I happened to be wearing orange today which is inadvertent but got me thinking about YCombinator, also because I got a email from PitchBook this morning which was absolutely absurd. I'll get to that in a second
But that's why YCombinator is on the brain.
I apply to YC every quarter, I have like 0.0000001% chance of ever getting into Y Combinator for anything but it's a good reminder of the Patrick Bet-David book, Choose Your Enemies Wisely, and going after bigger targets with everything (not just enemies).
And so applying for the most difficult thing to get accepted to, statistically speaking, I mean, it's harder to get into YCombinator than it is to get into any Ivy League school, or to be a flight attendant for Delta.
It's like the hardest thing that you can apply for, I think, in the US at least. And it really makes you focus, it really makes you detail the things that you're saying and how you're saying them and how you're presenting your business and your ideas.
So it's just good practice every quarter to go back and see where are we as a company and what are we doing and what's changed and what's the same what's improved etc.
But then that brings me to something else that's been a quote that's been rattling around in my head for now for like a year or two that is:
The universe is not competitive, it is creative.
-Uell S. Andersen
But I'm naturally one of the most competitive people that you'll ever meet and that I've ever known, so I still wrestle with this concept.
I'm very very intensely competitive at everything and have been since I was little, partly just my inherent wiring and also because I had an older brother was quite a bit older, and so when he was in high school I was still basically a kid. But I was good enough that I could kinda almost keep up with them in a fun way for them but they would kick my ass and I was competitive, so it made me better.
But over the years as a very creative person also I've realized now looking back there's so much truth to that statement of the universe is creative it isn't competitive.
And of course, we can debate that all day, because you talk about Darwinism and survival of the fittest, what is that if not competition for resources and mere survival, right? It's the competition of life!
And yet, there's just something that really resonates about that idea of the universe being more creative than it is competitive.
Because if you just create to your utmost, the competition side tends to fall into place.
Those pieces tend to just align themselves when it's supposed to happen the way that it's supposed to happen, and the universe has a way of opening doors that would you never could have imagined if you were just in the competitive mindset just hustling.
Whether that's the way the ball bounces for an athlete because they're just being them and not so worried about the competition aspect, or if it's in business or in art or music or just life in general, if you were being in the moment and fully being, living as yourself and your purpose, and being creative in harmony with nature and the universe and who you are…things tend to fall into place.
So this ties together with pitchbook email from this morning - because it was talking about how ESG funding is down so far this year from last year and years past, and in Europe especially ESG might be dying…which made me laugh but the real crux of the email came later.
Toward the end, the writer was like, “ESG has been so politicized recently,” obviously blaming the new administration in the U.S., “that it's going to be very difficult for us to continue the good work that's been done by all the environmental companies and activists and mandates that have gone into place.”
And I'm just like, ESG by definition has governance in it. I understand it's corporate governance, but it's also a connection with country, national governments, but also ESG was created as a political ploy.
ESG is nothing if not political from its inception, from its creation! There is nothing rational or strictly competitive or creative, either one. It's just purely a political tool of power.
So it's not competitive or creative. And the reason that that fits in here is because if you are a company that wants to do good for the environment, that's wonderful.
Then just be creative and do good for the environment. And make as much money as you possibly can and do good for the environment.
But most ESG is wielded as a political weapon by governments and by companies against their competitors.
So it's not actually competition. It's not actually being creative. It's just this political war game.
Because the big corporations, as all of this has come out in recent years, the more ESG they were, the more DEI they became, the more they could suck off that government teat and get those goodies, get those government subsidies, right?
Which is neither creative nor competitive.
So there's nothing about ESG that is natural, that is based in reality, and it should fail because it is a political weapon.
So what we need is a level playing field for competition, but more than that the competition needs to be based in who can be more creative, who can be more innovative, who can create solutions that aren't just what the current thing in government is asking for so that they can get kickbacks.
The real solutions are the innovative, creative, disruptive solutions that truly change things for the better, for people, for consumers, for whatever the industry is, for the planet.
And if you're creating like that, you're going to naturally be very competitive.
Whereas if you're just trying to be competitive, the problem is you can never out-compete someone who is using a government power weapon in the competition.
So no matter how competitive your business is, no matter how competitive your idea, your disruptive solution, your innovation, no matter how competitive it would be and could be with a level playing field in a rational world, you will never be able to compete in today's world because this isn't a level playing field with a rational, competitive structure.
This is a weaponized power struggle of a competitive game but governments don't hold the ultimate power.
They are still beholden to the rules of this simulation, this world, the laws of physics. They still have to be part of that and they're definitely beholden to the laws of the universe and the universe is creative, infinitely creative, always perpetually infinitely eternally creating!
So, don't try and compete straight-on with those who are already in positions of authority and leadership in the industry because you can never beat someone that is wielding political power against you in a competitive race.
Just be creative.
Understand the competition in the sense of being disruptive and innovative, understand who the competitors are and what they're doing and where you can find things you can do better.
Think competitively, but act creatively
and at some point you will learn the lessons that you are meant to learn as a human, as a creative human, as a creator, as an innovator, as a person who is looking for those solutions looking to drive those solutions.
But also your company at some point it’s likely the universe will move in your favor and open those doors. And then when that happens, you will be able to compete with those who are in those positions that seem unshakable, because you're playing a different game.
You're not competing in a power struggle with earthly government temporary power. You're competing in an infinite spectrum of innovation and creative ideas that you can draw from the ether and create something new and incredible and that will allow you to compete on a completely different level.
So thank you YCombinator for continually rejecting me, and us. I'll keep applying because it helps me to stay in that mindset of competitiveness but also is a constant reminder play a different game.
To play a higher game, a higher nature game of creativity. The universe is infinitely creative, it is not merely, with man's rules and power struggles, competitive.
[AND THEN…watch what happens at the end of the video when I finished this rant - around 9:53]
A butterfly which apparently had been hanging out on my hat, flew around me and then landed on my shoulder for probably the next 10 minutes. A sign to keep on keeping on.
