Let's give Human Intelligence a leg up.

As I sat down in the too comfy hospital bedside chair, I knew it would be the last conversation I’d ever have with Grandpa Bill.

It was the summer of 2014, a few days earlier, he’d gone into the hospital for a routine procedure, but while there he caught ‘sepsis’, which I’d soon learn is a hell of a way to die.

I’d been living in Toronto, two hours away from Tillsonburg, the small Canadian town my family had called home for a century after fleeing the dust bowl. My Mom was the one who called to break the news. A one-time nurse she spoke calm and measured,

“Elderly who develop sepsis often get a terminal diagnosis. If you want to say goodbye, you better come home ASAP.”

After the call, I decided to make the trip home immediately. Mom said my brother could pick me up at the Woodstock train station. I had an hour and half solitude on the VIA train between Toronto’s Union Station and the Woodstock Train station to ponder one question…

What do you say to someone when you know it will be the final conversation between you?

I took out my notebook, a pen and began to write. The best I could come up with was reminding Grandpa Bill of all the lessons he taught me. The ones I wanted, but more importantly the ones I needed. The rest of the train ride, I poured every memory onto that 8.5 by 11, engulfed in focus.

My brother picked me up at the Woodstock train station. We went straight to the hospital. Not much was said during the 30 minute car ride. Arriving at the Tillsonburg Hospital, my Dad (grandpa’s second son) warned me going into the room that Grandpa Bill “may seem delirious and not remember me”. He wasn’t always recognizing Grandma, even though they had celebrated 68 years of marriage a few months earlier. It would have to be a short visit.

With my brother, I waited. When my turn came I sat down at grandpa’s bedside to see him for the last time. 30 seconds into my scripted talk he grabbed my arm pulled me close and said,

“Can you get me out of here? I have things to do.”

—

That moment has been seared into my soul along with the question…

“What does it mean to live a rich life?”

Why do so many start visionless companies?

When I moved to San Francisco in 2015, I noticed a few odd things about how most American startups motives. They can generally be placed in three buckets:

1. Build Cool Sh*t
2. Get Rich or Die Tryin’
3. Work-Life Balance.

Let’s take a look at all three.

Build Cool Sh*t
The sin most Sillicon Valley startups are guilty of. They focus on the technology not the human. Soon you get mottos of what not to do, like “don’t be evil”.

Get Rich or die tryin’
These companies often ma. A primary motivator for most founders starting a company is to “get rich”. This implies that they’re not currently. These ‘get rich’ entrepreneurs focus on financial goals. If only I had “X” money in my bank account I’d be happy. And yet, most who reach this goal just seem to push the goal posts out. Worse, they screw up the companies they founded.

If these companies grow up and go public it takes a toll on their founders. We don’t have to look far to know something is wrong with the way we’re building companies. The pioneer of software stepped back to philanthropy. The pioneer of ecommerce retired in his prime. 

Setting a destination is the key to arriving. Yet picking the destination rules.

These companies often tend to be run by either hedge funds or faceless holding companies, whose mission are purely to compound capital. 

Work-Life Balance.

This is the cruelest con played on Americans. Early in our lifetimes doing work we hate is actually a good thing. It teaches what we don’t want to do. If I hadn’t picked tobacco as a teen, built pig barns in the summer or been a cashier I never would’ve known what I didn’t want to do with the rest of my life. 

Some people will tell you it’s ok.

But work-life balance is a dated concept that motivated our ancestors a century ago and yet it would apall them if they knew their sacrifices resulted in us seeking the same ideals today.

Capitalism is just a system for Human Intelligence to work together. And it happens to be the best one we’ve conceived so far. But that doesn’t mean it can’t improve.

Knowledge fuels Human Intelligence. For the past 100 years, we’ve lived in a knowledge economy where what we first know (and later can do) dictates our life’s trajectory. But that doesn’t mean how we exchange knowledge between us is optimal.

I wonder what Grandpa Bill would think of all this.

I guess one day soon, I’ll ask him.

—

I founded LegupHI as a new type of organization. A business that is not purely about “building cool shit”, “maximizing shareholder returns” or “employee work-life balance”.

Rather one that gives customers, investors and employees a leg up to live rich.

We have two leg ups in the works

1. The Jack “Know more”
2. ForTheWin “Lead wins”

As we progress I’ll have more details on both.

Stay tuned,

Chris Hollister