Happy long weekend friends.
This newsletter has approximately 1,900 more subscribers than I ever thought it would have. Itās a privilege to be able to send out this little email every week, so thank you for giving me precious real estate in your digital home.
For a while, I hesitated to put this newsletter together. I wanted to share an archive of thought provoking things that inspired me in the hope that they would resonate with others. But with so many newsletters, I couldnāt figure out why another one and why me.
If youāre hesitant to start a project because itās been done before, do it anyways.
Itās never been done by you before.
ā”ā”ā”
Sari
āThe plain fact is that the planet does not need more successful people. But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every kind. It needs people who live well in their places. It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world habitable and humane. And these qualities have little to do with success as we have defined it.ā
-David W. Orr
caught my attention
Attending burning man or parenting a toddler? š
Patternās Guide to Daily Enjoyment is beautiful. š±
This TED Talk challenges the acceptance of GDP as the ultimate measure of a countryās success and is worth 10 minutes of your time. GDP values illegal drug consumption but not unpaid childcare, it values short-term activity even if that means sacrificing the long-term sustainability of the planet. Scotland, Iceland and New Zealand are leading the way by establishing a network of Wellbeing Economy Governments that look at a range of indicators as varied as income inequality, happiness of children, access to green spaces, and access to housing, none of which are captured in GDP statistics but all of which are fundamental to a healthy society. Itās worth noting that all three of these countries are currently led by women.Ā šš¼š„
I spent $1,279 on creams, crystals, and a vibrator from Gwyneth Paltrowās wellness empire. Things got weird. The irony of the wellness industry is its obvious limitations. A new moisturizer canāt stop you from getting older. A new supplement pack canāt dispel the exhaustion of raising three kids. A new cookbook canāt change your genetic disposition to gaining weight around your waist. But a good entrepreneur will always come up with a few more problems for you to solve if youāve got money to burn. During just a few weeks of wellness experimentation, I found myself sucked into the paranoid skepticism that drives people to buy more products, read more pseudoscience, and orient their lives around ailments that might not even exist. š®
This! Iāve said it before and Iāll say it again: Donāt take it personally. šš½
This piece on StarbucksĀ is exceptional. Basically, the money that customers put on the mobile app doubles as a free loan to the company. "Each year Starbucks recognizes that a portion of its stored value liabilities will be permanently lost. This is known as breakage. Starbucks recognizes this amount as profit. In 2018 the company recognized $155 million in breakage, around 10% of all stored value balances. Wow! Starbucks already pays just 0% on its debts to customers, but add in breakage and that equates to a roughly -10% interest rate!" ā
Parents are sending their children to ābrand campāĀ ā the kids are NOT alright. š
It hadn't occurred to me that as the planet warms,Ā humans will have to do many more things at night š
How to buildĀ a life without kids and find meaning outside the maternal script. š
They Tried To Start A Church Without God. For A While, It Worked: "Building a durable community of nonbelievers, it turns out, is more complicated than just excising God. If the sudden emergence of secular communities speaks to a desire for human connection and a deeper sense of meaning, their subsequent decline shows the difficulty of making people feel part of something bigger than themselves. One thing has become clear: The yearning for belonging is not enough, in itself, to create a sense of home." āŖ
Influencers are a thing, and now there's... unfluencers?Ā If some of your favorite things like wide leg pants, No.6 Clogs, and potted plantsĀ are being ruined by Instagram, thatās because unfluencers are making you want to do the opposite of whatever theyāre doing.Ā š
Silicon ValleyāsĀ Crisis of Conscience. āØ
How to disagree ā
In praise of extreme moderation Ā Today, I am neither superrich nor superfit nor super successful. But I have just enough of each to qualify in my own personal marathon, the race for a balanced life. In the end, maybe this only really matters to me and my dog, who does get a lot of good walks out of it. To me, thatās enough. ā
This šš½
60Ā SequoiaĀ founders and investorsĀ share tipsĀ on starting a company.Ā Some of my favorites:š”
āA heck of a lot of people will think it wonāt work. But if you can picture yourself walking through each step, thereās a good chance you know what youāre doing. Just because somethingās never been done before doesnāt mean it canāt be done.ā
āStart small. Write down specific problems you need to overcome and donāt worry about anything else. Especially in the beginning, starting a company should feel like a project, not a grand vision.ā
āStarting a company isnāt easy ā you need an insane amount of conviction. You donāt have to be sure the product will work, but you do need to believe fully in the mission.ā
āGet comfortable being uncomfortable. When the company is growing so fast that itās changing underneath you, you have to learn your job over and over again.ā
āBe contagious. Being a leader is like having a megaphone to your mouth at all times ā your team is hanging on every word you say. So youād better make sure youāre saying it with passion, enthusiasm and energy.ā
Pamela Druckerman exploresĀ how to survive your 40sĀ and points out it's a unique and confusing decade. Whether you're currently in your 40s, want to reminisce about them, or want a preview of what's to come, this will give you a lot to think about. At 40, weāre no longer preparing for an imagined future life. Our real lives are, indisputably, happening right now. ā³
Wow, this profile of Charlene de Carvalho is a must-read. Charlene was a 47-year-old stay-at-home mother of five when her father died and left her the family business. Not a big deal until you realize that meant running Heineken, which employs >70,000 people. Carvalho had 10 days to make a choice: continue living comfortably as a housewife or run the worldās No. 3 brewer with no prior business experience. She chose the latter, and sheās now one of the wealthiest women in the world. Itās never too late to reinvent yourself.Ā šŗ
illustration via Am I Overthinking This?
have you heard of?
Not sure what to get your friend on her birthday? You can now buy a shout out from their favorite celebrity.Ā Cameo is a platform that allows users to pay celebrities to make personalized video messages ā users give a brief description of what they want them to say and who the message is for and within a few hours a video is delivered. Cameo taps into our celebrity obsession while simultaneously providing a new revenue stream of long-tail content for creators. They currently have over 18,000 celebrities ā everyone from Nick Viall to Snoop Dogg, although most of them are C-list celebrities and I donāt recognize most of them. I see the opportunity to create a business on the back of an emerging class of celebrities (aka influencers instead of A-listers). I wish they could connect to peopleās social accounts and surface the influencers they follow who are on the platform - otherwise search and discoverability becomes a real barrier to engaging with the platform. Klenier Perkins recently led a $50 million Series B - Iāll be watching where they go with this cash infusion.
overheard on twitter
If youāre wondering whoās behind this newsletter:
My name is Sari Azout. I am a design-thinker, storyteller, and early stage startup investor atĀ Level Ventures. My mission is to bring more humanity and creativity to technology and business.
Want more?
Follow me onĀ Twitter,Ā Medium,Ā andĀ Instagram.
Know a founder i should meet?
Drop me a note at sari@level.vc
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Thanks for being here!
Sari