In this Season 6 episode, Eric Balance sits down with Rony Vogel, an entrepreneur, engineer, and CEO of the Vogel Family Office. Rony carries a family memory of three generations of loss, displacement from Silesia, Weimar hyperinflation, the Second World War, and expropriation under East Germany, and that memory shapes everything about how he thinks about money today. After watching the Lehman Brothers collapse firsthand on Wall Street in 2008, he turned to the Austrian School of Economics, then to gold, and eventually to Bitcoin. Together they explore the shift from wealth accumulation to active stewardship, why hard money can be the foundation for intergenerational freedom, the gap in financial education, the move from financial sovereignty to a more holistic sovereignty, and the collaborative, low time preference culture that Rony finds in the Bitcoin community. It is a grounded, generous conversation about legacy, responsibility, and building the new in parallel with the old. About Rony... Rony Vogel is the CEO of the Vogel Family Office, a private single family office. An engineer by training with an MBA, he spent more than three decades founding and scaling companies and taking several public. His family history runs through three generations of displacement and systemic financial and political upheaval across Silesia and Germany, an experience that drives his conviction to preserve, rather than simply maximize, generational wealth. After witnessing the 2008 financial crisis on Wall Street, he studied the Austrian School of Economics and became an early advocate for gold and then Bitcoin as the hardest assets for long term preservation. He is an advisor at CV VC and holds several advisory positions across the Bitcoin and venture ecosystem, and he speaks frequently at Bitcoin and family office gatherings. 00:00 Branded open00:55 Welcome, hard money and the family enterprise03:19 Three generations: displacement, war, and trauma08:56 2008 on Wall Street, discovering gold and Bitcoin11:20 The pattern now, money printing and a coming trust crisis14:10 How a family office steps into Bitcoin17:54 A new asset class needs time, and the education gap21:10 Learning, conviction, action26:06 Slowing down, stewardship over accumulation27:28 The Bitcoin community, sitting around the fire29:00 Children and the generational mindset shift40:24 Advisory work in the ecosystem41:16 Where to find Rony and the Vogel Family Office44:40 Closing, three days left to live Notable Moments Memory shapes money. Three generations of displacement and lost wealth drive Rony's determination to preserve, not just grow, and to make sure the past does not repeat.Crisis can become a classroom. Seeing Lehman collapse in 2008 sent Rony to the Austrian School, to gold, and then to Bitcoin as the hardest long term asset.Learning comes before action. Build conviction first: study Bitcoin, talk to Bitcoiners, read, attend conferences, start with a small allocation, then scale as your questions get answered.Financial sovereignty leads to holistic sovereignty. Understanding hard money changes time preference, how you raise a family, and how you contribute.Build the new in parallel. The point is not to fight the old system but to build a new one beside it, with its own education and its own values.The best communities build together. Rony finds a collaborative, low time preference, almost tribal culture in the Bitcoin world, people who want each other to win. Connect with Rony LinkedIn: search Rony Vogel, Vogel Family Office CV VC: Rony Vogel joined as an advisor (cvvc.com)Further reading: Rony Vogel interview, "Bitcoin is the answer to the search for true scarcity" (cbn.com.cy)Rony is open to advising family offices and family enterprises worldwide on the path to becoming more self sovereign Eric Balance Podcast home: https://resilientminds.ericbalance.comConnect with EricEmail: eric@ericbalance.com
