Too Much Grift And Too Little Craft
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Good morning..
This made me laugh, cringe and of course shake my head today as the billionaires and their bootlickers in our country all share this ‘superpower’ Jake calls ‘lack of awareness:
Ok…onward…
I am leaving Italy headed back to Phoenix.
I never know if these trips are vacations. I am exhausted from the cycling but also rejuvenated. If work is email, google docs and zoom calls, I still worked on this ‘vacation’.
I have spent a lot of time in the saddle (my bike) the last few months. Spending time in the saddle slows things down for me. Running and hiking and yoga are too slow for me and lucky for me I love to ride and have great friends that like to ride as well.
With the explosion of gravel bikes and e-bikes everyone can cycle.
The trick to cycling is ‘time in the saddle’. If you put enough time in the saddle you can pretty much get anywhere that has a road or a trail.
This year I spent much less time in the saddle than the past few years. This summer I decided to take weight training more seriously and I have gotten great results, but the only time I enjoy weight training is POST workout. That said, i plan to keep up three days/week of weight training.
I am hoping to play more golf this winter in my spare time to change things up.
Next up…
On our yearly Italy trips, Filippo (our guide) organizes off bike events as well so that we can meet with local entrepreneurs and visit businesses/companies we are passionate about.
This year was no different.
One evening we visited an incredible wine cellar of a local restauranteur. He has passionately collected nearly 10,000 bottles valued in the many millions…
Wine is not my thing (the unique wine glass chandelier was sweet) but I am always eager to learn from people that have become experts. It was easy to learn a few things about wine listening to him talk passionately about his collection and his world travels eating, drinking and collecting.
My media room passion is my wine cellar. My collection is on demand and in the cloud.
Yesterday we got a tour of the Pinarello factory near Venice. I own one Pinarello bike. It is an incredible 100 year old cycling brand. Here are some photos…
Filippo and Howie in the Pinarello Store and Factory
Time seems to stand still in Italy. I joke that the $VIX is always four in this country.
That may be why so many quality (non tech) brands get built – Ferrari, Pinarello, B&B Italia, Luxottica, Prada, Gucci…
Time is under appreciated when it comes to building brands.
Of course these Italian brands do invent/develop their own technologies/processes and put technology to work in their products and business.
In the US though the mix of technology, money and culture make things move very fast. But I believe something changed/broke with web 2.0 and ZIRP. The mobile/social web and ZIRP sped things up to a tipping point of bad habits, bad cap tables, bad practices and bad behavior. This is a theme I have been fleshing out on our weekly ‘Trends With Friends’ podcast.
There seems to be a lack of enjoyment and pride that has come with this speed and sloppy practices.
The old saying Rome was not built in a day has been replaced by ‘move fast and break things’. There is too much ‘grift’ and too little ‘craft’ in America right now.
I continue to lean into craft in how I think about living my life and setting an example for my kids and the founders in our portfolio.
Build a business sooner, spend less money, spend more time on the product and design, create more joy for the customer/user.
We all need a little more Italy in our lives.
