5 min
20. How To Be A Person: Comparative Studies of my Navel via Social Media Equals I feel Bad About Myself Later (Approximately 3:30AM, 4:30AM and 5:45AM.) The Bold Acting Podcast
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- Self-Improvement
Thanks to my paid readers. I appreciate you more than you know. I brag about you in social settings. You don’t have to pay for this but you do. The future looks brighter with you in my corner.
If you like this newsletter consider upgrading to paid. Doing so gives you license to complain to me about spelling misteakes, grammatical errors, etc.
Consider becoming a paid subscriber.
Apples to Oranges
I recently spent an hour on instagram and deleted the app once again from my phone. I would quit the phone altogether if there weren’t such a thing as podcasts and audio books.
Am I doing this right? What of this grind? Is this a good way to spend what’s left of my short, little life?
Dr. Saras Sarasvathy, professor of business at the University of Virginia speaks about effectual entrepreneurship, specifically Affordable Loss. Break down costs: How much will it cost you to start a new venture? 80-90% of start-up costs are human capital. The way to do it is to convince people to help you for deferred payment.
Predicting the future is difficult. Figure out what you are willing to lose rather than what you expect to make. Forget profit projections. Try stuff on the cheap if possible. Call this your business school. You can learn so much by the doing without going into student debt.
“Cultivate opportunities that have a low failure cost that generate more options for the future.”
Sarasvathy cites Richard Branson starting an airline with planes leased from Boeing instead of buying his own. He didn’t seek investors, didn’t give away his company to venture capital. He kept costs low. James Dyson built his cyclonic vacuum prototype 5,127 times in a shed and lived on bank loans for more than 15 years. Don’t buy an office before you have to. Don’t get a partner before absolutely necessary.
Be kind to yourself. Remember that when you have to do it all on your own it’ll take longer but you’ll learn more.
The first Dysons were made from cardboard.
You can fail in business. You can’t fail when you’re making art (Even Chris Gaines sold two million records). Bad art is still art. You try something then you evaluate it. You have to listen back to that song or podcast. You have to re-read the thing you wrote. And not with love in your heart but with the cold, sober eye of the editor or critic. Ask yourself, did I fully get what was inside my head out into the world? Could I make it better?
Satisfactionism
Is it not strange that perfectionism is a word but satisfactionism is not? There is a line somewhere between the two, between making something great and beating it to death. When is a child fully whelped?
Apple launches their products before they’re ready and then comes out with fixes.
Google beta-tests projects, gets feedback, quits things (Google Glass, Google Plus, Google Trips, etc.)
I left home at 18 then came back at 19, then left home again at 21 and then came back at 26. This went on a couple more times. Anyway, my parents were (are) incredibly generous.
With my latest venture (a new podcast with personal finance expert Preet Banarjee) we are excited to pair complementary skillsets. Preet likes to dot the ’i’s and cross all the ’t’s. My preference for a premature birth means that together we’re hoping his mature chocolate and my juvenile peanut butter might add up to just right.
Analogies have never been my strong suit.
Comparing my Navel orange to someone else’s Granny Smith is just par for the course. The trick is to not be too hard on yourself. Sticking your neck out there is exhausting. Here’s hoping that equals a better sleep tonight.
A ream of newsletters means no one is looking for another. If you find How to be a Person a worthwhile read then please share it.
Find me on insta: @jasonbrydenofcanada
Youtube.com/jasonbryden
boldacting.com
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit boldacting.substack.c
Thanks to my paid readers. I appreciate you more than you know. I brag about you in social settings. You don’t have to pay for this but you do. The future looks brighter with you in my corner.
If you like this newsletter consider upgrading to paid. Doing so gives you license to complain to me about spelling misteakes, grammatical errors, etc.
Consider becoming a paid subscriber.
Apples to Oranges
I recently spent an hour on instagram and deleted the app once again from my phone. I would quit the phone altogether if there weren’t such a thing as podcasts and audio books.
Am I doing this right? What of this grind? Is this a good way to spend what’s left of my short, little life?
Dr. Saras Sarasvathy, professor of business at the University of Virginia speaks about effectual entrepreneurship, specifically Affordable Loss. Break down costs: How much will it cost you to start a new venture? 80-90% of start-up costs are human capital. The way to do it is to convince people to help you for deferred payment.
Predicting the future is difficult. Figure out what you are willing to lose rather than what you expect to make. Forget profit projections. Try stuff on the cheap if possible. Call this your business school. You can learn so much by the doing without going into student debt.
“Cultivate opportunities that have a low failure cost that generate more options for the future.”
Sarasvathy cites Richard Branson starting an airline with planes leased from Boeing instead of buying his own. He didn’t seek investors, didn’t give away his company to venture capital. He kept costs low. James Dyson built his cyclonic vacuum prototype 5,127 times in a shed and lived on bank loans for more than 15 years. Don’t buy an office before you have to. Don’t get a partner before absolutely necessary.
Be kind to yourself. Remember that when you have to do it all on your own it’ll take longer but you’ll learn more.
The first Dysons were made from cardboard.
You can fail in business. You can’t fail when you’re making art (Even Chris Gaines sold two million records). Bad art is still art. You try something then you evaluate it. You have to listen back to that song or podcast. You have to re-read the thing you wrote. And not with love in your heart but with the cold, sober eye of the editor or critic. Ask yourself, did I fully get what was inside my head out into the world? Could I make it better?
Satisfactionism
Is it not strange that perfectionism is a word but satisfactionism is not? There is a line somewhere between the two, between making something great and beating it to death. When is a child fully whelped?
Apple launches their products before they’re ready and then comes out with fixes.
Google beta-tests projects, gets feedback, quits things (Google Glass, Google Plus, Google Trips, etc.)
I left home at 18 then came back at 19, then left home again at 21 and then came back at 26. This went on a couple more times. Anyway, my parents were (are) incredibly generous.
With my latest venture (a new podcast with personal finance expert Preet Banarjee) we are excited to pair complementary skillsets. Preet likes to dot the ’i’s and cross all the ’t’s. My preference for a premature birth means that together we’re hoping his mature chocolate and my juvenile peanut butter might add up to just right.
Analogies have never been my strong suit.
Comparing my Navel orange to someone else’s Granny Smith is just par for the course. The trick is to not be too hard on yourself. Sticking your neck out there is exhausting. Here’s hoping that equals a better sleep tonight.
A ream of newsletters means no one is looking for another. If you find How to be a Person a worthwhile read then please share it.
Find me on insta: @jasonbrydenofcanada
Youtube.com/jasonbryden
boldacting.com
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit boldacting.substack.c
5 min