Day: January 27, 2020

This Is How You Live on Swiss Time, by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

This article,  This Is How You Live on Swiss Time, is a great piece for two reasons:

  1. You get a wonderful appreciation of Switzerland and the Swiss
  2. You get to read the fine writing of Brodesser-Akner

This article was published in 2015. In 2019 her book, Fleishman Is in Trouble, was a big hit that was talked about everywhere. If you haven’t read her before, read this travel article, and you will get a sense for what a fine writer she is. Then get her book. 🙂

P.S. This was published in afar.com. If you like to travel, or like to dream about travelling, it’s a great site.

What’s wrong with starting a sustainable business?

Nothing, of course, unless you are playing by the rules and goals of Silicon Valley, where VC money comes at a cost. In this piece He Wanted a Unicorn. He Got … a Sustainable Business | WIRED, we hear 

(this) story is one part cautionary tale for entrepreneurs seduced by the allure of venture capital and billion-dollar valuations, and one part an example of how a company can thrive outside those expectations.

I liked the angle of this story and found it fascinating. I think we need more stories of people quite nicely achieving a sustainable business. It’s not that having a blockbuster business is terrible, but it is rare, like all exceptional things are. It’s a winner takes all approach to business. To me, a better approach is that people can be successful in many different ways. Ways like having a sustainable business that provides a service that people really need. That’s a good measure of success to me. I hope we can get more such stories.