piece to perform a sort of data visualization of BTC trends emerging from Iran as the government shuts down the internet amidst nationwide protests. Iran has been struggling for a while. I had a classmate back in 2018 who was from Iran, and we would often talk about geopolitics and the country as a whole. At that time, their currency was faring poorly against the US dollar, and as I write today, the Iranian Rial (their domestic currency) has no value. Read that again, it’s not a typo. The Rial has no value, meaning you can’t exchange it for anything because nobody wants it. What happened? Who is behind this? A host of ques...

Wow! And just like that, here we are in 2026. When you realize that in 80–100 years all of us will have departed this earth, you begin to truly appreciate how quickly time passes. I hope 2025 unfolded in the way you envisioned and planned. Even if it didn’t, and I know for most people it didn’t, I want you to be proud of yourself and be gentle with yourself. We cannot figure everything out in a single year, for we are only human. Now that we’ve stepped into 2026, there’s no time to waste. I’ll begin with a review of 2025 and then share how I envisage 2026 to unfold.                      "For vision is clear, but my path, not so much. I must stay disciplined." If there’s one thing I got right about 2025, it was that interest rates would dominate the conversation. Where I missed the mark was in predicting Trump’s vision for America and the impact of DOGE. Pardon my optimism (I tend to be that way by default), but DOGE proved ruthless ...

Introduction Growing up, I always wondered why there were things I couldn’t have. Perhaps that was a narcissistic way of looking at life, because it meant I prevented myself from seeing the full picture, a picture rooted in empathy, where you acknowledge what you could have but also understand why you don’t have it. As usual, it’s almost midnight, my best time to reflect, and I’m dwelling on this topic of inequality yet again. I don’t want to ramble. I want this to follow a structure, to show clearly the angles I’m approaching this from. So thank you for tuning in, and I hope it’s worth your time. The Individual I looked at my family, and we don’t look exactly alike. I looked at my village, and everyone is different. Everything and everyone differs in some way height, weight, skin color, strength, beliefs, values, and IQ. For some reason, these differences are often treated as simple or trivial, but in reality, they are anything but. So I pondered: did nature err in its design of us? S...