1/ A not-so-random thread on leadership, insecurities, aspirations, etc. throughout eras and nations, with a surprising if not shocking through-line.

My wife’s Greek, Montreal has a huge Greek community, I’ve researched Ancient Greece & wrote an (auto)biography on Alexander the Great, visited the country 6 times. One thing that’s always been clear to me is Greeks today are not a nation or people that will build the world’s largest empire, as did Alexander circa 330 BC. But then you realize that Alexander was born the son of Philip of Macedon, who recognized the divided nature of the Greek city-states. As with all humans and leaders, Alexander’s ambition was fueled by many people insecurities, to
1) build a kingdom greater than the one his father left for thee,
2) conquer the “superior” Athenian Greeks, and of course,
3) surpass the empire built by one of his influences, king Cyrus the Great of Persia, who shared one striking detail…
Which takes us to… 2/ Cyrus the Great is arguably my main influence, and not because he was a Persian leader who built the world’s first empire… but because he did so largely through the word (vs the sword) by recognizing people’s unhappiness and offering them a better life. Iran, or land of the Aryans, is home to a dozen+ ethnicities - with Persians, Azeri, Kurds - leading the way. But Cyrus was in fact a Mede (Medea, Media) who defeated a Persian king, consolidated power and then built the Achaemenid empire. He, like Alexander after him, was an “outsider” with a chip on his shoulder.

For what it’s worth, the father of modern Iran, Reza Shah was also not Persian, but Mazandaran.

Similar to my observation about modern day Greeks, when you meet Persians (or rather, Iranians) today, you don’t walk away thinking “these folks rule the world” - despite their intelligence.

It’s almost as if all successive empires give in to pride, envy, greed and build an empire conquering others, only to see it crashing down… are these exceptions, or the rule?

1/ While Spain & France are the perennial number 1 & 2 of European travel, Greece is no longer a hidden gem and - inflation & growing popularity aside - remains a pretty cost effective southern European destination relative to other destinations. Post-Covid, it cracked the top 10 list of most visited countries. I've been very fortunate to travel to Athens as well as islands in the Aegean & Ionian seas. As I find myself repeating the following frequently, here are some thoughts on each if you're wondering where to go. 2/ Athens is one of my favorite cities in the world. The city dies down in August as locals head on vacation and many stores close, but it has a great vibe any time. With incredible food, few cities match the value the Greek capital provides. Reaching the top of the Parthenon in the Acropolis is a feeling unlike any other. In 2016, I sat in my hotel room looking at the view and literally found the inspiration to pen my 3rd book in the weeks that followed. You can also venture an hour from the city to visit beautiful places like Sounio, or stay in the city and enjoy streets like Ermou.

1/ There is no honor anymore. 
I've tried to avoid chiming in on @chamath & the "man in arena" meme; via @buccocapital

but a couple of folks asked me for my thoughts... so here are my general thoughts on the broader issues.

https://twitter.com/buccocapital/status/1697725750827258008?s=20

2/ Just in case you're wondering. #Chamath Palihapitiya is a successful executive and investor who:
- was born in Sri Lanka,
- moved to Canada
- got an Education in Canada,
- parlayed that for gigs in banking (Nesbitt Burns)
- before stints at AOL and Facebook, where presumably he made a ton of money thanks to Mark Zuckerberg's "move fast and break stuff" ethos, before raising money to invest.

So for the context of the "man in the arena" theme, if Chamath became a "made man," conceivably it was at Facebook, in some mid level manager/vp role... not as founder/CEO... which is fine... but devoid of proper context in this discussion, is worth mentioning.

Eventually, if my memory serves me right, he gave some/all of the investors' money back to manage his own because he didn't want to deal with LPs. That deserves some props, and balls.

1/ Media malaise use to convey old media, now it's felt at Netflix.
mediagazer.com/220508/p3#a220…
The pace of change & disruption has accelerated and indeed the disrupters are now getting disrupted.What happened? 2/ 17 years ago when I launched @watchmojo this was the landscape. Old media lacked any incentive to embrace digital:

1/ Challenge for Vice isn't even valuation (that's a major one), but fit. Incredibly, when Disney sought to buy it, traditional media wasn't going all-in online in their own IP, building DTC biz models. They were still protecting their traditional IP...
mediagazer.com/220429/p14#a22… 2/ Today, Disney/Comcast/FOX/Paramount/et al. have all seen the future & re-invented themselves by turning inwards, doubling down on their own IP by going all-in digital. The usual suspects have taken their legacy assets and set sights on global reach web presents. Thus...

1/ How to address the socio-economic racial divide fastest?

Last year when I interviewed @SpikeLeeJoint I was given a whopping 5 minutes so I asked where would American society be if every Black American family got 40 acres and a mule after emancipation?
2/ Side note: more on what 40 acres and a mule refers to here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forty_acr…
Today that was would be worth ~ $5 Trillion
yesmagazine.org/issue/make-rig…
But back to the point I want to make...

1/ Having read & written hundreds of biographies of business cons, it will be interesting to see what @Facebook & Mark Zuckerberg's legacy will be. 

There are definitely two sides to it. Let's start with the positives. 2/ Third richest person, having built the world's largest connective tissue bringing 2B together, usursing MySpace's seemingly unbeatable lead in social, becoming a thorn in side of search superpower @Google. With 2B+ users, Zuck built a Corponation that is pretty much unrivaled.

1/ Don't think people understand what will happen but it's more likely that I grow hair like Fabio than @airbnb IPO-ing any time soon.

businessinsider.com/covid-19-is-sh… 2/ So many listers have leveraged up & bought 2nd/3rd properties, running multiples listings in HIGH DENSITY areas that are super reliant on tourism, most of which are no-go zones now and for foreseeable future.

1/ Were it not the whole "health pandemic aspect", entrepreneurs live for these times. We get bored when things get too routine.

I launched @watchmojo in 2006 with $250K I'd saved, and months later: bam, hit with a frivolous lawsuit by News/FOX. Mounted defence & prevailed, but 2/ before I could enjoy victory, lawsuit had scared off possible investors and before I knew it: I ran out of money by 2007, at which point the "unique" risk of lawsuit was dwarfed by systematic meltdown created by Lehman Bros.' econocalypse. Scarcity of resources forced clarity

1/ @profgalloway has been ahead of @WeWork story & unsure if this is the point HE'S making but a lot of people are retweeting/sharing & IMHO the target of their empathy seems misplaced & bizarre.

https://twitter.com/profgalloway/status/1179412761052401668

@profgalloway @WeWork 2/ Don't wanna say these jobs @Uber & @WeWork should not have existed/created as that's not accurate nor fair, but these high-risk jobs were created STRICTLY through the lens of money-losing, venture-funded framework under the paradigm of DISRUPTION...

Apparently DOJ is going to go after Google on antitrust grounds.
wsj.com/articles/justi… Many @profgalloway @DinaSrinivasan @karaswisher have proposed this. esquire.com/news-politics/… - Is Google truly in danger? It depends.

1/Wonder why @youtube is fodder for conspiracy theories? Last Friday we published:
Counter-strike: Exposing ContentID Abusers.
How YouTube's ContentID system has become Google's Achilles Heel & exposes rights holders to antitrust & class action lawsuits
2/ Immediately we noticed the 40-min, 3GB file was stuck at “100% processed” despite being available to watch as an Unlisted video.

1/ U r seeing academics/journalists pushing case for Antitrust vs
AMZN boingboing.net/2017/08/07/eco…
FB papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…
But usually Govt files Antitrust suit. If private citizens or firms can show they're victim of antitrust behavior they 2 can file suit 2 enforce antitrust law 2/ We've seen politicians r fairly unclear (i.e. Zuckerberg's testimony) about more obvious aspects of tech/internet, let alone intricacies of how vertical/horizontal integration (what took down Standard Oil, AT&T) creates unfair competition, lead to abuse of power in an industry