At some point or another, I’d imagine virtually all of us have answered some form of the “money is no object” question. Essentially this: If you didn’t have to worry about money at all, what would you do?
My standard reply is to open some form of bookstore and coffee shop.
There would be no WiFi, and we’d stack the whole place with good old-fashioned physical books. If we want to get really specific, I’d name it “Penny University,” a callback to English coffeehouses in the 17th and 18th century. Oh, and we’d have monthly discussions where we call in experts to debate both sides of a “hot topic” (education, politics, poverty, future of work, etc).
I’ve thought about this a lot!
As much as I love this idea though, I’m probably not going to open a bookstore. The whole thing just feels so risky, especially as we talk about a worldwide pandemic (setting aside the ebook vs. physical book discussion).
Imagine my shock and delight when I read about Ryan Holiday’s new bookstore outside of Austin, Texas—The Painted Porch. He wrote a piece for the Texas Monthly aptly titled “Opening a Small-Town Bookstore During the Pandemic Was the Craziest Thing We Ever Did.“
Sounds accurate.
The whole experience was fascinating, but one piece stuck out, what I would equate to a version of red teaming:
Continue readingWhenever I’m considering an idea I’m excited about, I like to ask friends to talk me out of it.
