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I'm a paranoid optimist...

I'm writing this from the airport in Cologne.

I'm about to catch a plane to Bangkok.

And there's something I never really understood when I had a job that I just had to think about while drinking my free Mc Donald's coffee they're handing out to everyone here...

Back then everybody was taking cabs for everything.

It was such a waste of money.

Sure, it's the company's money.

Sure, you're wasting your life there, so you might as well take a cab EVERYWHERE.

So the company has to pay more for your time.

Even if you don't get to see that money. Ever.

Here's the truth...

I recently read it in Tim Ferriss's book "Tools of Titans"...

"How you do anything is how you do everything."

And to me that's what being an entrepreneur is all about.

No, that's actually what living in the 21st century is all about.

A few days ago I talked to my dad about it.

You've gotta be a paranoid optimist to survive in the 21st century...

Because every single day things change.

And the stuff that worked yesterday might not work anymore tomorrow.

And when I say you've gotta be a paranoid optimist I'm really talking about myself here.

That's why I work on so many different things at the same time.

I want to spread my risk.

Across multiple projects.

And multiple streams of income.

And I don't get it.

So many people ignore the fact that things are changing. 

That the world is changing.

And they keep doing what they've always done.

They don't get ready for that storm.

Maybe that storm will never come.

Maybe it will. 

Who knows?

All I know is that I want to be "ready" when the storm hits the shore.

Because who can predict the future?

Who knows what tomorrow brings?

No one...

Especially not the people who are paid for predicting the future.

And predicting trends.

Those people, those specialists only operate under the assumption of incremental innovation. Of incremental change.

If you operate under the assumptions of what's technically possible today or in a few days you'll always just be analyzing incremental innovation.

But what the nature of disruptive innovation is all about is the exact opposite.

Disruptive innovation is totally and completely unpredictable.

And it doesn't care about what you feel or think is possible today. Or tomorrow...

Which makes it so amazing, but also dangerous...

Just like these so called experts predicted that the entire world will be covered by horse poop in a couple of decades if the usage of horse carriages continued at the same pace.

They didn't see cars coming... until they were here... and now we don't have horse poop problems anymore.

And instead we have much bigger problems than just horse poop...

Either way.

All of this to say that I paid €169 for a flight from Cologne to Bangkok.

And I never take cabs.

Because I know that tomorrow it might be all over.

And all of my money could be gone.

Everything could stop working.

No one might be reading my stuff anymore.

I'm a paranoid optimist.

I expect the worst, but get ready for the best...

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