Hello friend,
This newsletter has been dormant for far too long, so it is time to change that. I have pitched this newsletter to many of you without ever sending you a welcome email. I will not apologize. Life is filled with so much promise and emptiness at the same time. Deal with it :)
I still cannot tell you what will always come in this newsletter, but these are things that I am sure of:
It will be intermittent
It will be less about me, and more about my ideas as I understand the world more and seek knowledge.
It will always solicit your feedback
I am rekindling this newsletter for several reasons, top among which is that when we get ideas, we often treat them like children and attack those who try to attack our ideas. Strong thinkers do not hold on to ideas, hence they let them into the world for stress testing as soon as they get it.
I want to be a better thinker, and I want this newsletter to be for people that want to become better thinkers too by developing on ideas I share with you and helping me understand what is true and untrue.
The most important rule when contributing is to:
Zoom out and observe what is and untrue.
Do not focus on semantics, unless absolutely necessary.
Always be honest in your thinking. Intellectual dishonesty & being disingenuous gets me off the wrong way.
Attack ideas as aggressively as you wish, but do not attack people.
Feel free to take this to the Twitter timeline too and tag me and anyone.
Now, for some personal news
In my first and last newsletter to most of you, I mentioned:
Sadly, I am now former COO at Hotels.ng as 30th of June was my last official day with the company. I will still be working with the company to release a product I am quite excited about.
I thought I would write a long note on how I got to be COO, but I never completed it for no apparent reason. I am incredibly grateful for the years I spent with the company and I consider myself lucky to have served in the positions I did and to have worked with all the people that worked at the company, most especially Mark. Learning as always been a fun thing for me and I was given the space to learn. Mark helped me take my learning to become a better thinker, now I just need to be more articulate.
“When Aeschines spoke they said, ‘How well he speaks.’
But when Demosthenes spoke, they said “Let us march against Philip.’”
Trying to achieve that Demosthenes status.
People often ask me why I am leaving and the future of Hotels.ng. Here is the answer. I am incredibly optimistic about the future of the company and 2018 was a year in the trenches where we learned hard lessons that helped us shape strategy and develop new thoughts around distribution. It was a hard year for me and I am incredibly grateful for the time, I cannot wish that it could have been easier. As for the rest of the story and the future, that is Mark’s story to share.
So why am I leaving? It is time to climb another mountain. I never want to get comfortable climbing 1 mountain because I will never build the agility to climb 10 or 20. The company is in a position where hockey stick growth is in her front and it pleases me to try a new mountain.
So what am I up to now?
TBH, nothing extra-ordinary. I want to pursue ventures that help me get what I want. I considered doing many things before I submitted my resignation letter: go back to school, travel to South East Asia as a nomad, move to SF/NY/Toronto, join a consulting firm.
But I realized the best thing I could do with my life was to commit myself to high leverage endeavors that allow me accumulate:
Knowledge: Not interested in esoteric knowledge. Generally interested in content that makes me understand how the world works, things that improve my decision-making ability, and information that gives me arbitrage in whatever ventures I pursue.
Capital: Capital is optionality to me. I want options (personal wealth and anti-fragile social capital) that frees me to do the things I want to do: make wealth for other people.
Network: Not interested in networking up. Generally interested in talking to kind, smart people that see the big picture, hustle to get what they want, and always pay it forward.
Interesting things you might want to know are:
- I am open to consultancy gigs around growth marketing and B2C product development. Send people/companies that have money and might need my perspective.
- I am raising funds for my new venture in the D2C space. If you know me, and want to make a warm intro to a good and kind VC or Angel, please reach out.
We shall talk again, even if it takes a year :)