Tag: Israel

Imponderables

Dead Valley is known to be the hottest place on Earth.

Yet millions have traveled pass there on their way to Las Vegas.

Venture Capitalists are also well versed in what’s so called “valley of death” i.e. when a start-up moved pass its honey-moon stage, and simply cannot sustain the burnt rate.

Yet people keep trying.

Then, aside from “death” rate, we got divorce rate.

Yet people keep falling in love, and getting married.

Hint: more shopping and spending for a family of two and more.

In America, there is no shortage of imponderables.

I am starting to read Paterno bio. I could barely get through the first few pages.

Something quite imponderable there (despite the lucid prose).

After all, what happened in America, stayed in America.

Sex shops, butcher shops.

Churches and strip clubs, sometimes near each other.

Schools and parks (for homeless people) near fast-food and donuts joints.

Dental office next to candy shop.

And 24-hr gym (all you can lift)  near Hometown Buffet (all you can eat). Go figure.

America spends a large chunk of change on incarceration, pornography (hard and soft e.g. NYT best-seller list, top 3 are taken by the same author who caters to women taste for escapism), guns and amos (especially amos, modeled after HP cartridge business model), medical marijuana and spirits (that get you on a downward spiral).

My name is Thang. And I am not an alcoholic. So help me God.

Somewhere somehow, the line has been moved: the incarcerated are better cared for than the non-incarcerated.

The top 1% refuses to pick up golf balls, while the rest can’t afford meat balls.

Kids aren’t learning (slipped in ranking), while workers need to but can’t get it paid for by the employers or government.

Politicians are talking, but leaders aren’t leading.

We are bidding for time, for election, for miracles, and are freezed like deers in front of approaching head lights.

Actors are either making quiet retreat (Sundance Festival), or gone overboard (Eastwood and Samuel Jackson).

It’s the best time to be in  late-night comedy.

But SNL fans can’t stay up late (wrong demographic for that time slot).

Voting booths seem to always have problems in Florida. (Voters should be required to have an eye-exam). We are enjoying our time on the deck, but forgot to check the ship’s name. ( Titanic ?).

Even if it’s free, no ride lasts forever.

Every once in a while, we need to check the navigating instrument. No such thing as auto-piloting (Google unmanned car?).

Not in this age of post-innocence. Not at this time of austerity. Not now. Not ever. We need to be vigilant against those who quack like a leader, walk like a leader, but in fact, are not leaders at all. Leadership comes with a price. They come to take credits. This is the root of all imponderables: those who can’t lead, lead. Those who can, refuse to stay in the game.

Inertia and urge

In business parlance, we call them “entrenchment” and “creative destruction”. Find a niche, dig in. By the time you crossed “valley of death”, someone had already elbowed in to eat your lunch.

As Venture Capitalists scour the globe looking for “the” deal, they find new energy and risk-taking in places like Rwanda, Indonesia and Israel, the new “BRICS“. Emerged out of the ash of the Great Recession, these countries offer a unique proposition: invest in us for we got talent, nerve and market.

Since history can only be understood backward and not forward (a need for spices and to dispel “Earth-is-square” theory drove Columbus to stumble upon America), we can’t manufacture another version of post WWII American Dream. Whatever shape it will take, post-recession wise, one will likely find “gems” in the most unlikely places (GE and MSN in India, or “frankenfish” farmed in China bio-lab).

After reading Sarah Lacy‘s book about start-ups in emerging countries (Brilliant, Crazy, Cocky), I felt as if “Independence Day” were celebrated else where, and not in the US.

Web eco-sphere and capital flow (as in the case of hyper-Brazil) are tilted to smaller countries: lower barriers to entry, greater access to broadband and micro-funding.

To jump-start a project, one needs more than an urge to get rich. In most cases illustrated in the book, it has a cause or personal narrative to underline the efforts. Innovator’s dilemma implies a balancing act between preserving the status quo and feeding the creative urge.

If not, someone else will and will do you in.

It’s called Progress. It’s called evolution. Climbing the pyramid of need and innovation. Unplug the respirator and move into the “incubator”. I have lived on both sides of the world, one more risk-taking, and the other,  safety. It’s as if we have reached a plateau in “subduing the Earth”. Columbus, welcome to America, now go home. Take another lesson in adventure and entrepreneurship elsewhere. Maybe we haven’t failed enough. But it’s time to finish the race. Inertia and urge. Let the urge overtake the inertia.