Mark Terpstra
@mark · 5d ago
The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.
Channel
Business
Hard-won lessons from building things that matter. · 5 posts
David Okafor
@davidokafor · 6d ago
✦ A tribute to Mr. Aldrich
The banker who read people, not paperwork
In 1994 my father walked into a bank with an accent, a business plan written in longhand, and no collateral anyone would recognize. Eleven banks had already said no. Mr. Aldrich said, "Tell me about your customers." — My father talked for an hour. Aldrich approved the loan that afternoon. Years…
Priya Nair
@priya · Aug 22
My best engineer said no to me for three years
I asked Dev to cofound with me in 2019. No. Again in 2020. No. In 2021, with a term sheet in hand: still no. Each time he said the same thing: "You don't need a cofounder. You need to believe you can do the first year alone." — He joined in year four — as employee eight, exactly when a person like…
David Okafor
@davidokafor · Aug 15
The month I almost closed the shop
Three years in, I had a spreadsheet open with two columns: what it would cost to stay open through March, and what I could get for the equipment. The second column was winning. — That week, a regular named Mrs. Okonkwo — she bought the same thing every Tuesday — stopped at the counter and said,…
Tom Carlson
@tomcarlson · Aug 12
What the apprenticeship was actually teaching
Walt ran his crew with two rules: measure twice, and never let a man leave a job site embarrassed. I thought the first rule was the trade and the second was manners. Took me a decade of running my own crew to realize I had it backwards. — Wood forgives a bad cut. You buy another board. But a young…