Dispatches from the Front #3
From Zero to One by Peter Thiel with Blake Masters (New York: Crown Publishing, 2014), pp. 41(ePub edition):
More than anything else, competition is an ideology—the ideology—that pervades our society and distorts our thinking. We preach competition, internalize its necessity, and enact its commandments; and as a result, we trap ourselves within it—even though the more we compete, the less we gain
Long story short: my brother asked me what to do to make money. This is my third post offering him some advice. If you need a refresher, here are the links to the first and second posts. Continuing from the last post, most industries have something in common: they use tech tools to make their processes more efficient. I’d advise that you either become great at making those tools or excel at leveraging them to get things done. Projects that cost companies millions of dollars to pull off twenty years ago can now be done for less than a thousand dollars. That’s an exaggeration, of course, but you get the drift. When I was a pre-teen, email was not yet popular in Nigeria, and few people had phones. Friends would typically just show up at our door, hoping to find me at home. Most people's circle of friends was limited to their immediate neighborhood. Today, it's possible to live in a community and not say hi to your neighbours. Now you can connect to individuals and businesses around the globe without having to suck up to gatekeepers. Wow! What a time to be alive. You don't really have to know someone who knows someone who knows someone. If your offer (what you’ve got to say) is genuine and compelling, and if they have the time, people will generally want to talk to you. So far, I’ve noticed that people can be quite nice and more than ready to help you. Back in the day, I would go to a cyber cafe, hop on a Yahoo chat room, and ask random strangers for their ASL (Age, Sex, Location). Interestingly enough, people didn't hesitate to tell you. People were so open. I don’t know if it was because we were young. Do we become more guarded or closed up as we get older? Topic for another day. Anyway, the world opened up for me. My circle was no longer limited to friends from school, church, or my neighborhood. I could now befriend people from distant places. I didn't have to lick envelopes before I sent a letter to family members abroad — I could just send them an email instead. Just thinking about it as I write this, I realize I have taken the internet for granted. I forgot the good it has brought and continues to bring me. 🌿
I generally advise people not to lose the capacity to feel awe. I guess I failed to heed my own advice regarding the internet. The internet is just as awe-inspiring, if not more so, than some of the monuments that leave us spellbound. In his inimitable style, Marcel Proust wrote, “The real value of discovery lies not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” When you take something for granted, you stop appreciating it. And when you stop appreciating it, you unwittingly devalue it. Once you devalue something, you no longer see its potentialities. I would say that the internet has become an equaliser. Going to school used to serve that purpose, but with the cost of education skyrocketing and the quality dropping in some countries, the internet is a great way to augment that. The cost of data is a matter for another day. If anything, the internet has played a significant role in my becoming — that includes my personal and professional development. Let me pause and acknowledge those who played a significant part in the development and maintenance of the internet. Just being able to communicate with many people from different parts of the world in real-time to accomplish a task is nothing short of a miracle. In the past, for me to have this kind of outlet, I would have had to work in a newspaper for years before they would have considered giving me my own column. Not only that, I would also have to be in an editor’s good graces. But now, I can write anything I feel like without having to kiss rings. I think another way to make money is to identify industries or spaces with many gatekeepers and then create tools that render them irrelevant. Create or use tools — whether social or technological — that disempower bad actors. I use ‘bad actors’ in this case to mean people who play God in different domains. Gatekeeping often begins with good intentions, as it serves as a standard or quality control mechanism that helps maintain the integrity of a space. 🍃
Let's take a nightclub as an example. People queue outside mainly in anticipation of a great time once inside. The bouncer at the entrance filters out individuals who don't meet the dress code, are underage, or seem likely to cause trouble. If people believe the party is top-notch, they are ready to meet any criteria to get in. The unease begins when, after you've been waiting in line for nearly an hour, a group of friends casually walks to the front. Although their attire does not meet the dress code, the bouncer doesn’t hesitate to let them in. You initially assume they might be the club's owners, but then you realize they are merely customers, just like you. There are two possible feelings you might experience: you're either envious of them or miffed because the bouncer has shown favouritism and uses a different set of criteria to admit people into the club. There are three possible responses: you can either suck it up and endure the same routine every time you visit that club, figure out why the bouncer let those people waltz in and adopt their strategy, or avoid the club altogether. Gatekeepers often or eventually become corrupt. Since they control access to resources or opportunities, they use that leverage to enrich themselves and bully others. In the case of clubs, they typically have a lifespan of five to ten years before another club makes them irrelevant. The less options or competitive a space is, the more there will be gatekeepers. You can either fight for market share, expand, or discover new markets. I'd generally advise against the first option and recommend focusing on the latter two. Don’t forget that gatekeepers won’t passively watch your attempts at creating alternatives. They have access to a network of hyper-competent people who can literally and figuratively knock the teeth out of your jaw. It always amuses me how some underestimate the capabilities of malevolent individuals. They are competent in multiple domains. Isn't that why villains are so feared? 🌱 [To be continued]
Thanks for reading. If there's anything you'd like to chat about, or if you have any questions, feel free to shoot me an email. I'd love to hear from you. :)