Why Experience Without an Audience Is Just a Waste of Time

I’m Joel Comm, and I’ve spent the last 30+ years building things online—from some of the earliest websites on the internet to cryptocurrency podcasts and NFT platforms. After a career filled with both spectacular wins and humbling failures, I’ve spent the last few years doing something that felt completely wrong.

I stepped back.

For a while, semi-retirement in Puerto Rico seemed like the perfect ending to the story. Time with friends, a dog, sunshine, and the mental peace that comes from not having to build anything anymore. Don’t get me wrong—it was a good life. But it was missing something essential.

The Problem With Keeping What You’ve Learned

I’ve always had a drive to create. Not for the money—I’ve already made and lost plenty of that. Not for the attention, though that’s been part of the journey. The drive comes from something deeper: the need to share what I’ve figured out.

Because here’s the brutal truth nobody wants to say out loud: experience that doesn’t get shared is just regret waiting to happen.

What’s the point of 30 years of building businesses, launching successful products, navigating booms and busts, and learning hard lessons if you’re not going to pass that knowledge forward? What’s the benefit of getting older and actually understanding how the world works if you keep it locked up?

After passing 60, I started thinking about it differently. You don’t get forever. You get what you get. And if you’re not using what you know to help others avoid your mistakes and find your opportunities, then what was it all for?

What I’ve Actually Done

My career has been unusually diverse. While most people build one thing and ride it, I’ve been all over the map:

Built one of the world’s earliest websites in July 1995
Created and sold one of the first multiplayer gaming sites to Yahoo! (1998)
Launched one of the first bargain-hunting websites at the dawn of e-commerce (1999)
Wrote “The AdSense Code,” which hit the New York Times bestseller list (2006)
Produced and hosted “The Next Internet Millionaire”—the world’s first competitive internet reality show (2007)
Created an iPhone app that became a global phenomenon and taught me more about marketing than any book ever could (2008)
Co-hosted “The Bad Crypto Podcast,” now in its eighth year and counting (2017)
Minted over 1.5 million NFTs and explored the Web3 frontier before most people even understood what it was (2020)

That’s not bragging. That’s context. It’s the résumé of someone who paid attention, took risks, learned from them, and lived through enough market cycles to spot patterns other people miss.

What’s Actually Changed in My Thinking

The internet I helped build 30 years ago is barely recognizable now. The opportunities look different. The threats are real and specific. The way to build an audience has fundamentally shifted. And artificial intelligence has arrived in a way that changes everything.

But what hasn’t changed? The fundamentals of human nature, business strategy, and how to actually make an impact.

I don’t see life the way I used to. I’ve changed my mind about a lot of things. I’ve been willing to learn from my mistakes, and I’ve made plenty of them. That’s the wisdom I want to share.

You’re Here for a Reason

Here’s what I believe: there’s no such thing as accidents. If you’re reading this, something about my journey or perspective has reached you for a reason. Maybe you’re trying to figure out your next move. Maybe you’re tired of playing small. Maybe you’re wondering if your experience is worth sharing too.

Over the coming weeks and months, I’m going to talk openly about:

What’s actually happening with artificial intelligence—and how it’s about to transform your life and work in ways most people aren’t prepared for
Bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and blockchain technology—not the hype, but the real implications
How to cut through the noise and actually get attention for your ideas in an increasingly crowded world
What getting older teaches you about business, people, and what actually matters
The role of spirituality and belief systems in building a life that means something
And much more that I’m still figuring out myself

This isn’t a one-topic newsletter. It’s the conversation of someone who’s lived through multiple boom-and-bust cycles, built and lost businesses, and learned that the map keeps changing while the territory stays the same.

Why I’m Doing This Now

I spent the last year documenting my entire career in a tell-all biography. I’m talking about things I’ve never publicly shared before—the wins that changed everything, the failures that nearly broke me, the decisions that sent my life in unexpected directions. That manuscript is almost complete.

But I’m not waiting for a book deal to share it.

The best insights, the most valuable pieces, the stories that actually matter—I’m going to share them here first, raw and unfiltered. Some will be free. The deepest material will be for people who are genuinely committed to learning and growing.

If you’ve ever wondered how the internet really works, what it takes to build something from nothing, or how to think clearly about the chaos ahead, I want to talk to you about it. Not as a distant authority figure. As someone who’s still learning, still making mistakes, and still convinced that experience means nothing if it isn’t shared.

Listen to my podcast, The Bad Crypto Podcast, where I break down what’s actually happening in technology and finance. Or check out my upcoming book, AI Made Simple, where I explore what this technology actually means for regular people. And if you’re interested in the full conversation—the messy, real, ongoing dialogue about what comes next—let’s connect.

I’m back. Let’s do this.

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Why Experience Without an Audience Is Just a Waste of Time