Dan Hannum: From Jail to Wall Street to Bitcoin and Everything In Between

Dan Hannum has had an interesting journey to say the least. He got kicked out of high school, spent a year in jail, and developed a drinking problem. He then turned it around, graduated with honors from a respected university, had a great career on Wall Street, stumbled upon Bitcoin in its early days’, and is now a successful venture capitalist and 5 years sober. In this episode, Dan shares insights into his journey and some important lessons he has learned along the way.
Follow-up Interview
Written by Tayla Christensen, Content Marketer at MentorPass.

You talked a lot about your experience throughout high school and it clearly wasn’t all smooth sailing. I’m curious what your relationship with your teachers was like throughout school, did you have any teachers that stood out or impacted you?
 
I had very few teachers, faculty, or coaches who really cared about me as a person/student but the ones that did will forever be remembered and I would do anything for even to this day.

You’re over four and half years sober which is an incredible feat, were there any practical things you did that helped you through that transition?
 
Commit to it for sixty days and see how it changes your perspective. Give yourself the opportunity to identify with something different. You're going to find that some of the things you "couldn't live without" were actually standing between you and your best life.
 
From your experience being a part of and running multiple different companies, what do you feel are 3 key attributes of a successful (and happy) entrepreneur?

a.    Follow your passion
b.    Be willing to sacrifice in the short term and optimize for the long term
c.    Surround yourself with great people
A successful career requires a blend of soft and hard skills. When you start out, hard skills are considerably more important but as you continue down your journey, your soft skills are much more critical to your success. The "professional" world is littered with insanely talented individuals who never became leaders because they simply didn't learn how to improve themselves, influence others and most importantly, understand and manage their emotions.
  
Quick Fire:
·      Book Recommendation? The Fish That Ate The Whale
·      Podcast Recommendation? Invest Like The Best
·      Work hard play hard, right? What's your dream vacation spot? Santorini
·      If you had to stop working in your industry and switch things up, what other industry would you like to explore? Working with children that are experiencing the loss of a family member or experiencing run ins with the law (I volunteer at two organizations (Experience Camps and ARC-Anti Recidivism Coalition) that work on both separately

Dan Hannum
Twitter: @dhannum8
dh@hannumcapitalmanagement.com

Kenny Hanson
IG: @Kenny_hanson_
Twitter: @nocodekenny
kenny@mentorpass.co

www.mentorpass.co

Audio: Break Point by Vendredi https://soundcloud.com/vendrediduo/vendredi-break-point/s-4k5WNjEHm4W
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