Big, Fast and Shameless Growth

"Everyone holds his future in his own hands, like a sculptor the raw material he will fashion into a figure. But it's the same with that type of artistic activity as with all others: We are merely born with the capability to do it. The skill to mold the material into what we want must be learned and attentively cultivated."

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

When I was a kid, we used to see a lot of westerns. I grew up in the States and spent part of each summer in Ireland. My family there ran the village post office and had a salon where aunt Breeda fixed people's hair. We had a small vegetable garden in the back near a wall that separated our garden from the neighbor's and a few fruit trees at the end of the garden where there was another wall with a small river behind it. My cousins would stick two pitchforks in the ground in front of the orchard, and we'd take shots on goal. Across the street was McConnell's Pub, and to the right, down a few doors, there was a movie house. It was small with simple benches in the front for kids and some raked seating in the back. The last few rows had excellent padded seats with arms like you'd find in a bigger movie theatre in Limerick.

Every Thursday night, they had a film. The most popular ones were American. We lads like Westerns. Much as in the States, I'd play Cowboys and Indians with my friends in the village. The ways Westerns often dehumanized native Americans never crossed our minds. There were good and bad guys, which was all you needed for a good story. I guess that's why we also liked gangster films, full of colorful characters. Gangster films are still universally appreciated. We couldn't get enough.

These days I've discovered a new genre that represents our time and American culture like nothing else — The Unicorn film or series. It's my new favorite genre, one that makes me laugh out lough at the outrageousness and ego-bouncing lack of self-awareness of the colorful characters that mark these anti-morality tales. 

• The messianic cult leader

• The coattail riding actual inventor of the goods or services that couldn't sell shit to the sewer

• The wisecracking lawyers and consultants who've seen it all before, but not this particular jackass

• The woman behind the man

• Sexual harassment

• A media that can't get enough

• Cool-headed investors and bankers

• Mentors who just want to see everything work out for the best

• and on and on...

Guaranteed belly laughs and downright hysteria if you've actually been around these types.

The story arch is predictable because you followed it in the papers. It's a roller coaster ride with luscious schadenfreude and a climactic crash as the Players move on to the next, next thing.

Anything is possible in a world where everything is a commodity and anyone can become a brand. Hell, with enough money, you can potentially buy trips to Mars and immortality. You can transcend nature.

Welcome back to the real world.

Unicorn is a term used in the venture capital industry to describe a privately held startup company with a value of over $1 billion. 

Lately, I've been watching Super Pumped and WeChrashed. Both are stories about hyper-competitive, egomaniacal, narcissistic, sociopathic, and ambitious entrepreneurs trying to get filthy rich by changing the world with their startups. Hubristic: Not for characters like these, the world is progressing fast, can be changed practically overnight, and always for the better.

Anyway, it occurred to me that these films represent the deepest desires of our current culture. Get attention, lead people, inspire people, make as much money as you can doing outrageous things and make sure people know how special you are. We see this with some startup entrepreneurs, and we see this from some of our Tubers and social media influencers. It's all over sports culture and celebrity culture; even our politicians have succumbed. 

We think we have to be outrageous, crazy, and reckless to be attractive and successful. Well, these traits have always been American. But one thing struck me. I may be wrong about this, but it seems that the only businesses that matter anymore are businesses that make some asshole obscenely rich no matter how they make their money. They can cheat, lie, and break the law as long as there are potentially billions in the market for their offering. No matter how they make their money, they always get a pass. If you are a Player, you want to become too big to fail and too big to jail. That's the real mark of success, and that's how the big business game is structured.

If you raise money, you are worth money. It's not your money. Your salary is your money, but it's as if the investor's money is your money, and everything depends on the valuation of your company. I'm familiar with this culture, but I won't go into it. This stuff is mundane. What bothers me is that it seems so much like a scam. People make similar bets repeatedly, and win or lose; it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what happens to people or workers. Individuals should be responsible for their choices—only the markets matter. 

VCs and investment banks make intelligent bets and huge sums on service fees and markets. 

• The Game is everything that matters.

• There are no limits to how much money one can make.

• The Game is exciting for the players and entertaining for spectators.

Most of us are happy to be spectators, and if we have enough money or credit to buy a ticket to the show, we are delighted. If we have a little more cash and credit, we can ape the behavior of the wealthy entrepreneurs, bankers, venture capitalists, hedge fund managers, sports stars, and celebrities we worship. We just want to fit in. We don't even think of the dehumanizing qualities of the Game. 

I was also thinking about the hundreds of thousands of businesspeople running businesses for decades, not to get super rich but to get wealthy in an honest way by providing good products and services to their customers and communities. If we put in a little effort, intelligence, compassion, and care, our businesses allow us to live a good life. That's most of us.

But that's boring.

Lead with the noisemakers. Any publicity is good publicity. The founder makes potentially billions by bringing motivation, energy, excitement, ideas, technology, processes, people, etc., to the company they founded. 

Grow fast, get big, establish monopoly power, and exit with billions. 

I respect the founders of WeWork and UBER. I don't begrudge them for playing the Game hard and exiting with lots of money. I can't even fault them for how they played the Game because it required them to do precisely what they did. Could they have played nicely? Some people can; some people can't. Maybe Tim Cook is a nice guy. I don't know. Maybe Bill Gurley is a gentleman and only trying to help good people create great businesses. 

Ordinary people will always pay attention to, marvel at, and wish they were the tough guy, the hero. The fantasy keeps us going in a world where nothing is more meaningful or valuable than money. If you take risks like the big Players, the worst thing that can happen to you is that you fail before getting started. If you are determined, you start again. Neither of these founders stopped creating startups after they were ousted. They made billions and continue to develop businesses—it's what they do. If they are genuinely fortunate, they've learned from their experiences and might do better next time. If they are psychopathic, they will continue using their talents to wreck things. 

Whether a Player is a good guy, a bad guy, or a complex guy with fascinating nuances, they know how to use their money to protect themselves within a culture hungry for winners. 

The creative destruction thing is at the core of American values. 

• Gangsters,

• cowboys,

• soldiers,

• guns,

• war,

• power,

• competition,

• spectacle,

• entertainment,

• drugs,

• alcohol,

• lots and lots of religions,

• speed,

• tech,

• progress,

• life-extension,

• the singularity,

• AI,

• Ex Machina,

• Sex robots,

• Al Capone,

• Scarface,

• award shows,

• American Idol,

• sports stadiums,

• skyscrapers,

• Ballers,

• big oil,

• big pharma,

• union bosses,

• 876 military bases around the world,

• forever wars,

• political correctness,

• social justice warriors,

• the Far Right, the Alt-Left, Far Left, New Right, Leftish,

• WOKE,

• graffiti,

• jazz,

• rap,

• hip-hop,

• etc., etc.

• Live Free or Die.

• Go big or go home.

• There are no limits.

• Everyone can be a winner.

This culture is exciting as hell, and it will terminate our species sooner than we think. 

Great stuff!