In the first year of Praxis, there were several desperate-for-a-silver-bullet moments. Bewildering circumstances where the gum in the works couldn’t be pinpointed. Just a tough slog. Every step forward took Herculean effort. This can’t continue if we’re going to grow like we want to!
Tag: business
US Foreign Military Bases Aren’t “Defense”
The maintenance of nearly 1,000 US military bases on foreign soil isn’t just a nightmare for peaceniks. It’s also an objective threat to US national security. Shutting down those foreign bases and bringing the troops home are essential first steps in creating an actual national defense.
Lessons from Building Praxis – Part 9
You’re one punch away from hoisting the heavyweight title. Problem is, you don’t have enough time to throw that big punch because you’re taking jab after jab after jab before you can gather yourself. That’s when you realize that staying on your feet to go the distance might be more important than that one big blow.
Lessons from Building Praxis – Part 8
Alright, the company is real now. But your product requires some resources that only come when you have commitments from customers… and customers require a product before they’ll commit to anything. It might be time to sell something you don’t yet have so you can get the resources necessary to build it.
Advocacy of Peaceful Transactions
There is no right to force another person to provide goods or services. How can it be about “freedom,” then, when it’s someone imposing his “freedom” on another, who will be beaten and jailed for peacefully declining business?
Lessons from Building Praxis – Part 7
If your market includes everyone, it includes no one. I knew I’d do better with a tighter market. Ideally, as Peter Thiel describes in Zero to One, a tiny niche I could monopolize. But even this was broad enough for me to lose focus. The real break-through for choosing actions to get traction came when I got down to the smallest unit possible.
Lessons from Building Praxis – Part 5
I had a lot to do, much of it outside my ability, much of it costly, and I had a few grand I could put on my personal credit card and that was it. The idea for Praxis wasn’t fundable yet, and I didn’t even know what the letters “VC” meant anyway, let alone how to go raise. But I didn’t need any of that because I had something far more valuable. I had dozens of accounts with positive balances of social capital, and it was time to cash them in.
Lessons from Building Praxis – Part 4
Ever heard that riddle about whether you should take a million dollars or a penny, doubled each day for a month? Take the penny. You’ll end up with $1.3M if it’s a 28-day month, and as much as $10.7M if it’s a 31-day month. Doubling is extreme, but even growth of a fraction of a percent compounded every single day can achieve mind-boggling results. When you’re trying to go from idea to inception, progress each day is crucial. You can’t get stuck waiting for one big leap. You need to take at least one step every single day.
Chafing Against the Law
This singular pursuit has been my solitary area of participation in the political process. I’ve given Libertas my hard earned money in the past because of the success I have seen from their efforts. Unfortunately, the parasites and predators that are government actors have continued to push back against these successes, unsurprisingly.
Lessons from Building Praxis – Part 2
Failure sucks. It’s awful. It should be avoided. You shouldn’t feel weird for not liking failure. You should want to win. But some things are worth failing for. When you find one, you need to act, and fast.