The best things in life are earned, not bought. [#71]

“Oh, let me just plug that into ChatGPT”, the woman next to me said. 

I looked at her, puzzled. Why would you possibly do that? 

Let’s rewind: 

Last week, I attended one of these typical Berlin startup events. The guys from Founder Mode did a live podcast (that was surprisingly good), and followed it up with a round of startup trivia, who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire style. 

Questions like “Which PE fund recently took over the Wacken Open Air festival?” (Here’s your answer).

It was fun … until my teammate pulled out her phone … for all eight questions. 

Winning at all costs 

One thing most entrepreneurs have in common: they’re highly competitive, and want to win at all costs.

That’s good: the truly world-changing companies didn’t get where they are by following the established rules; they got there by critically questioning the assumptions prevalent in the world. 

Business is a game with a limited set of rules. There are no clear markers for winning and losing. While you have to operate within a certain set of rules (that plenty of entrepreneurs attempt to circumvent), there’s no finish line for the game.

Business is an infinite game, and you can make your own rules within fairly broad guardrails. 

That allows you to do two things: 

1. Define your own markers of “winning” (ie. Building a cashflow-positive business, a unicorn, having impact – all up to you)
2. Doing whatever it takes that’s not against the law or otherwise ethically questionable to get there 

If you run your business purely based on AI, congrats! You’re embracing new technology, learning it, reshaping it for the future. I’m all for vibe coding, building AI agents, and trying out all possible use cases. 

But you know where I’m against AI? 

On f**king trivia nights. 

The best things in life are earned, not bought. 

Would you find joy in beating a bunch of 5-year olds at a game of Catan? 

How fun would it be to play a chess match with a computer whispering the perfect move to you every time (even without anal beads)?

Not that much fun, eh? 

Cheating eliminates the joy of winning. A game is only fun as long as you engage in fair competition with others at a similar level. Winning without effort isn’t fun. 

The things that give us pride are the things that we worked the hardest for. 

In 2020, I cycled from Frankfurt to Munich in 4 days. 

On my way back, I took a train that took 03:13h for the exact same distance. 

I don’t even remember the train journey. But I’m still proud of the fact that I cycled all that way (and did 213km on the last day alone … on a singlespeed bike … with 1520m in elevation gains). 

No money in the world could’ve bought me the feeling of pride when I arrived at my grandma’s house, sweaty, dirty, and completely exhausted. 

And with a smile on my face. 

Back to trivia night. 

The second question was: “how much money has Mariah Carey made with royalties from ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ until 2024?” 

• (A) USD 2M
• (B) USD 20M
• (C) USD 75M
• (D) USD 250M 

Hm. Let’s see. The song has been around for some time, at least 20 years. So let’s estimate yearly royalties.

• (A) is out, because 100k/year is not nearly enough for a song that literally plays for all of December across the entire world.
• (B) at 1M/year still seems somewhat low.
• (C) 3.75M/year seems more feasible in terms of royalties.
• (D) on the other hand, at 12.5M/year is A LOT. 

I also remembered from the Acquired podcast about Taylor Swift that one million streams generate about 40.000 € in royalties. If the song is streamed 100M times annually, that’d translate to answer (C). Honestly, that’s not too far off. 300M streams annually seems high, though. 

So the answer is probably (C). 

It was. Mariah Carey reportedly earns 2.5-3M USD per year from royalties. I just had no idea the song was already released in 1994. 🤯

ChatGPT lady got to the same answer. 

Guess who was more delighted when we found out the solution. 

Not only do games serve our enjoyment when played properly – they challenge us and force us to learn.

Thinking through the question above was a great exercise in making assumptions and doing quick mental math, combined with combing through knowledge acquired previously that all the sudden became useful. 

Taking the easy route can be an option. But always recognize that it comes at a cost: the cost of not exercising your muscles, mental or physical. 

Take the stairs, not the elevator. Figuratively and literally. 

Question for you:

What’s one thing where you’re always taking the easy route? Could you make it more rewarding by taking a harder route this week? 

Have a great start to the week. Sun's out, spring is back in Berlin, there's never been a better time to get after it.

LFG. 🔥

Two interesting articles I've read recently:

• The Case Against Conversational Interfaces by Julian Lehr: ChatGPT is likely not the ultimate evolution of the way we interact with AI. As always, Julian breaks this topic down using clear writing and visuals.
• The Future of Full-Time Employment is Changing by Elena Verna: as I've argued for a long time, having one full-time job likely isn't the answer. Career optionality is the ultimate goal.

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