Leonardo Vinci

Web3 does not believe in tears,
but it believes that
penguins that freeze tears into diamonds
will eventually rule the entire on-chain world.

The penguin chuckled

The wind in Antarctica cuts like a knife, yet the penguin stands on the ice, eyes squinting into a slit, black and shiny, like two fine black pearls.

The old penguin said to the young penguin:
"Child, look at our skin—black as night, white as snow, we are born to be wealthy. But don't forget, the ice beneath our feet gets harder the colder it gets, and the deeper the fish, the fatter they are. While others run to warm places, we go to the coldest places, because only here is there no one to compete with you."

The young penguin shivered, its frozen purple feet trembling: "Then... what if it gets too cold?"

The old penguin lowered its head and pointed with its beak to its chest, which was marked with bloody scars from ice shards:
"It hurts, it’s cold. Do you see where my oil is thickest? It was worn down in the places where it hurt the most, was the coldest, and where I wanted to escape the most. Remember:
You must endure the cold that others cannot, to catch the fish that others cannot;
You must hold the night that others cannot keep, to collect the wealth that others cannot find."

After saying this, it brought a piece of ice crystal shimmering with golden light in front of the young penguin—that was from last year's blizzard when other penguins hid in their holes, and it stubbornly pressed it out with its belly.

"See? Wealth never shines on its own; it is polished by your pain and cold."

The young penguin held the ice crystal in its mouth, freezing so much that tears came out, but it did not spit it out.

The old penguin laughed:
"Yes, just like that. Hold onto the pain, swallow the cold, slowly... you will find that even tears can turn into diamonds."

From that day on, among all the penguins in Antarctica, there was one with the brightest eyes, the roundest belly, yet always standing in the coldest wind.

When others asked for its secret, it only squinted and said one thing:
"Before becoming wealthy, first learn to smile in the places that hurt the most."