Independence Through Profitability

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which is, profitability is also the same, actually, the same thing. As long as I make more money than I spend, I can stay in business. That's independence. Independence is also, no one can tell us what to do. We actually feel obligated to do things nobody would allow us to do. That's a thing, David, and I talk about all the time, like, "We should do this. No one would let us do this. Let's do it!" You know, that's like the exciting stuff for us, the stuff we're not supposed to be doing. That, to me, is just a big part of it, and I think what ends up happening is... This is so funny, because there's no dry cleaner who's raising VC money, right? There's no pizza shop that's raising VC money. So, most businesses in the world are not like this. But in my industry, a lot of people have an idea and go raise money. And the moment they go raise money, they've cut off almost every option. They think they've expanded their experience and their opportunities,

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but they've cut off almost every possible off-ramp outcome, because now they have to be a big business or they fail. That's it. That's one option. I mean, some people become very rich doing that, if that's what they want to do. But most people blow right through what would've been a good business, and is now not good enough for someone else. And once it's not good enough for someone else, that's got to be a s***ty place to be as an entrepreneur, thinking that you just gave up this thing that was actually a good business, but it's not good enough anymore. And you can't get more money. You built a business to raise more money. You built a business that needs more money. Now, you've got to lay people off. Now, it just falls apart, and it's just over because you have no options except one. I'm a big fan of optionality. We could go IPO. I don't want to. We could raise money. I don't want to. We could raise more money. I don't want to.

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We could sell to PE. I don't want to. We could quit. I don't want to. Like, these are all options that we have, and keep going for as long as we want, as long as the business survives. We can do that, right? That is gold to me, is optionality. And I'd like to see more people think that way, because I think it'll benefit them, and not cut themselves off when even they think there's this mirage that, like, "Oh, I got a bunch of money, and I can do anything now." No, you can't. You can do one thing: Build a big business. That's not a lot of things. — I feel you're attracted to timeless things. You have two tweets. One of them just went viral, and it's related to this, basically craving simplicity of abhorring complexity.

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— Hmm. — One was about... Was it the design of a Rolex over time? Was it, that the brand of... It was some kind of watch. — Mm-hmm. Yeah. — Which brand was it? — It might have been Rolex. I mean, there's a few. Could have been an Omega Speedmaster. They've just maintained the same design. Porsche 911, similar. But you were showing pictures from, I think, let's just say it was Rolex. — Yeah. Yeah. — Look at this Rolex design in 1960. — Oh, yeah. — Basically perfect. — Yeah. — Has everything I need, nothing I don't. — Yeah. — Look at the updated version, whatever, 2010. — Yeah. — Yep. — Look at all the other stuff they added. — Right. — Why are you drawn to the first? Well, I'm drawn to the first... By the way, I don't think the new one is bad. So, it's just that what attracts me is the purity of the first one, because that is the purest form of the idea. And I love ideas and insights.

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Someone had an insight to design a watch that looked like that. And then from there, everyone based their designs off of that initial thing. But there was a time when that was the first thing that looked like that. That gets me going. For example, you take a Rolex Daytona today, and you look back at the first one in 1963. To me, the one in 1963, not just because it's older, it's better, in my opinion, aesthetically. Because it's the purest form of the concept, of the idea. Everything else from there has been layered on because they need to sell more, they need to come up with a new version, a new model, and this is what happens. They couldn't still sell that first version. That's not the way the world works. You have to keep making new stuff, right? — Purity is the word that comes to mind, "Purity." Purity and- — Interesting. —... the pure idea, like the pure form of the thing.