The Exchanges

Q Didn't you also try to buy Greenland at some point and get shut down?

A Yeah. Yeah. So this, so I was, I was doing a couple of different experiments there, but I saw how Trump had tweeted. He wants to buy Greenland and the prime minister of Denmark, for some reason tweeted back. It's not for sale. And I'm like, what the hell just happened here? Did a president United States just offer to buy a country on Twitter and then Denmark, which is this tiny little country, they said no. What do they have to do with Greenland? So it kind of forced me to research what, you know, why anybody would want Greenland. It turns out Greenland and China are the only places you could find all these rare earth minerals, and so I figured, and I wanted to experiment with my writing a little bit, so I did an article in the form of a Kickstarter. I made a Kickstarter to buy Greenland, and they kicked me off, but then Indiegogo, I think, let me do it, And I started raising, like, thousands of dollars. It was an interesting way to write about why I would want to do it, and you could become a duke if you can give me a hundred dollars, and we'll get a holiday after you if you give a thousand dollars, and you get an acre if you give more, and, and so on. And so, so they started making, raising thousands of dollars, but then Indiegogo shut it down because they said, look, we know you're just joking around. We don't want to pay back the, uh, um, you know, we're eating the American…

AI assessment note: “I made a Kickstarter to buy Greenland, and they kicked me off”

Q egoically wrapped up into how much cash we have in our bank account and what our title is without even realizing it. So one, I think it's really cool that you talk about it. It must be really, really hard, especially when you were one of the first ones. What actually happened? I've read lots of different accounts. I've heard about it. In your words, how did you get there?

A Yeah, so it, it didn't happen because I was like buying big expensive things. So I remember at one point, look, there was the internet boom. I sold a company during that time, but then I cashed out. So I remember just hitting reload on my, you know, account, and like there was fifteen million dollars, like, cash in there, and I was so happy, because it does, you do feel happy, like, oh, now this whole thing I've had to worry about my whole life, like I was born broke, lived broke, Grew up broke, and suddenly I had this money, which meant my kids were gonna be okay, they wouldn't have the worries that I grew up with, or my parents grew up with, and I did it. And, but then suddenly, I saw, oh, all these other people are selling their companies in this internet boom, and I would look at my fifteen million, and it, it didn't feel like a lot anymore. Like, this was, this is gonna sound crazy, but this is how I thought. I actually felt, all of a sudden, Like I was broke, even though I had the fifteen million. So I felt, you know what? I'm going to make a hundred million because then I'll really have something to talk about. And so I started, so how do you go from 15 to a hundred million? Well, I figured investing is the way to do it. And I do nothing about investing, but the problem with making money is you think all of a sudden you're smart. Like, oh, I made money in this one area. …

AI assessment note: “I sold a company during that time... I figured investing is the way to do it.”

Q That's so, just curious, what does it feel like When you hit that zero, like what does that feel like losing 15 mil for somebody that hasn't? By the way, I've lost a lot of money. So, uh, no pot kettle here.

A Yeah. So it's the worst feeling in the world. It really is horrible. Like, like this is going to sound horrible too, but if you lose a close family member, like for instance, around one of these times I lost my father and that was very painful to, to lose your father, no matter what, Age you are to lose a parent and very, very painful, very, very hard, but there's a process for that. There's a grieving process. And then you always remember, I always remember my dad and, but you move forward. Life goes on. That's the normal cycle of things. But going broke is, feels worse than that because there is no There's no normal process of going broke and, and moving on from that. Like everybody hides the fact that they've gone broke or had failures or so on. So people don't really discuss this that much. And also you don't know the future. You don't know, am I ever going to come back from this? Am I ever going to be able to rent an apartment again, feed my kids again? Uh, you know, should I just kill myself now? Like that's how bad I thought I would, I would Google How I could kill myself without hurting myself, because I didn't want to have pain in the process. By the way, there's no way to really do it, so I wouldn't encourage it, but for, there was a point where, because I wrote about this, there was a point where if you Googled, how do I kill myself, I was like the number one search …

AI assessment note: “So it's the worst feeling in the world. It really is horrible.”

Q okay, the topic is Greenland, Greenland. The format is a Kickstarter story about it, or the format is we're going to travel there and, um, you know, we're going to do a discovery channel version. And so it's fascinating how there's so many versions of ideas. I really liked that. Speaking of that, you have a, you, you basically turned to this movement of ideation into an app, right? Notepd.

A Yeah, note, n-o-t-e-p-d.com, um, notepad.com, but I have to say, despite the fact that over the years so many people have said, oh, you should build this as an app, I would use it, you, you could never believe what people tell you they would use, so like, but somebody contacted me and offered to, uh, build this, so I said yes, and I'm, I'm proud of it, it's got like a couple thousand users, but it doesn't really grow, and I, I think an important lesson there really is, is that When someone says something positive, it actually has no informational value. Like, there could be a lot of reasons why someone says, sure, I would buy your product, or I would use this concept, or, you know, build it, and then, yeah, I'll pay for it. Um, but there's, they could be saying that for a lot of reasons. One is, they could like the idea, but they don't really know themselves, and they're not really gonna use it. The other thing is, they could be like, oh, I just, Want to say yes to this guy's idea. So he goes away and, and, and so on. But no has, if you're building a business, no has real informational value. Like if, if, if, if you buy a laundromat and someone across the street says, nah, I'm not going to use that laundromat. That person has some valuable information for you as opposed to sure. I'll use that laundromat. I've never used it before, but I'll use it. That has zero informational co…

AI assessment note: “Yeah, note, n-o-t-e-p-d.com, um, notepad.com, but I have to say”

Q guy, uh, Nathan Berry, who I'm friends with, who runs ConvertKit, that's like, yeah, I, uh, went to school locally for college. I've never left. The longest I've ever been away from my home is four weeks. But besides that, I couldn't find somebody. So do you also think there's something to the fact of, like, when you're struggling, like, move physically during the day, but also maybe move place?

A Yeah, yeah, I think, I think that's true. I never thought of it that way, but you do have to, you know, let's say we don't really, self-awareness is something that's, that's, Very low for most people for good reason. Like there's no reason for us to really know who we are. We usually see ourselves through how other people see us. So maybe there's something to the point where if you go to other locations, now you have much more variety of how people see you. And, and plus you learn as well by seeing how the rest of the world is. Plus it's just fun. It's like every time you go someplace, it's an adventure. You can make an adventure out of it. And I always like to think of myself as trying to find mini quests to pursue. So a quest is different than a goal, and it's different than a journey. A quest might be, like, something that's impossible, like me buying Greenland. But okay, I'm gonna figure out a way to begin this quest, and along the way, I'm gonna have adventures. Now that one was a very quick quest that failed, that I had a mini adventure with, but let's say for, for about six years I tried to be A real serious stand-up comedian. Like, I was performing six nights a week, twice a night, and I even owned part of a comedy club during this time, and then I ended up traveling all over the country, all over the world, like I toured around the Netherlands, for instance, and what a…

AI assessment note: “Yeah, yeah, I think, I think that's true. I never thought of it that way”

Q viewers that I do on his podcast that you just wrote? You have a, can you believe you have a podcast? And I just, because the hubris from some of these people, like, yeah, Joe Rogan, that aged well. Like, there was a tweet that aged well, but I bet you got a bunch of hate from it, and somehow the hate is so much louder than all the love.

A Yeah, it is, like, you know, it's just like, well, it's just like in, in marriage, like one negative interaction with your spouse, you know, you have to have, like, six positive interactions. I forget what research says this, but you have to have six positive interactions to make up for it, and Uh, it's the same thing with, if, like, the mistake you can make is thinking that Twitter is important, and that people's reactions on Twitter is important, and that it's nothing more than just a place to, like, make some fun tweets and, and laugh about it, and, and also it's a vehicle for building a platform, like, to drive people towards a newsletter, and so on, but, like, when you start, like, there was this period in, in, in, in, when I had written this article about New York City, Where I was trying to argue with all the million people who were arguing with me on Twitter. And I'm like, no, no, you don't understand. It's not what I said. And why was I doing that to people with anonymous names who were just like, well, you're from Iowa. Why should we listen to you? And I'm like, no, I'm not from Iowa. I was born and raised in New York City. So like, why would I have to even responding to them? But I was.

AI assessment note: “Yeah, it is, like, you know, it's just like, well, it's just like in, in marriage”