Welcome to The Business Academy.

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Our Enduring Ventures yearly shareholder letter is out! You can read it in in long form here, or the Twitter thread here.

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I used to be a short-term thinker

I operated out of fear and limited resources.

When I started my first company, I was also working a restaurant job. I desperately needed my first company to work to pay my bills.

My plan was to start the business, run it for a few years, sell it then move on.

When I started my second business, I had a similar plan. Start, grow, and sell after a few years (I succeeded at this).

But then my mind shifted during the summer of 2018.

That summer I spent a lot of time thinking, walking, and introspecting on what brings me joy.

I realized that I had been spending time on things that seemed fun in the short term but didn’t positively impact my life.

Up to that point I was saying yes to everything.

Interesting money-making opportunity? I’ll give it a try.

Want to go to a bar with a friend? Sure, I have time.

Should we take a quick trip to Mexico? yes, I love Mexico.

All of these decisions on the surface didn’t seem bad. But they were keeping me from being intentional with my time and energy.

I realized the following 3 things bring me joy:

1. Building long-term projects
2. Family
3. Community

Every minute that I was spending not investing in one of these 3 things, I was detracting from my life.

True joy > Short-term excitement

Going on a quick trip to Mexico with new friends brought me short-term excitement. But it took away from the time I could have gone to visit my parents. And visiting my parents brings me true joy.

On building long-term projects...

After years of starting companies with the intent to sell…I founded Enduring Ventures.

As the name suggests the intent of this business is to be my longest term project. I plan to do this until I die or retire (sorry to be grim).

I've changed my focus away from multiple short-term projects, towards a single long-term journey.

Some positive changes I’ve observed as this has happened:

1. I'm more relaxed: I know that I won’t solve all problems in a short period. But I’m confident most things will get resolved over the long term.
2. More time to be creative: When I was in a rush to build and grow a company, my thinking was linear. I was focused on daily execution. I didn’t spend much time thinking about the bigger picture. Now that I have more time, I go between execution and creative thinking which helps us imagine a bigger future.
3. Compounding learnings. At my first startup, I became a specialist in education software. In my second startup, I became a specialist in Clinical Trial services. Those two had some shared experiences but the learnings didn’t truly overlap. Now my job is to be a capital allocator. With every investment, I gain a bit of knowledge and it makes me a better investor over time. I can see that in 5 years and 10 years, I will be a much better capital allocator than I am today. I encourage you to find a path where your learning can compound over the long term.
4. Compounding relationships - I used to think of my interactions with team members as specific to my company. It never went beyond that. Now when I have a good working relationship with someone, I know we have a long path of working together. We may collaborate on different projects. Invest in things together…and more.
5. More focus - I say no to most things that may be distracting to our long term mission. If there is no long-term potential for the business I don’t pursue it

What are you approaching with a short-term mindset today that you could think more long-term about?

How would your relationship with your family, friends, and business change if you focused more on what brings you long-term joy?

I encourage you to spend time on this exercise...it's helped change my life.

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🔑 One great read

​The man behind the $200 billion dollar behemoth. In 1885 Dr. John Pemberton, an Atlanta-based pharmacist and innovator discovered a leaf that was chewed in South America for energy, vitality and to support digestion. Seeing an opportunity, Pemberton mixed the product called "Coca" with wine, and brought to market Pemberton's French Wine Coca (names were simpler back then). All of a sudden there were talks of the upcoming prohibition in the US...so Pemberton made a non-alcoholic variety. He added fizzy water, sweetener, and Kola nut for its caffeine. He called the product Coca-Cola.

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🔑 This guy is building an ATM empire, and sharing his journey on Twitter

Listen to this interview with Mitchell if you want to learn the ins and outs of the ATM business. On Apple​ Podcasts, Spotify, and my new YouTube channel.

Have a great week,

Sieva

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Disclaimer: nothing here is investment advice. Please do your own research. The information above is just for information and learning.

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