Brewed From Within

One & Only

The weight of one is heavy. Something so rare makes us feel like we have only one chance to get it right.

If the one-and-only is inanimate, we never want it diminished. If it’s alive, we seek the futile tranquility of immortality. The desire for everlasting sustainability pressed against the tension of time can make oneness a bit overwhelming. This emotion can devolve into a fear of change and selfish preservation.

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Freedom awaits on the timeline of now.

Being present is hard when we’re always reflecting on the past and thinking about the future, but what choice do we have? Altering the past is not an option. All we have is now, but the present never stops passing. Time becomes an endless transition. Within the blur, gratitude provides peace. It invites us to cherish our one and onlys.

Such admiration acknowledges the past, allows the present to be a gift, and instills renewed optimism for what’s next. For all that is one and only, we say thank you.

Brewed From Within
#117 📖 Life & Happiness

By Ben McDougal, ago

Bookmarks

We are given and also earn many bookmarks in life. The first day of school, birthdays, holidays, weddings, vacations, the arrival of a child, a new job, launching a business… and when one accepts that we may only have one life to live.

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Someday is dangerous.
Today is all we have.
Start.

As we learn from the past, we acknowledge the present, keep building with less hesitation, and remain thankful for these bookmarks in life.

Cheers to all we’ve done, the hearts we’ve touched, and the connections we’ve shared. This appreciation adds to existing momentum, even when our directions inevitably change.

Brewed From Within
#113 📖 Life & Happiness

By Ben McDougal, ago

Import Knowledge

The focus on a local business environment supports those we share resources with. This concentration optimizes the values of proximity, but overextending “local first” can devolve into close-mindedness and groupthink when such a focus is not accompanied by imported knowledge, global connectivity, realistic awareness, and inclusive collaboration.

Thanks to the efficiency of our connected era, increased proficiency is just a click away. It takes an extra effort, but inviting outside perspectives into local conversation normalizes diversified feedback and bolsters intellectual awareness. The sense of abundance paired with a shared experience adds broad-minded confidence within a community. This pioneers purpose and attracts more of what an entrepreneurial ecosystem needs by leaning into what it already has. Over time, this thickens cultural elasticity and opens fresh conduits for collaboration.

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Invite outsiders to insider conversations.

These intellectual and societal bridges give leaders a chance to export knowledge as they interact beyond the local environment too. This extension widens the range of understanding and diversifies our overall potential.

Can we maintain our topophilia and stay committed to those we share an environment with while also reducing the limitations of a localized economy?

All flourishing can be mutual in the connected era, so the answer is usually yes. For rural areas with smaller populations, coopetition may be required to build with nearby neighborhoods, but with a combined critical mass of 25K–50K people, enough variety is achieved to do big things from anywhere.

With enough people and a positive-sum approach to importing and exporting knowledge, we combine a love for local with capacity to accomplish more with less.

Brewed From Within
#46 📖 Leadership

By Ben McDougal, ago

Collide

Education can be less about compliance and more about painting a reality for indispensable students who do not need permission to color outside the lines, build without a map, embrace wonderment, and never fear the beauty of their own inextinguishable light.

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Students do not need permission to build on the timeline of now.

Whether it’s rethinking career day in elementary school, high school students flexing innovative muscles earlier, or college students earning a degree while also building a profitable business, the education system is becoming more than just a machine to produce factory workers. Students must still learn to play the game of school, but it’s not all about following rules, good grades, and earning that expensive piece of paper to work for someone else.

Students become leaders when an educational system welcomes the weird. No matter the age, curiosity and initiative are required to go beyond the status quo, but that happens more often when students are introduced to the opportunities of an entrepreneurial lifestyle.

The future of education is providing a safe space to learn how to learn. To explore knowledge, different cultures, social interactions, and activities that feel like play to us but look like work to others. Along with activating students in the classroom, invaluable insights await educators who prioritize activity outside the walls of a school. Participating within a startup community is often seen as extra effort for educators already asked to do so much, but there is ease in leveraging community members eager to share experiential wisdom in the wild as well as back inside the classroom.

As we keep things interesting by colliding students with founders and intrapreneurs, educational organizations infuse recurring energy into startup communities and entrepreneurial ecosystems. Ongoing collaboration is required between educators and community builders, but as lines blur between classrooms and community, students are introduced to reality.

When students are set free to paint their own future in ways that transcend a class, school feels less like day care. A thirst for conformity can be replaced with curricula that rewards pure wonder and life-long learning for students of all ages.

Brewed From Within
#55 📖 Leadership

By Ben McDougal, ago

Super Sentence

Football is a battle between modern gladiators. Did you know there are only 11 minutes of live action in an average game? Even with such a small window of actual gameplay, think about the endless pregame analysis, commentary, predictions, production, and post-game highlights.

Each week, this machine churns attention, but the Super Bowl takes it to another level. With two weeks leading up to game day and another week for post-game highlights, the Super Bowl lasts three weeks. That’s up to 30,240 minutes of potential attention the National Football League can earn from each consumer. With those 11 minutes of live action representing only 0.04% of this three-week long spectacle, clearly the Super Bowl is about more than the game. It’s also about the host city coming to life, a stadium full of fans, the TV commercials, the halftime show, the food, and everyone sharing the spectacle together.

This is not by accident. The NFL understands their audience. They’ve achieved product-market fit, and since 1920, they’ve built around what they do best. This entertainment behemoth does American football really well, but $15 billion in annual revenue doesn’t come from 150 snaps per game. It comes from being outstanding at one thing, while not getting complacent. This strengthens an existing fan base while allowing experimentation to guide strategic initiatives to further increase the audience.

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If your company was given a free Super Bowl commercial, who would be your target audience? What story would you tell? What action would you want viewers to take, and would you be ready to convert attention into trust when they took that action?

The NFL makes product-market fit look easy, but building something that satisfies true demand is harder than it sounds. Avoid getting sacked by admitting that your idea isn’t special and the future of your business relies on your ability to consistently execute. Trust that early success relies on clarifying your value proposition and evolving your business based on continued customer discovery and your ability to collaborate with those around you. This takes finesse, thick skin and a peculiar combination of urgency mixed with patience. As you secure more paying customers, you may be given a chance to broaden the impact.

Can you describe what you do in one super sentence? Now, what’s another concise sentence to highlight your current quest? Let’s have a sequenced follow up. Finally, articulate how this work feels like play, celebrate members of the team, or highlight other fundamental elements of the business.

When these super sentences come together, you’ll have a playbook to better understand the realities of your work and how to earn first downs in the market. Over time, with an advancing playbook, small wins lead to larger victories on and off the field.

Brewed From Within
#16 📖 Entrepreneurship

By Ben McDougal, ago