Guardian of the Week — Edition #6 — Meet ‘WT’

Welcome to Edition #6 of the ‘Guardian Of The Week’ series!

Every week, a special member of the community will be chosen by the team to be featured in the latest edition.

This is our way of acknowledging and celebrating all the contributions, love and hard work you have all given to this family.

We appreciate every single person who has contributed, and we hope this series gives everyone an insight into the people that make this community what it is!

This week’s Guardian of the Week is none other than the Legend himself, WT.

WT needs no introduction. Not just because he’s a prominent figure within the Guild of Guardians community, but since his contributions are so vast, they would take too long to address. The contributions he has made to the Guild of Guardians community includes :

· Hype videos

· GoG merchandise

· A Halloween costume contest

· Numerous giveaways

· Weekly GOG podcasts

· Regular blog posts

· Daily NFT marketplace reports

In addition to his hard work and dedication to the community, WT is recognised as an intelligent, humorous and empathic individual. Whether it’s helping guide new community members in Discord, fishing for a shoutout from Marketing Manager, Nick’s idol Justin Bieber on Twitter, or sharing his well-researched ideas and insights in his videos and blogs, WT is active in all corners of the Guild of Guardians community.

To learn about what fuels WT’s drive and passion, we asked him a few questions. Here’s what he had to say.

Share with us some of your personal non-crypto passions and interests and something that we may not already know about you!

I obviously love D&D, RPG’s, NFT’s and talking about money topics…I also LOVE to play basketball. I tried out for basketball in 7th grade and didn’t make the team. That hurt. 8th grade I made the very last spot, I had to play a guy (still remember his name) one on one for the last spot. I made the team and got my very own shirt with my name / # 25 on the back. I was overwhelmed to get it. I still have it. I was terrible for about 3 years and didn’t get much playing time. I am not a gifted athlete. For whatever reason, the principal in my high school had pity on me or something…he gave me a book that had a list of many terrible athletes that outworked everyone and overcame athletic limitations. I was a terrible point guard for about 3 years, my Junior year I got moved to small forward. That’s where I found my knack. I got a few opportunities and made the most of them. I’m not into flash, I’m a “grindy” player. Keep the mouth shut and let actions do your talking. I watched Dennis Rodman, Scottie Pippen a ton growing up. Was not a fan of Rodman’s dirty play, but his defence, toughness, rebounding, and willingness to throw his body anywhere was something I could do. So that was the style I took on. I’m only 6ft, but I could play the post really well and shut down most ppl, even the 6'6" ones. So my senior year in high school, I was the smallest centre in the conference at 6'0".

I got the nickname “WT” at the local YMCA while playing basketball. I was 16–17 years old playing with people older / better than me and they took a liking to me. Spent all my time in high school and years afterwards finding pick-up games wherever I could, and playing in tournaments. At age 45, I still play to this day. I’m slower, fatter, and my knees suck, but I can still hang a bit with the young guns. It hurts the next day though. LOL! I cannot express how much basketball helped me in high school and life for many reasons.

You seem to have an endless supply of positivity, skills and energy. Tell us what drives you and keeps you balanced and productive in the 24/7 emotional rollercoaster that the crypto space is.

Providing a long term financial plan for my family, Conviction in the project/space, personal goals, and I suffer from High Anxiety. All of these are what push me each day, the last one might be a head-scratcher for most…I didn’t know it till roughly 4 years ago, but I get super hyper-focused on things at times. Took me forever to figure it out, but I was focusing too much on the wrong things before. I think I had a breaking point several years ago, and I just said “No, I don’t want to do this anymore”. If you have High Anxiety, you know you cannot just “turn it off”. If I could, I would. So with that being realized, I decided to take this weakness and try to turn it into a strength. High Anxiety can totally bring you down, and some days it does. But if you realize it, and accept it, you can then use it to your advantage.

So I try to stay busy and focused on making things for ppl to make them laugh, make them money, or help educate them on whatever it is I can find. It actually is a bit selfish of me, but when I can do one of those things for others, it makes me feel really good and takes some of that high anxiety away. Everyone has different ailments/issues. If I could get one message across to people that are hurting from something, try to find a way to use it to make others happy, it takes the sting off. For me it does at least, hope that helps.

To say you have a witty sense of humour would just be stating the obvious. What cultural icons or role models do you look up to, or take inspiration from?

I’d rather hang out with real deal ppl honestly. That being said, I do enjoy a good laugh. Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Dave Chappelle and Bill Burr are my absolute favorite comedians. They are labelled comedians, but a lot of what they say has a lot of truth tied into it. I LOVE comedy. Laughter is good for the soul.

Role models? The ultimate for me is Jesus Christ, (don’t worry, I won't preach at you all) LOL! Two others that changed me financially for the better and taught me what money is…Dr. Ron Paul and a duck farmer named Jack Spirko. These two guys taught me about money. It changed my life fiscally dramatically. DEBT IS BAD. That’s all I’ll say about it. I could go for days on this. LOL!

You like to say you are on a quest to take down the old gaming industry. What role does your participation in GOG play in fulfilling this mission?

I love games. The old gaming industry really ticked me off a few years ago. When I learned about how they prey upon people’s emotions to try and suck money out of them, that was the tipping point for me. It’s bad enough social media platforms, TV, and other industries prey on people’s emotions. The one place where people try to get away from the madness…it’s there also. I don’t see how I have a chance to change things in the other industries, but in the NFT gaming space, I think we have the best chance at forcing the old way to change. Will some try to prey upon people’s emotions for money eventually in this space? Very likely. But we will at least get to hold the assets and reclaim some of our time and money. For now, I don’t see GOG falling into the same rut of messing with people’s emotions negatively. I like GOG’s balanced approach. What the GOG team have said since day one, appears to still be holding true. I like to say, “Good people and money go where they are treated well”. I think we have a LOT of good people here, and clearly, money has flocked here…so while nothing is 100% guaranteed, I like my chances here to succeed and actually put a dent or two into the old gaming industry.

Everyone remarks on your well-researched understanding of the blockchain space. What resources and strategies do you use to efficiently keep up-to-date in this fast-moving and information-heavy space?

One. Breathe. LOL! This space is nuts and easily will make your head spin. I like to get into things that are fully doxed if possible. If the entry price is low, I might not need as much info to get involved. So that depends on cost vs. risk. I spend many hours looking for connections to other companies, other networking giants, and who the team actually is. Where are they from? What/where schools did they go to, who they might have crossed paths with etc. I’m pretty much booked on projects I get into at this time, so it really needs to stand out for me to get involved right now. I have had some bombs…Guess what? I didn’t do my research on those much…I went off a recommendation from some people I know. Sometimes they are right, sometimes they have been wrong. It’s the nature of the space. I’ve extensively researched The Sandbox game, the Metakey, and GOG. Those three have turned out well for me so far, or will down the road. I sleep with no worries about those three.

You keep chickens on your property. How many have you named Trixie?

“Trixie” was not alive when I got my chickens, so zero for now… spring is coming, perhaps I’ll get a few more?? Not sure yet. If so, Trixie is on the next list for sure. I have nine at the moment, Bernice is going on 9 years of age…that is like 110 years old in chicken years…that old bird is still laying eggs somehow, SUPER CHICKEN!!! The others are named Chucky, Buttercup, Breadstick, Chicky-Balboa, Dora, Thelma, Louise, and Franny. Franny was found last year…the local police called my wife to come pick her up…funny story, I’ll have to tell it sometime. My wife is one with all animals…it’s insane.

Can you leak some alpha on one of your upcoming WT projects or creations?

This is something I want to do tomorrow, but I’m nowhere ready yet. It’s going to be 300 members (think the movie 300) and it will be a SWAG rewards club. In addition to that, I have plans down the road for the OG 300 members, but like I said, I’m nowhere near ready. I want to build my brand, and I need soldiers to do that. Soldiers need rewards, so that’s what this club will revolve around. My numbers are terrible for streaming purposes, but I’ll get there one day. No final details yet, but will likely set up a Patreon or something and try to keep the membership at 3 bucks or less (cheaper than a cup of coffee) with the return of monthly swag prizes, possible contest, some art NFTs, and access to any inside info I have on projects. Dare I say a “WT” token someday???? Yes, but that’s way down the road. I have plans…my team and I are small though. When I’m ready I’ll let you all know.

How can people get in touch with you?

You can find me on Twitter at @WT7791 and my Discord name is WT#1378.

We hope you enjoyed our sixth edition of ‘Guardian of the Week’. Each week, we’ll introduce a new community member, to acknowledge and celebrate their valuable contributions and achievements.

Guardian of the Week is a community-run initiative written and managed by Axiemaid from The GoG Academy. You can follow Axiemaid on Twitter here.

Until next time, Guardians.