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0:01:50 I’m in LA, and it’s been an emotional week on several dimensions. Many of my closest friends
0:01:56 are celebrating our 50th. It’s wonderful. Any competitiveness, jealousy, or other petty
0:02:04 bullshit has melted away. All that’s left is collective joy at our friendships and adult
0:02:10 children to boast about and cap our accomplishments. On the other end of the spectrum, my dad,
0:02:18 who’s 94, is struggling and no longer recognizes me. I knew it was coming, but still wasn’t prepared.
0:02:25 All these emotions are colliding and reminding me that much or most of the joy or tragedy in
0:02:34 our lives is not in our control. This is difficult for humans to accept. So we create an origin story.
0:02:43 Origin story, as read by George Hahn. This post is originally from early 2023.
0:02:56 Every one of us has an origin story. We define ourselves by our background,
0:03:02 the narrative of what made us who we are. However, people often don’t let the truth
0:03:08 get in the way of a good story, and the narrative of I is often that, a story.
0:03:17 James Fry found no takers for his novel, so he repackaged it as a memoir, his story,
0:03:22 which became the number one bestseller a million little pieces.
0:03:28 Biographies and memoirs are America’s second favorite book genre.
0:03:33 Ronald Reagan tried to curry favor with Israeli leaders with a story about
0:03:40 how he helped liberate Nazi death camps in World War II. He didn’t, did his military service in
0:03:47 Hollywood. Fabricated military service is apparently so common that Congress passed a law against it.
0:03:53 People embellish their origin stories, as it’s the only thing others have to go on,
0:04:00 from potential employers and friends to potential mates. We are the product of our circumstances,
0:04:06 personally and professionally, and a good origin story confers meaning to our life and career.
0:04:13 We should recognize that and embrace it, but also be honest about it.
0:04:20 The most important factor in determining a person’s future is when and where they are born.
0:04:26 Each of us, born into any other situation, would experience a different outcome.
0:04:31 Just as the market trumps individual performance, so does circumstance.
0:04:37 I likely would not be an entrepreneur or an academic had I been born in South Sudan.
0:04:44 If I’d been born in 1920s Germany, I’d likely have been a Nazi who perished on a Russian field.
0:04:52 This isn’t just true across continents and centuries, it’s also evident at a micro level.
0:04:56 Being born one year earlier or later can make a big difference.
0:05:04 People who graduate into a recession earn less for 10 to 15 years than those who graduate
0:05:12 amid prosperity. Fate also changes block to block. One of the strongest signals of life
0:05:19 expectancy and much else is the zip code where you’re born. Within the same city,
0:05:27 life expectancy can vary by 30 years based on zip code. Meanwhile, an American female whose
0:05:33 parents rank in the bottom decile of earners has a 3 in 10 chance of having a teenage pregnancy.
0:05:41 For daughters in the top decile, it’s 3 in 100. This all confirms a basic point.
0:05:45 The cards you’re dealt matter. A lot.
0:05:54 Your income is the clearest indicator of how much money your kid will make when they’re 30.
0:05:59 Churn is increasingly a rare earth element in the U.S.
0:06:05 Per a Georgetown analysis, quote, “It’s better to be born rich than smart.”
0:06:13 The most talented, disadvantaged children have a lower chance of academic and early
0:06:20 career success than the least talented affluent children, unquote. However,
0:06:27 the people dealt the best cards can’t see their hands. The myth of the self-made man is
0:06:33 rife among U.S. citizens who’ve never faced a draft or registered a devaluation in their currency.
0:06:37 People who are remora fish on investments made by the U.S. government.
0:06:44 Tech has raised a cohort of people who simultaneously credit their character for their success
0:06:52 and blame a rigged market for their failures. The real cage match in tech is entitlement versus
0:06:59 empathy. The former is winning and that results in a staggering accumulation of power that’s
0:07:05 amoral, focused only on the aggregation of more power regardless of what happens to people with
0:07:11 less. Side note, I hope they beat the shit out of each other. Is that wrong?
0:07:20 Until 40, my story was that I was the son of a single immigrant mother who lived and died a
0:07:26 secretary. I overcame those humble beginnings to achieve significant success because, you know,
0:07:33 I’m awesome. After 40, my eyesight began to wane, but I could see clearer.
0:07:41 I was born a straight white male in 1960s California, which gave me state-sponsored access
0:07:49 to elite universities. UCLA had an acceptance rate of 76% when I applied. This year, it’s
0:08:00 less than 9%. Later, Berkeley admitted me to its MBA program with a GPA of, no joke, 2.27 from UCLA.
0:08:10 Total tuition for all seven years, $8,000. I came of professional age in an era of processing power
0:08:16 and the internet. I lived in San Francisco where in the decade of the 90s, more wealth was created
0:08:23 within a seven mile radius than in all of Europe since World War II. I was given a rocket ship
0:08:29 built by others. To be clear, I’m talented and navigated the ship well, but I wasn’t going to
0:08:37 soar without the sacrifice and talent of millions of others. The ship blew up several times,
0:08:44 but I survived and there were other vessels waiting. Luck doesn’t begin to describe my situation.
0:08:52 My freshman college roommate, Born Gay, took his own life at 33 when his HIV progressed to full
0:09:00 blown AIDS. Like others, I have faced hardship and absent father and tragedy lost my mom early.
0:09:07 But each of these losses has played a role in my good fortune. I make my living communicating and
0:09:13 much of this skill isn’t the result of my own hard work. My dad can captivate any room
0:09:16 and even though he wasn’t around much, I inherited some of his ability.
0:09:24 My mom’s sickness and our inability to access good care was a hugely motivating defining moment
0:09:31 for me. I saw the rough cut of the American story and decided to get my shit together in hopes of
0:09:36 living a richer life and garnering the resources to take better care of the people who mattered to me.
0:09:44 Capitalism is brutal and motivating. Lately the balance has swung too far to the former,
0:09:51 but that’s another post. Supposedly each of us has bits of every material present at the dawn
0:09:58 of the universe. It makes sense, at least the morning after mushroom chocolates, that our
0:10:05 matter will also be present in galaxies, stars, planets, organisms birthed trillions of years
0:10:12 from now. Our stories may or may not make the journey, but the emotions they inspire will become
0:10:18 instinct, then DNA and this matter will disperse. So the question is,
0:10:26 distinct from the story you and others tell about yourself? How do you make people feel?
0:10:32 When people come in contact with you, do they feel insecure or inspired?
0:10:40 Do you leave people cold or comforted? Do you bring joy, harmony, love?
0:10:49 I’m in a deficit here. I’ve taken more than I’ve given. I have a debt to pay. I’ve started with my
0:10:56 boys and I’m working outward from there. Still time. It’s a comforting thought that bits of us
0:11:03 will live on and arrive at distant places trillions of years from now. We all have our longest journey
0:11:09 still ahead of us. When you get there, when you show up, what will be felt?
0:11:14 Distinct from your origin story, what was your real journey?
0:11:22 There’s only one real journey that matters. Who did you love and who loved you?
0:11:32 Life is so rich.
0:11:35 you