Why "Enough" Beats Growth

`0:13:57`

— Yeah. — And some of his views are not correlated with one another, which also makes it really interesting. — Yeah. — So, for example, you've been running your company. You started your company when you were 25. — Yeah. — You've been running it for 27 years. — Yeah. — You guys have been profitable every single year. — Yeah. — You have millions of customers over the lifetime of the business. You've made hundreds of millions of dollars. And yet you told me that if you ever sell the company, you don't want to look at a computer again. — Yeah, I don't. First of all, I don't like being consistent. I'm not that interested in being consistent, first of all. So, your point about saying something that kind of conflicts with something else you said, to me, it's just like, it's all about context. It's not about consistency. I don't find consistency interesting in any way, shape, or form. To me, it's all about the context, which is why I don't like to plan.

`0:14:44`

I don't have long-term plans. I like to make things up as I go. So, that's all tied into that. But yeah, I don't particularly like business. I like running my business. I figured out how to run my business, but the idea of me running another business, I don't want to do that. I don't want to do that. Maybe I could create another one that's mine, and I would like it, but I don't think I could, actually. And I think that we're a product of timing, and teams, and the right people at the right time, and the right ideas at the right time, and all that stuff. That's what made this thing and continues this thing. But to start over again, to run a business? No, thank you. And frankly, the other thing is, I would never trade my business for anyone else's business.

`0:15:30`

I don't want anyone else's business. I don't want to put myself in someone else's shoes. I know how to do my thing, and that's enough for me. I don't need to stroke the ego and go, "I could do this again somewhere else. I could turn something..." I don't think I could do this ever again, but I don't need to, and that's okay. This sense of just being comfortable with what you've built and what you're working on now, being enough is, for me, a very peaceful place to be. And I think that that's unfortunately not something that's talked enough about in my industry, which is tech. Which is grow, grow, grow, get as big as you can, sell valuations, do it again, serial entrepreneurship. Like, it's boring to me. All that's boring. — Okay, there's a million things I want to unpack there- — Let's go. Let's do it.

`0:16:16`

-because you said a bunch of things. — Yeah. — The serial entrepreneurship I want to hit on, because you and I were talking about- — Yeah. the conversation I had with John Mackey- — Yes. — where he was referencing some of his friends just love to start. And you're like, "Oh, I actually have this metaphor that I want to start talking about," and it is envelopes and letters. — Envelopes and letters. — Yeah, okay. — Yeah. — And then we'll go back to the fact that you don't like business, — Yeah. — and that you only like... And you're not... Really important, too, don't let me forget is, you have no sense of envy, I know you well enough now- — I try not to. Well, yes. — to other people's businesses. — Yes. — I don't think that is an act. — No. — Yeah. — I would not trade my business for anyone's business, so I don't envy anyone's business. In fact, it'd be a downgrade. Anyone's. You could pick anyone, right? — Oh, you've got to explain that. — If you got to decide... If you got to decide, you're like, "Jason, would you trade this business?"

`0:17:01`

No. Any business, I wouldn't take. I'd take mine over anyone else's business. So, I don't have... — What is the underlying thought there? It's just like... — I built the company I want to work at. I built the business I want to be in. Like, no one else has that. I have that. That's my thing. Now, they have their thing. I have my thing. I love what I've built. It's great. I'm very happy with it, and it's a good fit for me. I don't want to wear someone else's clothes. I don't want to do someone else's stuff. I don't want to live up to someone else's expectations. We have ours, we do our thing, we do our thing our way, and that's it. And if I had to do my thing someone else's way, it'd be a game of charades. And there's a lot of people, I think, playing entrepreneur. I don't want to play entrepreneur. — What does playing entrepreneur mean to you? — It means a lot of things to me, but I think there's a lot of people who...