Curve Balls

This issue of The Random is all about life throwing you curve balls.

One of the amenities that attracted my wife and I to our current house was a basketball court in the backyard.

It’s seen plenty of use.

For a few years running, that court was busy every Sunday night. We’d get about 8-10 guys each week to play a few games (until someone was injured or couldn't breathe).

Last year, for obvious reasons, there were no games. Toward the end of the 2020 summer, a storm came through and knocked out one of the hoops. Last month, we installed the new hoop, so we were ready to go for this summer.

Monday night (see picture) a tree fell on the court and destroyed the other hoop.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that it could have fallen on the house, the shed, the generator or a small child. I also get a hoop upgrade, and now both hoops will match.

I don’t have any huge insight into this, other than if you live among the tall trees these things are to be expected.

 
TILT Coin Update

We launched our creator coin $TILT on the Rally.io network in February at 29 cents per coin. This week it climbed to over $20 per coin. If you subscribe to this newsletter and don’t have any yet, I’d love to give you some starter coin. Just go to Rally.io, sign up (free) and reply to this email with your Network ID.

 
Where’s the Exit?

It doesn’t matter what industry entrepreneurs are in, what country they live in, or how many people are involved in the business. One thing is for sure: they almost always lack an exit strategy.

Maybe you think you don’t need one. Perhaps you want to leave the business to your kids when you pass. Perhaps you want your business partner to take over. Maybe you dream of selling big someday. Whatever is in your head, we need to get that plan on paper and start on the strategy immediately.

When do you begin the exit strategy? When you start the business.

If you don’t own a business, you probably think you are excluded from this discussion. Uh, no.

I’m not sure why, but exit strategies have always fascinated me. I’m the type of person who thinks about the exit as soon as I begin anything.

If I’m writing, I’m wondering all the things this content will become.

If I’m buying a stock, I want to know when I will sell or when I will buy more.

Before I became an entrepreneur, I always needed a plan when accepting a job with a company. How long will I stay? What could happen that would make me leave? What position in the company did I really want?

Maybe your plan is to stay until retirement (whatever that means). What then? What does retirement look like? How can you mold it to your fancy? Write it down.

Visualize yourself and your family in 10 years. Where are you? What are you doing? What’s different? How are you making the world a better place? Write it down.

According to the Edward Lowe Foundation, there are a number of steps in creating an exit strategy.

Decide on a target date for a change in your role.

Get feedback from your family or investors. They need to be aware of your thinking.

Create the plan. You can sell the company to your children, to employees, or to a strategic or financial buyer. You could also merge with another company. If you work for someone, what would trigger a move? Where do you want to go inside the organization? Maybe you should write down some target dates.

Once complete, publish the plan. Your management and family members should know your intentions. One of the best things we did when we sold Content Marketing Institute was making sure the management team knew ahead of time and was compensated on any transaction.

When you’re ready, start implementing the plan.

What have I learned about exit strategies? You can never be over prepared. You can never review it too many times. And finally, actually write it down on paper and keep it close to you. When the curve ball comes (and it always done), you’ll be prepared.

Here’s a video of my strategy for writing and reviewing goals like this.

 
El Salvador Makes Bitcoin Legal Tender

Last week, with an overwhelming majority, El Salvador agreed to make bitcoin a legal currency.

This is huge news.

This means that prices can be denominated in bitcoin, taxes paid in bitcoin, no capital gains tax (since it’s a currency, not property like it is in the United States), and merchants must accept bitcoin at all locations.

Here’s the complete bill if you are curious.

I believe more countries, especially ones without their own currency (those pegged to the US dollar), will follow El Salvador’s move.

Ark Investments says this about this move:

“…bitcoin could become an important savings vehicle in emerging markets, so much so that businesses might demand payment in bitcoin instead of fiat. If so, the velocity of their fiat currencies would accelerate, causing currency devaluation and exacerbating inflation as measured by their sovereign currencies. In the unfortunate event of hyperinflation, fiat-denominated debt would become worthless and dollar-denominated bonds unpayable.”

In plain speak, this is economic empowerment. For some people in El Salvador, this is their first exposure to savings of any kind (most in El Salvador do not use banks). For them, the US dollar has always been worth less as the days go on. This has not been true for bitcoin.

If you are curious about how bitcoin is currently being used in El Salvador, here’s an interview with Mike Peterson, the founder of Bitcoin Beach, who has been working on this issue in country for three years.

The question you should be asking is how will this affect your portfolio and how will this affect the future of the US dollar?