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Rich

Mar 12 2013
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Supplying the Pot Rush

By Universe

2012-10-13_1350152897

In a previous post I alluded to the three key business philosophies that I see as ideal business models. They aren’t necessarily startup related. In fact, in most cases business that embody these models aren’t tech related at all. They are simply three common business models I’ve seen to be hugely successful. They are:

  1. Middle a Transaction
  2. Sell a System
  3. Supply the Gold Rush

 

 

The Prop 64 Gold Rush

The third model, “Supply the Gold Rush”, came to mind this week when I had the pleasure of meeting two successful medical marijuana growers. Despite my twitter handle being @Stoneybaby, I don’t actually partake in the bud. But I am a curious sort of guy, and talked with them extensively about their business. It seems that everyone in their line of work is just scraping by on razor-thin margins, anxiously awaiting the regulations that will allow them to sell pot for recreational use.

One interesting tidbit I picked up was that the price of pot fell from $4000/lb to $1800/lb. This drastic drop in price took place from the time that medicinal marijuana was legalized in Colorado until now. Simply put, too many people saw the opportunity to sell pot legally, saturated a market capped by law, and drove down prices.

When the recreational regulations are finalized and passed, there will be a second gold (green?) rush. Prices will initially skyrocket as supply can’t match demand, which will invite a new wave of growers who will eventually saturate the market, and eventually drive prices back to down to equilibrium. It’s Economics 101, but it’s not the business I want to be in.

Levi Strauss & Waste Farmers

When I think of gold rush, the second thing I think of is Levi Strauss. His family already had a dry-goods business in St. Louis, and seeing an opportunity, he moved to San Francisco to open a branch to serve the growing market. Moving to a growth market is a smart business move in any era.

In our era, I see a business like Waste Farmers as being the next Levi Strauss. Waste Farmers takes food waste from restaurants in the Denver area, composts it, and makes some damn fine soil. If there was any business to supply the coming Colorado marijuana gold rush, it’s the soil business.

And so while I wish my new-found grower friends all the success in the world, I don’t want to be in the pot growing/selling business; it’s just another gold rush. The business I want to be in is the one supplying the goods and services to the growers.

Why compete in what’s sure to be an overly-zealous and quickly-crowded market? That’s the modern equivalent of panning for gold. Instead, I say sell jeans to the miners, or soil to the growers. Supply the Gold/Pot Rush.

Feb 04 2013
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Sci-fi Book Review, Part 1: Series

By Everything

FoundationAt my friends’ requests I put together a comprehensive review of all the sci-fi books I’ve read. It’s probably more accurate to say “read” because I pretty much only listen to audiobooks.

Audible is a magical thing. Every month I get two books from my subscription, and have been doing this for years. I started out doing just sci-fi, and so I managed to accumulate quite a library. In the last few years, I’ve switched to reading one business book and one sci-fi book each month. The business books are usually less than 10 hours, so I usually read one of them twice in the same month. Sci-fi tends to be quite a bit longer, but I’ve still “read” quite a few.

But I digress, here’s my list of all the sci-fi series I’ve read. I’ll post the stand-alone books later. (The scale is from 1-10 with 10 being the best.)

 

  • Anderson – Saga of Seven Suns (5) – Great example of a series that would have been better as three or four books. This is actually the truest “space opera” that I’ve read; it’s just too damn long.
  • Asimov – Empire Series (6) – So many books in the Foundation Universe that I had to split into three groups. The Empire Series was written first, but comes in the middle, chronologically. Overall, good, short reads, but not the best.
  • Asimov – Foundation Series (7) – The quintessential Assimov series. Even in this group, there’s such a wide variety of topics. Overall, I enjoyed the series and recommend it.
  • Asimov – Robot Series (7) – Essentially these are detective novels, but taking place in a well-imagined far future. I enjoyed all of the books in this series and would recommend starting here and working your way through chronologically.
  • Butcher – Furies of Calderon (5) – After book 1, all the rest have the exact same plot structure. How did I make it to book 6? Grinding rep in WoW, that’s how.
  • Card – Ender’s Game (9) – I’m considering Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow as a series. The former being my favorite book on the psychology of management, and is one of the best sci-fi books of all time.
  • Card – Speaker for the Dead (4) – Separating these from the above, Ender is grown up and is a fucking bore. (Someone described this series as the best book on humanism. Meh. I’m not a humanist, I’m a sci-fi nerd)
  • Card – Pathfinder (6) – Fantasy, somewhat interesting, characters are good. Not as strong as Ender’s, but not as boring as Speaker. We’ll see how it develops.
  • Campbell – The Lost Fleet (6) – bubble gum sci fi: it’s tasty (for a bit) & entertaining (for a while), but lacking substance. One redeeming value: the space combat is incredible because the author is a retired Navy ship commander. Worth reading one or two for the warfare tactics & strategy.
  • Gibson – Sprawl Trilogy (8) – Geeky sci-fi that really pushes the boundaries of tech implications. Loved the series.
  • Hamilton – Commonwealth Saga (6) – It drags in a few places otherwise it would be a 7, but it’s good combo of far-future thinking and excellent character development.
  • Morgan – Takeshi Kovacs Series (8) – hard-hitting sci-fi with lots of action. Really great series. Wouldn’t be surprised if these end up as movies.
  • Pullman – His Dark Materials (6) – This is the series that starts with The Golden Compass, and starts rock solid, but quickly deteriorates into the author’s personal war on religion.
  • Reynolds – Revelation Space (7) – Really interesting far future space opera, each book is very different, as such I loved one, hated another, meh on a third.
  • Scalzi – Old Man’s War (6) – Somewhat fun, mostly just war stories. The first book is a great read, the others are just OK.
  • Simmons – Hyperion (8) – Far future sci-fi with tons of thinking about implications of our tech at logical extremes. Only reason it’s not higher is the last book gets a bit preachy.
  • Suarez – Daemon (10) – If you play video games, you must read this. Only two books in the series, but absolutely required reading for my fellow gaming geeks out there.

Next up, my favorite stand-alone sci-fi books. Followed by some business book reviews.

Jan 30 2013
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The 4-Hour Work-Weak

By Universe

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When I first read Tim Ferriss’ 4 Hour Work Week I was in between jobs and looking for my “next big thing.” The book should have been inspirational, or at least motivated me to find my own way to work less and earn more. Instead, what I got out of the book were two very important lessons:

  1. In order to work a 4-hour work week, the author first put in multiple years of 80-hour work weeks
  2. By purchasing the book, the only one who was getting a 4-hour work week was the author

The first point is a no-brainer to anyone who’s worked hard during their career, but the second point is the real kick-in-the-pants.

Seminars

While I was in high school, a family member went to a seminar that was supposedly focused on helping people start their own home-based business. That family member came back from this event with a few items they purchased there and were supposed to be ideas to help them get started. I remember thinking, “the business I want to be in is the one where people pay to hear me talk, and then pay again to buy my crappy products.” Even at that young age, I could see that the seminar was only earning extra income for one person: the organizer.

Fast forward to 2008, when I read The 4-Hour Work Week, and those thoughts were so overpowering I couldn’t even finish the book. I was so disgusted by the sham I bought into–one that I could see so clearly as a 12-year old, but was now wasting money on as a 30-something–that I put the book down and never picked it up again.

This week, when one of my favorite authors, Jeffrey Gitomer, wrote a post bashing the 4-Hour Work Week, I couldn’t help but laugh and applaud. I couldn’t agree more:

…all you have to do to get the deep-dark secret they want to share with you is give them some of your money, so THEY can work less and earn more. Funny – in a pathetic kind of way.

Sell a System

I have a few key business philosophies; things that I believe make for great businesses. After I read The 4-Hour Work Week, I added “selling a system” as my second key business philosophy. (The first being “middle a transaction” which I’ll get into at another time.)

The irony of Gitomer’s rant is that he, Ferriss, and this seminar host of my childhood, all do the same thing. They all sell a system. Some are better at it than others–I wonder where that seminar guy is now–and some have better advice than others–which is why I love Gitomer’s work and feel dirty when I see Ferriss’ book. But at the core, they sell a system.

There plenty of examples out there of people who sell a system. Kathy Smith pioneered the home workout video: she sells a system, a great system that is constantly changing and adapting to market conditions. Tony Robbins… well I think it goes without saying that he sells a system. Steve Kamb at NerdFitness sells a system.

In fact, Steve at NerdFitness idolizes Tim Ferriss, and might be the best example of someone who has taken the true message of the 4-Hour Work Week, embodied it, and mastered it.

What is that message?

It’s not that you can work 4 hours per week and be wildly successful, it’s this:

if you have a smart system for doing what you love, and you work your butt off selling it, you can be wildly successful.

Jan 18 2013
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Last night, I was scared

By Life

I'm a Survivor

Have you ever ignored something that needed to be done, but that stood a chance–however infinitesimal–of showing results that would be really, really bad. And so, because of your fear, you avoided it? Yeah. I’ve been doing that.

Finally, I committed to follow through with some medical tests I’d been putting off. I scheduled them for today, and, in anticipation of them, I was scared.

Logically, I have few reasons to be scared: I’m in excellent health, and I don’t have any unusual symptoms. However, I did go through all of these tests once before. The results then were not good.

In 1997 I was in my last semester as senior in college, and occasionally  experienced tremendous chest pain. It was so bad at times that I taught myself pain management meditation techniques to deal with it. I was convinced it was just stress. Finally, three days after commencement (I was still up at school getting the last nine credits I needed to earn my diploma)  I took myself to the hospital. I went through a few tests and was told to come back the next day.

Like the good, responsible, upstanding young man I was, I went back. I spent the entire day in the hospital, and at the end of the day, exhausted from non-stop tests, prodding, and lack of food, someone finally broke the news to me:  cancer.

Cancer

I had cancer. I was 22 years old, in great shape, and fearless. I was convinced I could do anything. The way I looked at it, I’d go back to Pittsburgh on the weekends for chemo–only a 3.5 hour drive–then back up to St. Bonaventure to finish my classes, get my diploma, and get on with my life. Fearless maybe, but definitely stupid, or at least ignorant to what lay ahead. Little did I know what I was in for with surgeries, transfusions, and chemo.

I’ll never forget the advice my oncologist gave me. It went something like this: “we’re going to kick the crap out of you with drugs, you just have to take it. That’s it. Just get through it.”

Certainly he was more sensitive than that, but in my mind, that’s what his advice amounted to that day. I did take it. I never, ever, not for a single day, hour, minute, or second did I ever take my eyes off the prize. I was going to beat cancer, and use the time to network to get my dream job on Wall Street in New York.

Spoiler Alert: I did.

Being with my fear

Through it all, the one thing I did not allow myself to feel was fear. Sure, there were moments of self-pity, extreme illness, and anger. But I never allowed in fear. It was contrary to my mission: eyes on the prize, at any cost. (Some days I wish–I beg–for that determination again. But I digress.)

Fast forward nearly 16 years when a new primary care physician suggests a some basic blood work, just to see where things are for me, and my tumor markers come back really high. We talk about it, it’s probably “normal” for me, but why take chances, so he lines up a battery of tests. I know these tests all too well: more blood work, examinations, ultrasound, and CT scan (with contrast). It’s what I went through before.

And here I am the night before thinking what if, what if, WHAT IF. And I’m scaring the crap out of myself. I’m 37 years old. I’m single. No kids. No legacy. And with a list of “things to do before I die” that’s even longer now than it was when I started it at 20.

What have I done with my life? Is this why I’m scared? Am I scared to die, or am I scared to die not having accomplished the greatness I set out to achieve?

Unlike the 22-year-old me, I allowed myself to sit with the fear. Unlike Muad’Dib, I did not let it pass through me, but I didn’t let it obliterate me either. I sat with it. I felt it. I owned it.

Sitting in the CT scanner brought back a flood of memories, too. I’ll be honest, that was the most scared I’d been in years. I allowed myself to feel afraid in that moment–not fear of the machine like some lousy Luddite, but of what would happen if these tests came back like the same ones of 16 years ago. In that moment, as the unnatural warmth of the contrast dye coursed through my veins, it was my fear manifest. I felt it boil in me. I owned it. I mastered it. And then I became it.

And for the first time in a long time. I felt alive. Very, very alive.

Pending

The tests are pending. The blood work came back as expected: tumor markers are high, but according to my doctors circa 1997, that’s to be expected. I’ll get the results of the scan next week, and if logic has anything to do with, they’ll come back just fine.

While my test results are pending, so is the rest of my life. The results will have a definite outcome. And now, so will my life.

 

 

Jan 16 2013
Love0

The Latest

By Universe

I was having a healthy debate with a long time friend about gun violence and the legislation that has either been passed, or is in the works. The discussion turned to “the latest shooting” by which I meant the Rochester firefighters murders, the Sandy Hook massacre, and the shootings in the Aurora movie theater. He corrected me, adding in the Sikh temple shooting, the shootings at the signage company in Minneapolis, oh and the random killings at the Oregon mall.

Wait a minute.

We need to take a step back.

When we get to the point that the “latest shooting” is so chock-full of events that we can’t keep them straight, it’s time we all acknowledge something is seriously wrong.

Let me restate that: Something is seriously wrong when “the latest shooting” requires a sidebar discussion to determine which killing exactly is the latest.

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