Great piece Aaron. Obviously different dynamics in the UK, but I think all the same trends for all the same reasons.
A friend of a friend managed to create a multi-milion £ business in his mid twenties, selling a portion for £5m but recent tax changes have made the whole thing suddenly unprofitable! He's having to think about laying hundreds of staff off.
Business has very much become a "winner takes it all" kind of system where established players can survive tax hikes and regulation while new competitors get priced out.
Good post. I assume you've been tracking that there is a movement within the Democratic Party for what they call the Abundance Agenda. Matthew Iglesias is a big promoter of the ideas.
A good podcast to follow is A16Z. It is produced by Andresson-Horowitz and, agree with them or not, they have good looks at the challenges in different industries.
Even though I joined the USMC, I got a degree in Nuclear Engineering and remember toing to a meeting at the NY State Assembly where the ignorance of many activists was on full display with respect to radioactive waste, etc. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission was set up in the 1970s and there have been only a few new Nuclear reactors since that time. If you go back and read old articles, you'll notice that Bill Gates was long ago pointing out that Nuclear Energy was the only real solution to our long-term energy needs, but many years ago, Environmentalists opposed what amounts to our cleanest form of energy. Some of that has to do with an agenda that is against economic dynamism. It seems strange, but some are against these things because they contribute to growth, and they want contraction - a smaller population, etc.
The reason I enjoy listening to A16Z is that you hear about a lot of these regulatory battles as well as people who have the courage to take on the way things have been done for decades.
I wish my children could have had the childhood I had in the 70s and 80s. I was riding my bike to school when I was 5 years old. Of course, my brothers and I almost burned down a neighborhood once, but that's another matter of kids playing without supervision. We weren't malicious, just stupid and loved playing with matches in arid SoCal.
Good insights. Though one idea that I think is worth exploring more: entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA), or search funds. I've known a number of younger Millennials and older Zoomers that have launched these or have been looking into it. Mainly ex-IB guys.
The idea is you buy a local/regional SMB from a retiring Boomer, with some sort of structure where you partner together for the last few years of his career in order to learn the ropes of how to manage it. The classic seems to be things like HVAC and pest control.
A young IB guy isn't going to understand the ground-level game as well as the original founder who likely started out his career in the industry in question. Though he probably IS going to be more up to speed in business processes and IT. I'm not sure how this shakes out in terms of productivity or efficiency.
I only know about this through a few personal examples in my network though. I haven't seen any statistical figures around it. I imagine it wouldn't show up as a new business in the figures though.
Know what’s also neat about immigrants and business? They often don’t pay taxes or obey regulations like native born Americans!
I know I know, but still we have to stop saying “immigrant” like it’s all one thing. Listen I have a lived a less than sheltered life in major urban centers here and overseas. Plenty of nice, smiling immigrants who are perfectly personable and have radically different ethics at play.
So even when you say most are “great people” you’re saying more than you know. “Not monsters” is perhaps more accurate and no one really thinks that.
I’m kind of tired of hearing about immigrants having more sterling qualities than the natives. Again back to less than sheltered it was an immigrant who changed my career for the better, I nearly married an immigrant, my mothers family was heavily immigrant. The fact that they were all Christian though is a big deal.
Sigh. Did you have to cite Amway (which in Michigan we called Scamway) as an example? MLM firms are pyramid schemes notorious especially for preying on Christian women.
Great piece Aaron. Obviously different dynamics in the UK, but I think all the same trends for all the same reasons.
A friend of a friend managed to create a multi-milion £ business in his mid twenties, selling a portion for £5m but recent tax changes have made the whole thing suddenly unprofitable! He's having to think about laying hundreds of staff off.
Business has very much become a "winner takes it all" kind of system where established players can survive tax hikes and regulation while new competitors get priced out.
Good post. I assume you've been tracking that there is a movement within the Democratic Party for what they call the Abundance Agenda. Matthew Iglesias is a big promoter of the ideas.
A good podcast to follow is A16Z. It is produced by Andresson-Horowitz and, agree with them or not, they have good looks at the challenges in different industries.
Even though I joined the USMC, I got a degree in Nuclear Engineering and remember toing to a meeting at the NY State Assembly where the ignorance of many activists was on full display with respect to radioactive waste, etc. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission was set up in the 1970s and there have been only a few new Nuclear reactors since that time. If you go back and read old articles, you'll notice that Bill Gates was long ago pointing out that Nuclear Energy was the only real solution to our long-term energy needs, but many years ago, Environmentalists opposed what amounts to our cleanest form of energy. Some of that has to do with an agenda that is against economic dynamism. It seems strange, but some are against these things because they contribute to growth, and they want contraction - a smaller population, etc.
The reason I enjoy listening to A16Z is that you hear about a lot of these regulatory battles as well as people who have the courage to take on the way things have been done for decades.
I wish my children could have had the childhood I had in the 70s and 80s. I was riding my bike to school when I was 5 years old. Of course, my brothers and I almost burned down a neighborhood once, but that's another matter of kids playing without supervision. We weren't malicious, just stupid and loved playing with matches in arid SoCal.
Good insights. Though one idea that I think is worth exploring more: entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA), or search funds. I've known a number of younger Millennials and older Zoomers that have launched these or have been looking into it. Mainly ex-IB guys.
The idea is you buy a local/regional SMB from a retiring Boomer, with some sort of structure where you partner together for the last few years of his career in order to learn the ropes of how to manage it. The classic seems to be things like HVAC and pest control.
A young IB guy isn't going to understand the ground-level game as well as the original founder who likely started out his career in the industry in question. Though he probably IS going to be more up to speed in business processes and IT. I'm not sure how this shakes out in terms of productivity or efficiency.
I only know about this through a few personal examples in my network though. I haven't seen any statistical figures around it. I imagine it wouldn't show up as a new business in the figures though.
Know what’s also neat about immigrants and business? They often don’t pay taxes or obey regulations like native born Americans!
I know I know, but still we have to stop saying “immigrant” like it’s all one thing. Listen I have a lived a less than sheltered life in major urban centers here and overseas. Plenty of nice, smiling immigrants who are perfectly personable and have radically different ethics at play.
So even when you say most are “great people” you’re saying more than you know. “Not monsters” is perhaps more accurate and no one really thinks that.
I’m kind of tired of hearing about immigrants having more sterling qualities than the natives. Again back to less than sheltered it was an immigrant who changed my career for the better, I nearly married an immigrant, my mothers family was heavily immigrant. The fact that they were all Christian though is a big deal.
Sigh. Did you have to cite Amway (which in Michigan we called Scamway) as an example? MLM firms are pyramid schemes notorious especially for preying on Christian women.