Game B Entrepreneurialism
Hey friends,
I hope everyone had a good Friday. :)
Tomorrow’s events:
Metagame Mastermind w/ Daniel Kazandjian.Every Saturday @ 6:00 PM ET. RSVP here. 60 mins.
***
June 26, 2020
I spoke with my buddy Kevin Crone yesterday, who is president of the Dale Carnegie Business Group here in the Greater Toronto Area. Before COVID this is where I used to train the famous Dale Carnegie Course, which was the course that was created and taught by Dale Carnegie himself. I somehow convinced Kevin to come to the Stoa to do a session called: How to Win Friends and Influence People During the Meta-Crisis.
The great thing about talking with Kevin is that he has no idea what the fuck the term meta-crisis means, or any of the other unusual terms I uncritically overuse here, such as communitas, thumos, and my BFF: the daemon! Well, he does know what they mean because I told him what they mean, but he does not hang out with meta weirdos who have the proclivity to use such terms.
I went full-in with the Stoa during the last few months, and my social circle here does not have many down-to-earth guys like Kevin. It consists of strange personalities and eclectic outliers that talk about things like the meta-crisis. I love these unusual people, but I realized I miss hanging out with guys like Kevin, as they provide some balance for me.
I was telling Kevin my thoughts about entering the market economy again, which has been on my mind as a pre-emptive strike to make money in the event we need money. While Camille and I are financially fine for now, I do worry I need to start making money on a more reliable basis. While I have been receiving money in the form of gifts from the gift economy, it is not enough to support a livelihood yet, and I do not want to pressure the gift economy to make money.
This worry has probably been part of my funk recently, and I felt like I lost the magic I had when I first started this project, and this has put a strain on my relationship with my BFF. But talking to Kevin last night was inspiring for two reasons.
He was talking about how many fucking zombies there are in the Game A world. Uninspired people who give lip service to their company's mission statement, but are more motivated to maintain their unexamined comfy poolside lifestyle. He also talked about how a lot of these people are not doing so well adjusting to the pandemic and all the uncertainty it contains.
Hearing about these corporate zombies gave me post-traumatic stress. I was one of those zombies, doing my best to engage in existential labour, and my soul suffered because of it. My soul does not suffer when stewarding the Stoa though, it sings. I do not want to return to that world.
He also said he thought I was doing something unique. He has never seen anything like the Stoa before. He was very impressed with what I managed to pull off so far. Hearing this from somebody from “the outside” was reassuring. He made me see that I am engaging in a mission that makes me feel alive, unlike those corporate zombies.
Camille and I decided that I will focus on the Stoa for now, with the idea that some market economy idea might emerge from it, e.g. the philosophical coffee shop I’ve been pining after for a while now. Nor do I want to court investments for this project, which I probably can do. At least not at this point. I want to see if I can bootstrap this thing for as long as I can.
What I am doing does feel crazy, it is unconventional, and there is no chartered path for it, and no school can teach me what to do. Maybe I just got to own this role of being a Game B entrepreneur, and maybe this is why it is good to feel crazy when stewarding the Stoa.
***
Gift Economy / The Stoa currently operates through a gift economy. We are offering the Stoa as a gift, for people to freely use during these troubled times. If you are inspired to provide a gift to The Stoa, email thestoa at protonmail dot com. Your gift can take the form of money, support, services or ideas. If you wish to gift money, you can do so here or here for ongoing gifts. If you would like to gift directly to our lovely facilitators and featured sensemakers visit this page.