I considered moving out of the USA.

After some research, I realized leaving is stupid.

There is no chance the USA will stop being the global superpower.

And the best country for opportunity.

The reason surprised me:

⬇️ First, the usual arguments for optimism about USA are:

• democracy
• the rule of law
• the US Dollar
• aircraft carriers (i.e., strongest military)
• immigration
• entrepreneurial culture
• and many more.

But...

Many companies’ KPIs are way overcomplicated.

And a pain to track and fill out!

It misses the whole point of why KPIs exist:

To predict the future of your business.

Here’s my simple system to make them useful again: 👇 I’ll use our company @hirewithnear to explain.

Near helps companies hire nearshore employees in LATAM.

Here’s a screenshot of their KPIs (actual #'s removed!).

This simple spreadsheet shows the future of the business.

Here's how we did it:

I’ve watched my friends make $1,000,000s.

The secret?

Investing in ways only business owners can.

8 unconventional ways they did it: 1) Acquire one of your suppliers

• Both businesses get guaranteed supplier/customer
• “Vertical integration” = efficiency
• Gives you a competitive advantage

Example: Grocery chain buys the local milk supplier.

When people start something with a partner…

They often make a big mistake.

They don’t create alignment on Day 1.

It can end in disaster later.

Here’s the tool to solve that. 🧵 It’s called a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).

You and your partner(s) put down in writing:

• What's the idea/vision
• Who's doing what
• What's our plan

It’s not a contract or legal document.

You usually write it yourself with no lawyers.

After being in hundreds of board meetings, I've learned:

World-class board members are worth their weight in gold.

Here's how the greatest board members set themselves apart.

🧵 ** They sprint to problems

When a company stumbles, great board members jump in right away.

“We have a problem, you say? Let’s get on the phone today and do some work!”

Average board members let problems get solved -- sooner or later.

Now is a turbulent time in our economy.

My eldest son is about to go to college.

He asked me what careers to pursue, and what to avoid.

Here’s what I told him: First, look at what trends are going on in the world.

- Globalization of workforce
- Reindustrialization of USA
- Shrinking birth rate
- Emergence of AI
- Increasing size of US gov’t spend

So what do you do with this knowledge?

First, what to AVOID:

A lot of people think all HoldCos are basically Berkshire Hathaway.

But believe it or not, we’re not all Warren Buffett.

There’s actually 4 different types of HoldCos.

And they’re each useful in different situations. 🧵 Here are the 4 types of HoldCos:

1) HoldCo (eg. Berkshire Hathaway)
2) Accumulator (eg. @dura_software)
3) Platform (eg. Roper)
4) Roll-up (eg. Waste Management)

These are shown here (thanks @willschoebs and Scott Management):

I spent $96,000 producing videos this last year.

I gained 2,200 followers.

With some videos getting <100 views.

But I’ve finally figured it out. (I think.)

Here are the 8 biggest things I’ve learned from a year of failing (and now succeeding) at video: A little background:

I’ve been hard-core creating on social the past few years.

I love teaching, and it makes business building so much easier.

But I realized I was only on one platform (Twitter)… and what if something happened to it?

I decided to branch out into video.

Americans are terrified to be honest with each other.

We go to parties or work, but everyone keeps tough talk to themselves.

(I have 10-year colleagues and I don’t know their religion or politics.)

I only realized how weird this is when I visited other countries.

👇🧵 If I want to improve continually, American culture makes it hard.

I need feedback from others to get better.

Here’s my OVER THE TOP feedback system I run:

(Yes, it’s stupid I have to do this but I’m playing the hand I’m dealt!)

We hired a private chef to cook for our family.

It was an amazing decision.

What we learned was surprising: Context: my son has a chronic health problem.

So we needed breathing room.

I looked at our time and frustration each week.

Food was a big pain.

We ate poorly, rushed meals and spent hours in prep/planning.

On our podcast @acquanon, we see this often:

A retiring person owns a business worth $750k.

But they used that business years ago to own real estate worth $5mm today.

This is how to set it up. 🧵 It's called the "OpCo / PropCo" structure...

Your business is the Operating Corporation (the "OpCo").

You buy the real estate via a "Property Corporation" you create.

OpCo rents your business real estate from PropCo.

Generation X is weird.

These 43-58 year-olds are so strange it presents golden opportunities.

Here are 10 mind hacks to use with Gen X: DISCLAIMER: I’ll be generalizing.

Not every Gen X will think this way.

Especially those Gen Xers closer in age to either Boomers (born 1946-64) or Millennials (born 1981-96).

But these will work with most.

I know a big business where no employees quit for a whole year.

How?

The CEO spends tons of time communicating their story.

One great tool for this is...

The Open Book Meeting.

Here’s how we do ours: This meeting has different names:

· Open Book
· All Hands
· Townhall

Our type is called “Open Book.”

This name reflects the nature of the meeting:

The CEO updates the entire company, good and bad -- with transparency.

Increasing:

· alignment
· engagement
· culture

PSA: You need a Chief of Staff.

I hired one last year.

My productivity doubled – and I’m having a ton more fun.

I regret not doing it years ago.

Here's a thread on how I did it: Let’s start with what a Chief of Staff isn’t.

This is NOT an Executive Assistant.

While there are bits of menial work, the role is high-level.

The CoS covers my “messy middle” of necessary projects.

Too complex for an EA.

But things that someone else could own/accelerate.

What happens in the days after you die?

It will be horrible for your loved ones.

I learned about something you can do to make that easier for them:

The Green Box Exercise. Here’s how it works:

Collect all the info your loved ones will need after you’re gone.

Put it in a box. (Preferably green.)

With a roadmap to find everything.

This will save your family, lawyers, etc., from puzzling out a million loose ends.

Here’s what I put in mine:

Businesses die when they run out of money.

There is one tool to survive a cash crisis.

The 13-week Rolling Cash Flow Forecast 🧵: It is a simple spreadsheet.

To forecast your cash precisely by the week.

For 13 weeks -- a short enough time to be precise.

And just enough time to get ahead of problems.

Here’s the Excel template I’ve used (link at end):

I considered moving out of the USA.

After some research, I realized leaving is stupid.

There is no chance the USA will stop being the global superpower.

And the best country for opportunity.

The reason surprised me:

⬇️ First, the usual arguments for optimism about USA are:

• democracy
• the rule of law
• the US Dollar
• aircraft carriers (i.e., strongest military)
• immigration
• entrepreneurial culture
• and many more.

But...

My craziest conspiracy theory:

Parents aren’t actually happy.

But, they think they are happy because their kids brainwashed them.

It’s the same playbook the army uses to indoctrinate happy, dedicated soldiers.

Give me 3 minutes to explain:

🧵 First, being a parent objectively sucks.

- Costs hundreds of thousands of dollars
- Kids’ schedule runs your life
- They can be super mean
- It’s hard freakin’ work!

But ask any parent, and they’ll say they’re happier than before kids.

(Me included!)

Hard truth:

Your crappy business partner relationship will keep sucking.

Success comes from the start.

- Finding the right person
- Setting it up properly

Answering these questions BEFORE you partner with someone: 🧵 * Does each partner bring complementary things?

Partnerships are about 1+1=3.

If you’re both excellent at the same things, that’s not helpful.

You need partners bringing what you don't.

How to terminate an employee with kindness and care…

You'll need this sooner or later if you’re a manager/CEO. Bookmark it now!

🧵 DISCLAIMER: Terminating employees always sucks.

But like hiring, it’s an unavoidable task.

I try to remember employees are humans and deserve kindness and respect.

No matter the reason.

OK, with that said, here are the steps to do it when you’re forced to let someone go:

Want to start a company but not run it yourself?

I’ve done it a bunch.

Some have gone great, like @dura_software.

Others kind of sucked.

Here are 10 ways I learned to incubate companies better: * Nobody wants to work on my sh*tty ideas.

I believed I could get great people to believe in my ideas.

I was wrong.

The only sure way to get someone bought in is to develop the idea with them.

When they talk to genuine customers, they get the fire.