I've been thinking a lot about tradition lately
This one may ruffle a few feathers:
Starting a business has made me more right-wing.
For a while, I struggled to understand why. Most of my peers are left-leaning, which for the past 10 or even 20 years or so has almost been a given, the default operating system for anyone under the age of 30.
Wealth? Bad. Religion? Bad. Tradition? What a bunch of old hokey. "All it ever did was hold us back," they cry.
I'll never forget the first time I voiced a different opinion. I had started my business, but was still working my old recruiting job and was on a lunch break with my old team. Amazon Billi-boy Jeffy B came up in conversation, and the group all nodded in unison, and each took turns ripping into the guy.
He shouldn't be allowed to be that rich. But no, we're definitely not jealous.
He's ruining the planet. (Yes, he personally is ruining the planet, not the billions of customers who love getting their daily dose of consumption on Prime delivery because they just can't wait for regular shipping.)
He's just simply a bad person. (Don't forget, rich = bad! Everyone agree... or else.)
So when I chirped up that if someone builds something that makes billions of people's lives easier and more convenient, I think they should be rewarded...
It was like I'd dug up Karl Marx and started fingerbanging his corpse in front of them.
The hive mind perceived a threat to their hegemony. To dare have a thought not approved by the group could not be tolerated. So they proceeded to turn all their hatred (and it is hatred... seething, sputtering hatred) of TRT Bezos toward yours truly.
It reaffirmed my suspicions of just how far modern culture had skewed left.
I guess it's inherent in being "progressive" that you'd want to tear down traditions such as capitalism, as if every aspect of every tradition has been oppressive, tyrannical, and kept the boot on the neck. That there is no value to the wisdom of our ancestors, each previous generation was a bunch of morons, and the modern left knows better. That there couldn't possibly be a good reason why traditions became traditions.
The same could be said about much of the modern advice about copywriting and email marketing.
"The old ways are dead... here's this new hack!"
The problem with much of the advice you get online is that it's from folks who think their business has to be unique. Therefore, they need to spew advice that goes against the grain to get attention. The reality is that business is boring. There are no hacks, tricks, or shortcuts, and the tried-and-tested traditions will get you right far more consistently than any zany oddball strategy that's being peddled as popular right now.
If you'd like to get your biz back to its roots and tap into the collective wisdom of tradition, here's the link:
James Perkins
P.S. If you're not willing to put in real work, consistently... I can't help you. Your forefathers worked their fingers to the bone to build a biz, and the internet don't change that.
