For those of you that are new here, every week I send what I call a 1x1x1.
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One thought from my week.
One interesting find/tool from my week.
One image from my life.

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Thought from the week

Given we’re celebrating 250 years of America this week, I thought it’d be fun to take a break from business and write about something I’m genuinely grateful for.

America.

Now before someone races to the comments…

Yes, we have problems.

We’ve always had problems.

We’ve had problems for all 250 years, and I’m willing to bet we’ll somehow still have problems 250 years from now. (Hopefully by then we’ve at least figured out the lines at TSA)

But I’m a glass-half-full kind of guy.

And if the World Cup has reminded us of anything, it’s that America is a pretty special place.

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So here are three quick thoughts.

Capitalism is an incredible invention

I was reminded of this all over again watching the excitement around the SpaceX IPO.

Think about how crazy this really is.

Someone has an idea.

They convince a handful of people to believe in it.

They raise money.

They hire brilliant people.

They build something that didn’t exist yesterday.

Sometimes… they literally build rockets.

That still blows my mind.

We take for granted how unusual that is.

In many places around the world, starting a business is incredibly difficult.

Raising capital is difficult.

Hiring is difficult.

Failing is punished instead of celebrated.

Here? You can wake up with a ridiculous idea, spend six months convincing people you’re not crazy, and next thing you know you’ve got employees, customers, investors… and maybe even a company worth a few billion dollars.

That’s amazing.

As entrepreneurs, we’re lucky.

I’ve had the chance to build multiple companies, employ great people, work with incredible customers, and make a living solving problems I care about.

That’s something I don’t take lightly.

(And if you scroll down to this week’s Interesting Find, you’ll see yet another example of what’s possible.)

Opportunity keeps showing up

America has always been called the land of opportunity.

Personally…

I think it still is.

Every few years there’s a new technological wave.

The internet.

Smartphones.

Cloud computing.

Crypto.

AI.

Robots.

Whatever comes next.

And every single time, there are two groups of people.

The first group spends all their energy explaining why it’s terrible.

The second group starts asking, “How can I build something with this?”

Guess which group wins every time?

I think of these technology shifts like ocean swells.

You don’t stop the wave.

You don’t yell at the wave.

You definitely don’t convince the wave to go away.

You either paddle into it…

…or you watch someone else ride it.

The waves just keep coming.

The opportunity is deciding to paddle.

We’re still early

When I read about the Civil War, or Lewis and Clark heading west, or the founding of the country…

I’m reminded that 250 years really isn’t that long.

Civilizations have existed for thousands of years.

America is still relatively young.

And yet in just two and a half centuries, we’ve built one of the most innovative, productive, and influential countries the world has ever seen.

That’s pretty remarkable.

Why?

Because from the very beginning, America sold an idea.

Opportunity.

The idea that if you worked hard, took risks, created value, and maybe got a little lucky, you could build a better life than the one you started with.

That story attracted ambitious people from every corner of the world.

It still does.

The smartest people don’t move somewhere because it’s perfect.

They move somewhere because they believe they have a chance.

I hope we never lose that.

That’s my America rant.

Happy 250th birthday America. 🇺🇸

Whether you’re spending the weekend with family, watching fireworks, grilling burgers, mountain biking, or somehow doing all four at once…

I hope you have an awesome Fourth of July.

And if you’re building something, whether it’s a business, a side hustle, or just the life you want, I hope you remember what an incredible place this is to give it a shot.

Find / tool

Somewhere, someone looked at a sheet of plywood and thought, “This industry is due for a software update.” 😂

I genuinely love stories like this.

The biggest opportunities are often hiding in the most boring industries.

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Image from my life

We successfully kept our first born alive for 2 years. Phewwwww

See you all next week!