Warning: I’m in a mood today. Buckle up, or eject now.
The ancient Persians were some savage mf*ckers.
Case in point:
When the Persians met the Egyptians in battle, they pinned cats to their shields because the Egyptians believed cats were sacred.
This stopped the Egyptian archers — who were unwilling to harm even the dead body of a cat — from firing arrows, and gave the Persians an unholy combat advantage.
Now:
I’m not sharing this story (just) to disturb you.
I’m sharing it in the spirit of a question a teacher asked me yesterday:
“What level of brutality are you up for?”
After 14 years in business, it’s easy to get complacent:
No need to rush, wait for things to play out, balance the risks, slow and steady, money doesn’t matter anyway…
20 year old Taylor may have been an asshole (well, a bigger asshole), but he also was a f*cking savage who would kick my teeth in if he saw me playing it safe.
Thankfully, yesterday’s call was a well-timed reminder of the pure savagery that is necessary for success in the modern world:
Especially in the startup phase, when promises of “lifestyle businesses” and “4 hour work weeks” sit like a fluffy eye mask over the eyes of would-be entrepreneurs…
…Obstructing the muddy, bloody view of brutality and carnage that lies in the wake of the rare few businesses that reach escape velocity…
…Businesses with hardened generals at the helm, weary but unbroken, with their foot on the pedal and the pedal on the floor, with violence in their eyes and ice in their veins and every damn chip they’ve got pushed into the middle of the table, ready to roll the dice.
I write these words as much for myself as for you, as a reminder and a wake-up call and a battlecry:
This sh*t doesn’t take a lot, it takes everything.
And if everything still ‘aint enough, get bigger, and better, and (un-popularly) badder, until it is.
Fire the damn arrows, this is war.
-T
