Category: Poetry

I don’t want to scale a company and 10x revenue

I don’t want to optimize the conversion funnel

or split test ad copy

or design high-converting landing pages

or explore new advertising channels

or create an evocative brand

I don’t want to author SEO content with clickbait titles just to get traffic

or be an authority for marketing’s sake

or offer yet another program making plenty of promises that will only marginally be kept

I don’t want to be a middleman in order to capture value

or buy low and sell high

Or be booked solid for the next quarter with clients because that’s what success looks like

I don’t want to build an app and harvest data

I don’t want to follow a proven method for success

or sell products on Amazon

or make a living teaching others to make a living

or just do it for the money

I don’t want to hire influencers or become one myself

I don’t want to overcome objections and close the deal

or send product flying off the shelves

or educate prospects on competitive advantages

I don’t want to empower customers to play this same game

I don’t want to raise capital and fixate on ROIC, ROE, or IRR

or reduce Customer Acquisition Cost

or increase Lifetime Customer Value

I don’t want to forge strategic partnerships

or identify efficiencies and improve processes

or spearhead new growth initiatives

I don’t want to apply standard operating procedures 

or buy Best in Class or be Best of Breed

I don’t want to chart key KPIs and model it all out

I don’t want to monetize anything at all

I don’t want to do these activities because it’s unclear why they’re needed.

It seems we worship on the Altar of Entrepreneurship in the Cult of Malignant Capitalism.

Perverted incentives and capital looking for a return create indiscriminate growth. 

But what’s needed? Why give time to these activities? To what end?

I want to scale community and 10x the connections between us

I want to optimize the organization of resources and our common causes

I want to split test different theories of change  

and design solutions that create more vitality and aliveness

I want to create long-lasting projects that consider all the stakeholders involved

I want to author guides that build the skills necessary for healthy individual functioning

and be an authority because I’ve done something worthwhile

I want to offer a vision and viable solutions to our most intransigent problems

I want to be a middleman in order to facilitate new relationships

I want to buy just what we need, nothing more, and share what we can

I want to leverage technology to create more well-being

and explore new ways of being, thinking, and doing

I want to build regenerative agriculture everywhere and harvest real food

I want to follow the winding road of discovery

and sell products locally for reasonable prices

and make a living with something I love to do

I want to hire the disadvantaged and downtrodden

and overcome predatory business practices and all forms of injustice

I want to send products right back to the manufacturer or not have them manufactured to begging wth

I want to educate children on how to function as an adult

and empower each and every one of us to take a stand

I want to raise capital and fixate on human impact and biodiversity restored

I want to reduce poverty, hunger, and extreme wealth stratification 

I want to increase housing affordability, community resilience, and human happiness

I want to forge new alliances between unexpected tribes

I want to identify systemic leverage points and improve our processes of governing, legislating, and educating

I want to spearhead new regenerative initiatives

I want to apply bespoke policies fit for the uniqueness of your people and place

I want to buy locally and keep the value in our communities

I want to chart key system interactions and model how targeted nodal interventions can make a difference

I want to monetize all of this effort enough to live well and not a penny more

Why do we do what we do? 

It seems the rules of the game define the actions of the players. 

Is the game voluntary? Can it be opted out of? Can it be reformed?

They say don’t hate the player, hate the game. Yea maybe. 

Or maybe that’s a cop out to avoid individual responsibility.

Maybe it’s a coping mechanism to justify actions that an honest look would render meaningless, or worse, harmful. 

A game is nothing without its players.

Which one am I playing? What’s the natural outcome of this game?

Is this one the self-terminating zero-sum one? 

Or the non-zero one that continues on?

Maybe all it takes is the right mission with the right team and a little luck.