Brewed From Within

Dollowers

Social media addicted the world to pops of dopamine that came in the form of a friend request or clickable reactions to content. With a single click, likes led to more followers, which added attention and became a metric to support an entire industry of online influencers. The temptation of fame for anyone had many doing whatever it took to keep engagement flowing and follower count growing, but the audience we often yearned for was never truly owned.

Followers are controlled by tech giants, guarded by unseen algorithms, and can vanish without notice. Play the game without being bamboozled by diversifying your online presence. Then make advanced moves by adding controlled layers of followers who pay to stay in-tune. Dollowers pay with their wallets, status, affiliation, and attention. As we grow an online audience, transition followers into dollowers with segmented email lists, a fleet of products, digital assets, speaking engagements, book sales, creator compensation programs, affiliate marketing, online courses, and a website to call home base. This gives true fans a sustaining way to show lasting support beyond today’s favorite fad.

By Ben McDougal, ago

Innovation Curves

Things happen. Trends occur. Economies shift. Technology jolts the systems. Culture changes. Time will do its thing.

Amidst change, it’s easy to hold on to what worked before. Innovation curves are hamster wheels that are hard to stay ahead of. The term itself creates circular conversation. “Innovation” is abstract and often over-used. Everyone experiences innovation, but just because we try something new, doesn’t mean we’re a thought leader on change. Gurus will guide and teams can make it easier to stay ahead of your own innovation curves, but it’s never easy.

When stagnant, work feels like work. Maintain what built existing momentum. Continue delivering on the promise, then experiment to remain in-tune. Stay thirsty enough to tinker. Add diversities. Make new early moves. Understand risks. Remain connected to end-users to grasp reality. Own what’s needed and hold on tight.

Time will still pass and every story will end. The best ones are those we chose to end on our own terms.

By Ben McDougal, ago

Diversified Career Portfolio

From an early age, the world tells us to change it by chasing our dreams. Not one dream, all of them. At the same time, we’re told our work must be focused. The most classic example lies in a loaded question we ask children. What do you want to be when you grow up? This simple question assumes a singular path. In school, the pressure mounts as students are forced to select classes and eventually declare a major if they choose to attend college. In adulthood, side hustles are often discouraged and replaced with the promise of security in exchange for corporate compliance. As a founder, the focus of today can shift, yet remain relevant.

If financial stability relies on a single income or employees depend on you, true focus will support lasting stability. Even with such discipline, many people have lost that safe job, closed a business, had a new idea, or need extra income.

Things rarely go as planned and the promise of security is just one decision away, from being taken away. To avoid the pitfalls of a singular path, activate a collection of initiatives that come together in a diversified career portfolio.

In a digital age, we are more efficient and can unite technology with community to balance more than one quest at a time. When leaders push progress on multiple fronts, each activity injects various flavors of value. For example, you may have a traditional job that provides financial capital in the form of a paid salary. At the same time, a side hustle can generate intellectual capital and innovative energy that translates into more creative work in that traditional job. You may also volunteer within a tribe you trust, which fuels human, network, and cultural capital as well. Such ambition should be celebrated, but it’s more often feared by those who don’t understand how it feels to hammer on one thing, ship progress; pop to the next thing, ship more progress; and then pop one or three more times to fuel even more momentum! This type of work requires tenacity, but over time, a multi-modal focus is refined into an indescribable stamina and lasting stability.

All seven capitals (financial, intellectual, human, physical, institutional, network, and cultural) can be hard to find in one place. When leaders mobilize a diversified career portfolio, we celebrate what we have to attract more of what we want. For example, the common complaint of not having enough money fades when leaders build momentum through a sense of abundance. What you want is replaced by what you have, which attracts what’s needed to fill gaps.

As you make moves to expand a diversified career portfolio, it is important to avoid diluting yourself to mediocrity. We know the entrepreneurial lifestyle requires extra gears, but the exhilaration of building into things you’re obsessed with supports more persistence. The wild card of persistence creates elasticity in how we spend time. When this form of agility is applied on multiple fronts, smaller time windows are still enough to make a big impact on various fronts.

Along with flexibility, a diversified career portfolio delivers unmatched dependability. Even with different activities, the common thread is you. Nobody else is you, which makes a diversified career portfolio hard to compete with.

As an added bonus, no matter the reason, when one creative season receives less attention, other activities still remain. This allows attention to be shared between an evolving collection of activities and adds to the flexibility and dependability of a diversified career portfolio.

For anyone with more to build, there is no permission required to add creative slivers to the pie chart of how you spend time. Does it take extra gears? Yes. Might this require practice to keep your personal bandwidth balanced? Yes. Will your co-founder in life play a tremendous role in how much risk you can apply? Yes. Might you have to play 80 hours in order to avoid working 40? Yes. Is such splendor absolutely accessible for anyone in our connected era? Yes!

By Ben McDougal, ago

Diplomacy Disrupted

The world stands at a crossroads where traditional diplomacy has ceded ground to a more dynamic force.

Entrepreneurs have emerged as the new diplomats of our era, boldly leading where established institutions falter and distrust prevails. For centuries, diplomacy belonged exclusively to statesmen and ambassadors, their negotiations cloaked in formality and protocol. Today, that order is being profoundly reshaped by visionaries who reach across divides not through treaties, but through the universal language of solving, building, creating, and sharing. In a fractious world marked by de-globalization and nationalism, entrepreneurship has become the great common denominator—a calling that transcends borders and unites disparate communities around shared purpose.​

EXTRA SHOT

This contribution was written by Jonathan Ortmans. Jonathan has visited 150+ countries around the world and leads the Global Entrepreneurship Network.

National boundaries, once formidable barriers to commerce and culture, have become remarkably porous to innovation and startup culture. The seamless flow of talent, capital, and ideas continues to define entrepreneurial ecosystems that connect and outperform those that isolate. This porosity represents more than economic opportunity; it embodies a fundamental shift in how value is created and distributed across the globe. Entrepreneurs operate comfortably in this fluid environment, recognizing that the greatest innovations emerge when diverse perspectives collide and collaborate. From rural villages to capital cities, startup culture spreads with viral intensity, carried by digital platforms and sustained by communities that refuse to accept geographic limitations on their ambitions.​

Yet disruption—the defining characteristic of our age—carries a paradox that demands understanding. Disruption is not destruction; rather, it is the alchemy that turns uncertainty into opportunity. This transformation requires both courage and vision, qualities entrepreneurs possess in abundance. They are fearless and bold, thriving precisely where others see only chaos, spotting cracks where new possibilities emerge as governments and societies shift the rules. Just as storms clear the air and renew the land, moments of disruption force examination of old assumptions, breaking free from complacency to push the boundaries of what is possible. The danger lies not in disruption itself, but in our response to it—whether we view upheaval as an ending or a beginning.​

Entrepreneurs understand that constructive rebellion is not just healthy but essential in keeping ecosystems vibrant and societies progressing. Without these acts of creative rebellion, without founders willing to risk failure for better solutions, stagnation becomes inevitable.

This willingness to occasionally stir up turbulence reflects an entrepreneurial mindset that questions the status quo, challenges outdated models, and refuses to accept that the way things have always been is the way they must remain.

Bold global leadership—rooted in vision, grit, and collaboration—transforms disruption from chaos into the spark that ignites progress. The rebels among us deserve celebration, for in entrepreneurship as in democracy, the bold change the world.

By Ben McDougal, ago

Front & Center

Music massages the mind.
Live music brings the body in-tune.

As the mind and body respond to a beat, a pulsing pattern guides us to euphoria. In this state, we access elevated areas of the mind. Music anywhere can provide a version of this, but the loudest line is when we’re front and center.

Extra Shot

Listen to EDM when reading this.

Watch this when you’re done.

Showing up for live music is half the battle. Once you’ve arrived, grab bottled water and float around the venue to expose a variety of views. This takes practice as wading in a crowd is an art form. As we trap time with content, these pit stops are also a chance to capture angles that set the scene for storytelling later. Securing drinks at a busy bar, spotting an odd perspective, finding a way into VIP areas, and vibing with strangers is all part of the performance.

With the venue properly scouted, it may be time to push. Your destination is the madness that is front and center.

Find an entry point and wiggle in. There’s no rush. Be considerate, but you will need to get physical, so don’t be surprised when you’re thrown a frustrated look. Before anyone can get angry, dance with these strangers. Share space and give anyone a reason to smile with conspicuous kindness. With that position fully admired, keep moving.

As we maneuver toward front and center, the mob tightens. Once the main act arrives, it’ll be harder to achieve front and center. Time bravery wisely. Arriving early is easier, but you’ll have to survive longer. Wait if you want, but then you’ll have to push harder. As we cut through the crowd, look for party people shorter than you, creases between groups, or wait until someone expires and take their place.

When you’ve landed front and center, there’s no room to move within this nucleus of humanity, but there’s nowhere else we’d rather be! Stay strong. Feed into the flow that surrounds you, trap time with stable content, meditate for teleportation later, and ride this euphoria to a full escape.

Push to feel the front gate if you must and always stay here longer than you should. When you’ve sensed absolutely everything, begin your decent. Shimmy straight back to remain centered as you politely let others move forward.

Extra Shot

Music decorates time.

It’s impossible to sleep after experiencing front and center. At home, use the earned insomnia to stitch a story together. The faster you tell this story, the wider it will spread when everyone wakes up looking to relive their own euphoria.

There’s nothing that compares to being the artist onstage, but this is a very active way to spectate. Extra gears and resources are required to arrive, find, and hold down the front and center, but that’s obvious. Two less apparent attributes help fans feel this dazzling splendor. First, a certainty in knowing you belong. This boldness may need to be faked at first, but with repetition, pure confidence comes from grasping the radical effort required to get here. Along with knowing we belong, honest self-awareness ensures we know our own limits. Push beyond the limit, but there’s no time for short-term mistakes that leave a long-term burden.

Extra Shot

Break one rule, but avoid breaking another.

How wild can we live when it’s so easy to conform? As we age, co-pilots are harder to find, so test yourself with solo missions. The lightness is liberating, but beware. When you consistently create content, you may land a media pass or even onstage. If you manifest this heaven on earth, poise is tested. Remain affable, make all feel appreciated, and know you are not the show. Be a daring shadow, embrace every single second, and ship the art to feel it all over again.

By Ben McDougal, ago