Category: Old Blogs

Thesis: Immigrant communities tend to generate above-average economic activity. By strategically investing in these areas, a specialized REIT can achieve superior market returns. Consolidating supply lines within these communities also presents unique advantages—H-Mart, for example, has successfully leveraged this model. Aligning shareholder interests with venture projects they understand creates opportunities for outperformance.

A public REIT offers greater transparency and regulatory compliance than traditional syndications, providing investors with clearer insights and reducing risk. Sam Zell revolutionized real estate investment by enhancing liquidity through public markets and pioneering modern REIT structures. Applying similar principles, this REIT would focus on local-level development and cash-flow businesses, using real-time, ground-level data to drive investment decisions.

The REIT could form joint ventures with promising local businesses, scaling them into dominant players with strong competitive moats. For example, McDonald’s is primarily a real estate company that happens to operate a world-class retail brand. Similarly, real estate investment should follow the flow of people and capital—growth areas almost always outperform. Success lies in identifying durable trends, investing early, and exiting before saturation (see Austin as a cautionary example).

By leveraging demographic shifts, supply chain integration, and local market intelligence, an immigrant-focused REIT could unlock untapped value in high-growth communities while offering investors a structured, scalable, and transparent vehicle for real estate investment.

A recent survey of hiring managers on Gen Z new hires raised some concerning points. My take—backed by our internal data—is that much of it likely stems from a lack of basic exposure to work environments.

Anyone who came of age before Y2K was in a peer group where after-school or summer jobs were the norm. Half of their friends held some sort of job, gaining early exposure to managers, customers, and workplace expectations. That experience built resilience in ways today’s younger workforce may be missing.

Adam Grant’s recent op-ed highlighted a trend among college students: many now expect an A for effort and a B for showing up, regardless of actual performance. This mindset reflects a broader shift in the education system—where K-12 students aren’t adequately challenged, and in higher education, adjuncts and TAs (with little career stability) hesitate to push students too hard for fear of job risks. The result? New grads who need mental health days because of tough bosses, rude customers, or everyday personal crises.

Building resilience—anti-fragility (a topic for later)—comes from exposure to small, manageable difficulties. Just as vaccines introduce controlled doses of germs to build immunity or workouts tear muscle fibers to make them stronger, early work experience develops critical life skills.

So, should teens take fast food or cashier jobs? It depends. But here’s a rule of thumb: a kid who avoids challenges at 15 likely won’t embrace them at 25—and by 35, they may have completely given up on doing hard things. If a child refuses all challenges, it’s likely a failure of parenting.

Biologically, a parent’s primary instinct is to ensure their offspring survive and thrive—this principle holds across species. In fact, declining birth rates (another topic for later) can be understood through this framework: animals instinctively have fewer offspring under stress.

The surest path to weakness is avoiding hard things. So, why would anyone choose the harder path when an easier one is right there? Because they want to be special—and they’re willing to pay the price, decade after decade, to get there.

Part 1: Build Competence, Radiate Usefulness, Amass Goodwill

A man’s standing in society is largely determined by his perceived usefulness. Before anything else—status, relationships, or respect—his utility score is assessed. A man without value becomes invisible at best and actively avoided at worst, often left dependent on the kindness of others.

Competence and goodwill serve as the foundation for building meaningful relationships. When men feel obsolete, they deteriorate—mentally, physically, and socially. Fortunately, human civilization has embedded reciprocity into our consciousness. Those who contribute meaningfully in their prime can accumulate goodwill that acts as a support system in their later years.

Part 2: Parlay Goodwill into Meaningful Relationships

A fulfilling life for men is one of continuous effort—building, cultivating, and contributing. It’s encoded in our biology. To abandon this drive is to risk irrelevance, isolation, and decline. The modern 躺平 (lying flat) movement, where people disengage due to perceived futility, is a direct path to depression.

When faced with insurmountable odds, the wise move isn’t to give up but to pivot—to find a different game or arena where progress is possible. The desire for respect and significance has remained constant from ancient times to today. The path to achieving it remains unchanged:

1. Climb the competence ladder.

2. Signal value.

3. Invest in relationships that matter.

In the end, masculinity is about staying in the game—evolving, adapting, and continuing to build. Winter is always coming, but preparation makes all the difference.

Many conflicts arise because people treat relationships and interactions like a single-round, zero-sum game, where each party tries to optimize their own gain at the expense of the other. This leads to adversarial tactics.

However, the key to better outcomes is to think long-term and view interactions as multi-stage games where reputation and cooperation matter. In this approach, decisions are spaced out over time, and past actions influence future behavior. As players become aware of each other’s actions, they move toward more cooperative strategies.

For example, Costco has built a reputation for great customer service, even though some people abuse its return policy. However, Costco’s long-term strategy of prioritizing customer satisfaction pays off in the form of loyal, sustainable customers. They do track repeat offenders and drop members who engage in adversarial behavior.

In the investment world, Berkshire Hathaway plays long-term games. Instead of focusing on short-term gains, they focus on multi-stage deals that ensure mutual, long-term benefits for all parties. Contrast this with the behavior of investment banking or IPO dealmakers, who often optimize for one-time profits with little regard for the long-term success of the business.

By framing life as a multi-decade game, we make better choices, especially when collaborating with people who are also in it for the long haul. In a long-term game, the incentive is cooperation, mutual benefit, and reputation.

Life is short—50 years might be all we have in the optimal scenario—so choose to play the long-term game with long-term people.

The modern era is defined by stacked leverage—the compounding power of labor, capital, and knowledge tech (media/code). This exponential growth formula explains why figures like Gates, Bezos, and Musk have reshaped the world.

• Labor Leverage → Building teams and corporations.

• Capital Leverage → Raising and allocating resources for scalable ventures.

• Knowledge Tech Leverage → The infinite scalability of media and code (e.g., the printing press, radio, TV, internet, AI).

Historically, Carnegie, Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, and JP Morgan mastered labor and capital leverage to dominate the industrial age. Today’s titans wield an even more powerful tool—knowledge tech leverage—which allows for near-zero-cost distribution of ideas, products, and automation through software and AI.

The Exponential Power of Knowledge Tech

The past 200 years of human progress have far outpaced the previous 200,000 years due to rapid technological compounding. Anyone willing to dedicate a decade to mastering knowledge tech can potentially:

• Create the next YouTube (originally a video dating site).

• Write the next Harry Potter.

• Build the next Joe Rogan Experience.

• Develop a personal media empire like Oprah.

When labor, capital, and knowledge tech are combined and compounded, society advances at an accelerating rate. The same leverage that powered Columbus’ voyage is now being applied to energy, robotics, and AI, setting humanity on a trajectory toward a Star Trek-like future.

The power of leverage today far surpasses anything in history—moving from stacking stones for pyramids to building entire digital empires and beyond.