Author, Investor, Speaker, Mentor
What do Elon Musk, Roe v. Wade, James Harden, and professional soccer have in common? They all illustrate the near-universal human disgust with “working the refs”. “Working the refs” is a term I know from professional basketball. Working the refs consists of influencing the decision-making of the referees, who call fouls and enforce the rules … Continue reading Working The Refs
It’s hard to bring something new into the world. If it were easy, it would have already happened. Nearly all startups fail. They’re trying to do something new, and the status quo is one hell of a competitor. Doing nothing is easy and most people’s default choice. Don’t jump into entrepreneurship because you’re lured in … Continue reading Startup Success Requires Accepting Failure
I recently traveled to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to speak at the RiseUp Summit Saudi. I had spoken at the RiseUp Summit in 2019 in Cairo, so when the organizers asked me if I would be willing to travel to Riyadh for their first event in Saudi Arabia, I checked the calendar, saw that it wouldn’t … Continue reading Travelogue: Riyadh
I’m a weirdo. I don’t mind admitting my eccentricity, because I believe that some of my unusual habits help me in life. One of these habits is my obsession with figuring out the mechanism of action. I don’t remember the details of when I first learned the term, though I believe it was in the … Continue reading Always Search For The Mechanism Of Action
I was listening to a panel discussion at a conference, and realized that I was rating the ability and intelligence of the panelists based on their speaking ability. Now if I do this, it’s likely that others do so as well. Which led me to ask myself, is speaking ability overrated? As someone who considers … Continue reading Is Speaking Ability Over, Under, or Properly Rated?
On a regular basis, people who get to know me describe me as one of the happiest, most positive people they know (an assessment I agree with). Is this a matter of circumstance? Genetics? Blind luck? My cousin Stephen asked me to share my reflections on this topic, and I realized that I had never … Continue reading My Social Emotional Journey
Just weeks after our trip to Brazil, my partner at Blitzscaling Ventures and the Blitzscaling Academy, Jeff Abbott, and I kicked off our trip to Bangkok. Like Brazil, the trip served a variety of purposes. We had begun by decided to try holding a Blitzscaling Masterclass in Bangkok with our partner, Rise Accel. The fact … Continue reading Travelogue: 7 Nights In Bangkok
Over the past few years, crypto games like Cryptokitties and Axie Infinity have launched, climbed a steep hype cycle, then collapsed. It’s not that the founders and executives behind these companies are dumb (though that’s certainly possible); rather, they set themselves to an impossible task. First, cryptocurrency needs to be the way a game monetizes; … Continue reading Why Crypto Videogames Won’t Work
Hi folks! I recently finished my first trip to Brazil. As is my custom, here are my thoughts and observations from the trip, along with some pictures. I was invited to keynote the Startup Summit in Florianopolis, but since it’s a very long trip to Brazil, I added a few days in Sao Paulo for … Continue reading Travelogue: My First Trip To Brazil
This is Part 2 of a two-part blog post about my June 2022 vacation. To read Part 1, which focuses on my HBS reunion, go here. Thanks to some pretty severe delays, Alisha and I didn’t make it to Orlando until after 1 AM, which meant that we couldn’t get to sleep until nearly 2 … Continue reading Travelogue: The Disney Galactic Starcruiser