Nick Karnel Williams

Transparency in entrepreneurship comes down to a few things. Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of comments and remarks about online digital marketing—specifically, the whole “selling a course on how to sell a course” scheme. Unfortunately, some of our Pacific people have fallen victim to the trap. The desperation to succeed fast or the eagerness to be successful makes them believe these con men who promote it.

But here’s the thing—if you’re silly enough to fall for it, that’s on you. Do your own research before investing in anything.

I had to learn this lesson the hard way. I was in the Trillionaire Thugs community when an older man—I won’t name him—advised me to jump on something called QX. He said it would run money through Bitcoin and spit out a ton of cash later. Over COVID, a lot of people were desperate to make money. I was one of them. I invested around $8,000 into it—money I didn’t really have at the time. Every day, I’d come home and see my investment “grow” overnight. It was an illusion. Another one was Prime Capital, where I lost about $3,000.

That was on me. I believed in the hype.

And it didn’t stop there. I even trusted someone I went to school with—someone I considered a friend—who pitched me an NFT project. He convinced me to get involved, even offering me $30K to be the media manager for it. That money never came. When I caught up with him, he talked about owning property and buying nearly $20 million in Bitcoin. I fell for it because I didn’t ask the right questions. I wanted to believe in something so badly that I ignored the red flags. Worse, I even encouraged friends and family to invest.

I take full accountability for that.

For anyone out there desperate to become wealthy, let me tell you this: everything takes time. I’m in year three of running a business, and it’s harder than the first two years. We’ve made mistakes, but I understand the responsibility we have to get it right. If Matai doesn’t get it right, if we mess this up, then the dream of many Pacific entrepreneurs shatters with it.

The truth? We are not wealthy. Our brand is growing, but for those Googling “Matai Watches net worth”—put my net worth at zero. Instead, put it down to purpose.

That’s enough for now.