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Michael Woudenberg's avatar

It's funny because so many people who chafe at working for others and want to start their own business fail because... well.. they don't work well with others!

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Andrew Smith's avatar

That was almost me! I mean, it has been me at various times over the decades, but hopefully decreasingly so over time.

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Daniel Nest's avatar

Did you just challenge me to a jiu jitsu match?!

If so, I must warn you right away: If you try to hurt me, I'll cry profusely and make you really, really uncomfortable. It won't be pretty, is what I'm saying.

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Andrew Smith's avatar

It always pays to keep in mind the three F's of self-defense: fight, flight, or freeze.

Sobbing goes into the "freeze" category, and it can be a very effective strategy if employed with proper technique. When you can snatch the tears from my eyes, you will be ready to leave.

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Andrew Sniderman 🕷️'s avatar

My small biz customers are scrappy! I think maybe it’s because your whole identity is wrapped up in this thing

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Andrew Smith's avatar

I think so! On the surface, it seems like you could disconnect from your business pretty easily if it runs smoothly, but in reality that's really tough. You stay tethered when you're supposed to be somewhere else.

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Dee Rambeau's avatar

Arrogance is fine as long as it’s not combined with ignorance. ☺️

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Andrew Smith's avatar

Gotta have a tiny bit of both if you're gonna really try something you shouldn't really be trying, though! Maybe a way to say this is: ignorance and arrogance (when combined in small enough doses) make life really interesting.

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Sum's avatar
May 16Edited

Doing something “better” seems to keep one’s self locked the prison of dualism (better/worse,best/worst) perhaps one might be satisfied with where you are at while maintaining your practice.

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David Perlmutter's avatar

Arrogance has its downside in business, though- you think you are immune from social and economic change and will be around forever if you succeed, which even the greatest businesses are not immune. The Hudson Bay Company, in existence in Canada since 1670 (!), has been forced to sell off all its assets after going bankrupt recently.

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Andrew Smith's avatar

Absolutely - hubris is fatal in business if you let it take the reigns. I think my goal was mainly to show that you need to have some in order to get started in the first place, but of course that's only true if you have the wisdom to balance the boldness.

I hadn't heard about Hudson Bay! I do recall hearing about Kongō Gumi, the oldest continually running business in the world until 2006, when it ceased being an independent company. It was a construction firm founded in 578 CE. They built a ton of Buddhist temples!

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David Perlmutter's avatar

Damn- Kongo Gumi makes the HBC look young.

At least it seems the HBC might survive in some form. Canadian Tire, another long-running Canadian institution, has made a bid to acquire HBC’s assets, though what they’re going to do with them I don’t know yet.

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Andrew Smith's avatar

It's hard to fathom these institutions sticking around for a thousand years (or hundreds of years as in the case of HBC - still crazy impressive). It makes me think a lot about organizations and what they really are. It's like our first effort to break outside of our limited biological form in a way, although that describes other types of groups as well.

It's like DNA in a sense. A structure is created and it transcends any one individual, kind of like a colony of ants or bees.

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