“Show me the incentive and I’ll show you the outcome”. While a tad oversimplified, Charlie Munger’s famous one-liner is sort of like the Occam’s Razor of human behavior – especially at scale. People are generally far more driven by self-interest than by any other factor. Indeed, history clearly demonstrates that while people might tolerate a certain degree of...
Kodak’s demise is the stuff of legend; a modern-day Shakespearean tragedy… For over a hundred years, Kodak held a near-monopoly on the manufacture of camera film & photo production. And if Canon, Sony & Pentax were the proverbial car companies of photography, then Kodak was the world’s largest oil producer – by a wide margin. But just as how Tesla rapidly went from...
A few weeks ago I woke up at an ungodly hour and drove down to an obscure pharmacy at the break of dawn – camping chair in hand. A few hours later, someone stuck a needle in my arm, and I was symbolically transported into a whole new, post-pandemic world. A world where lumber prices have increased by 700%, where JPEGs sell for $69M a pop, and where housing prices have gone parabolic –...
Entrepreneurship has always gone hand-in-hand with personal development… It takes a lot of perseverance to get a business off the ground, so it’s no surprise that the internal fuel needed to mentally stick it through is going to require some proverbial “gas stations”. It’s similarly unsurprising to see Tony Robbins (and all of his various alternatives) keynoting at...
My mom passed away two years ago, today. This was my eulogy: Frenchman Butte is technically too small to be called a town. Google Maps calls it “Rural Municipality 501”. Saskatchewan has a number of small towns like this – with names ranging from nondescript labels like “501”, to bizarre examples like “Elbow” and “Primate”. I’ve often wondered what the underlying stories are behind some of...
Last month, as we witnessed the world confront its first global black swan event in generations, we looked at rational actions to take in the midst of near-total uncertainty. At the time, while there were certainly some opportunities emerging already, focusing on shoring up cash and taking steps to simply stay in the game seemed like the smartest immediate response. A lot has happened since...
A few months ago, a small creature – perhaps a bat or a pangolin – was placed in a cage, ready to be sold in the market district of an obscure Chinese city most of us never even knew existed. The random vendor who loaded up his various creatures for the day had probably been doing the exact same thing for years. Along with tens of thousands of other vendors across the country. But on...
By now, I’m probably one of the last bloggers on the planet who hasn’t jumped on the “12 Rules for Life” adaptation train. To say I’ve been busy is an understatement. But since my Mom told me I should do more writing, I’m making more time for that now. (I’ve got some catching up to do). These “rules” are mostly written for myself...
Once a month, I go to private boardroom meeting with a small group of other tech founders. It takes place in a small, nondescript conference room at a swanky hotel. The details of who’s there and what we talk about is completely confidential. A couple of the guys are “household names” in the tech space – and their companies (or portfolios thereof) are worth 8 and 9...
Much like my crazy hill-bombing days of yore, launching a new business is a lot like standing at the top of an unridden hill, with one foot on the board, and the other on the pavement. Before pushing off and initiating the descent, there’s a momentary pause before putting both feet on the board and fully committing. And as you stand there, seemingly frozen in time, no matter how experienced...