My mom brainwashed me to be confident. She told me over and over that I was great and destined for great things. And it worked. To this day, when I lose or make a mistake, I get mad, but I always wind up where my mother left me: “You’re great. All you need is more practice.” And it turns out, more often than not, that’s true. If you practice, you get better and achieve what you couldn’t, which builds more confidence. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Think you’re great and you become so. When I graduated from college, I was brimming with confidence. I legitimately thought that I would make a billion dollars within a couple of years. That did not happen and it led to some of the darkest days of my entire life. Never mind a billion dollars, it took me 3 years to even get profitable. But if my mom hadn’t instilled that confidence I would’ve given up. When I failed, and I did often, I wouldn’t have a reason to try again, because instead of thinking that I just needed more practice, I’d reach the conclusion that I wasn’t destined to be great. In the end, I made it. I am successful. I am great. But this isn’t what this post is about. This post is about you and your kids. I was lucky to have a parent brainwash me. My dad took the opposite approach but my mom always used to say “he loves you so much and when you’re not around he always brags about you.” I don’t know if it’s true, but it worked. You need to give your kids confidence. The world is cruel and you won’t always be around to pick them up when they fall. Tell them they’re great. Tell them to tell themselves they’re great. Tell them that they can do anything they put their mind to. And it’ll be true. And you? If you don’t have that confidence yourself, start today. Tell yourself your great and then start acting like you are. Take more risks, learn new skills, and when you fall, pick yourself right back up because you’re great and you just stumbled on the way to the world recognizing that. And eventually, if you stick with it, you’ll discover it was true all along. You just needed to believe at the beginning. I believe in you, your kids, your dreams. Make it happen, all it takes is to try. I know from experience.

One of the main reasons for the decline in goods and services in the United States, and to a lesser extent, the world, is the financialization of our economies by excessive money printing. Let's break that down into simpler language. The quality of the things and services you buy has gotten worse because the people making those things and doing those services are worse today, generally, than the ones who were doing it 10-20 years ago. Why? Because there is no money in it. Why is there no money it? Because all the money is in creating assets, not in creating goods and services. Why is all money in creating assets? Because there is an enormous demand for assets because all the governments of the world are constantly creating new money and people want to protect their savings. Their savings are not protected in cash. They will become worth less and less every year. So, they invest in assets, because assets trade at a multiple of what they earn, which is constantly rising because new money is created and then prices change. So, concretely, a smart person who otherwise would have run a manufacturing business making glassware, instead buys a bunch of glassware manufacturing businesses using debt to take advantage of the new money creation which is constantly driving the prices of these businesses up. Instead of thinking about how to make better glassware, that person thinks about how to raise more money, how to sell these businesses in another party which is doing the same thing. The focus goes from making a good product, to making an asset which is traded. Why? Because you can make so much more money buying a 5 million dollar glassware company and selling it for 10 million dollars than you can actually selling glassware. Further, since 2008, there has been no downside to this trade because every time there is an economic weakness on the horizon, governments, fearing loss of power, chaos, or hardship, just print more money so that there isn't any specter of job loss. So the only reason why you would make goods and services instead of assets is because you do it for the love of the game, because you get a much better reward and minimal risk from building assets because nothing is allowed to fail! There are a couple of reasons why this problem is particularly bad (yes it's bad that goods and services are in decline) in the United States: 1. It's tax advantaged. Selling glassware has a tax rate of about 35%. Selling assets has a tax rate of about 20%. 2. The United States has the "deepest capital markets", meaning its the easiest place to get the loans that are integral to this game 3. It's become part of the culture. While someone in France may say "absolutely not, I am not buying up bakeries, I am building baguettes", in the United States, we have a culture that celebrates this. We think it's the pinnacle of capitalism, when it's not even capitalism. The Federal Reserve is a unelected body of people who are nominated and then serve out a full term and decide how much new money to create. It's central planning, which is the opposite of capitalism. But, hey, look at that cool guy on wall street in the 1980s with his satellite phone, so cool, so capitalism. This is also why the new industrialization drive is 100% government driven. Whether it's the Chips Act or the venture-funded companies which will sell to the US government. There's no money in making this stuff unless the government comes in and pays a stupidly high price which is, once again, only possible because of excessive money printing. Unless they're just doing it for the love of the game, the only way you can get someone to make physical stuff instead of making assets (which they're kind of doing anyways) is by paying them the market rate, which has to compete with working in finance. This is why Zoomers have no motivation to work normal salaried jobs. Because, why would you work when you could trade crypto or stocks? The income potential is so much higher, which again comes from all the new money that is constantly printed. So when someone says "it's time to build!" and they're in the financial industry (I'm speaking generally, I have no personal issue with someone who does that), just laugh because it's not real. What they mean, is that it's time to build assets, not real goods and services, because that's a lot harder and, with the current system, from taxes to the way the government funds itself and saves the economy, it's a bad way to make a living (even if it's spiritually fulfilling).

My company has sold $2.6 million on Faire over the past 4.5 years. As selling on Amazon has become tougher and tougher, we are thankful for the growing sales Faire has brought us. That said, it's a difficult, counterintuitive marketplace to operate on, and one that is getting, like Amazon, more difficult. What is Faire? It's a wholesale marketplace. They make it easy for brick-and-mortar stores to buy your products, at wholesale prices. So that $2.6 million in sales above, became something like $5 to $6 million in retail sales for our customers, the brick-and-mortar retailer, which is cool. Like Amazon, Faire has its own version of "prime" which gives the brick-and-mortar retailers free shipping, for a fee. And Faire, has done a great job of combining this with terms, to enable brick-and-mortar businesses to finance their inventory purchases. Who is Faire good for? Faire's customer base is largely independent brick-and-mortar retailers. These businesses are not competing on price like Walmart, Aldi, or Dollar General are. They are mainly destinations, either as gift-oriented tourist shops, or, for us, Ozzy's Ostrich Adventure which sells our ostrich plush animals (not a real store, but we have many customers like this). If you're selling a product that fits into that space, I highly recommend Faire, because, they're excellent about bringing lots of customers to your brand. Increasing fees and complexity Faire has not yet reached Amazon's level of complexity but it's getting there. When we first started selling on Faire, they took 15% of what you sold there and paid you your shipping costs and that was it. Today the charges work like this: - 15% for what they sell - 1.9% to $3.5% depending on how fast you want to be paid - $10/order for new customers who've never ordered from your brand - Advertising on the platform if you want your products to be seen starting at $200/month - Forced discounts to participate in their deal days - And some fees around shipping that aren't even worth getting into they're so complicated It could be worse, but the problem is that the way Faire works is very different from every other e-commerce marketplace in terms of pricing, so it ends up occupying a lot of your headspace as an operator. And sadly, they've, like Amazon, decided to enforce pricing off of Faire meaning that if they find you selling your products for less off-Faire, they'll punish you on Faire. Normally this wouldn't be such a big deal, but Faire fees are quite high, so it requires you to bring all your pricing up, or lose Faire as a channel. They're not Amazon when it comes to software and systems Faire's sister company is not AWS (Amazon Web Services). They do not have dedicated artificial intelligence division. Amazon isn't what it was when it comes to tech competence these days but for many years we were spoiled. Faire frequently has code errors that cause inventory discrepancies, or in one case, us to be shorted $100s of dollars on multiple orders because their shipping reimbursements were not working as advertised. Faire's payouts can sometimes be un-Faire and you need to watch them carefully to ensure you're being paid as you think you are. Faire alternatives While I've been selling to brick-and-mortar stores for well over a decade, we're much better as a company at e-commerce, so I'm not qualified to have a strong opinion on this topic. For us, Faire generates more revenue than alternatives like trade shows and our sales reps, for whom I am extremely grateful. As someone who worked store-to-store door-to-door sales I know how hard it is to win those orders and when a sales rep delivers an order, I know how hard it is. Sales reps, despite the greater workload per order vs. Faire's digital platform, have lower fees than Faire, but at least for us, have not yet been able to get us to the same levels of revenue. Trade shows are great for general marketing and are necessary to attracting large retail clients, but are costly both in overall cost and time. With Faire, you're only paying (unless you advertise on the platform) when you get a sale, so while it's a challenge to manage, it is, in a way, less risky than committing to a trade show. Conclusion If your brand's products are gifty or purchased in independent retail, you need to be on Faire. It's not an option. There is certainly money to be made, but you need to be careful and have good systems and operations in place to take advantage of it.

A famous newspaper asked me to write an opinion article. But every time I submitted a draft, they'd edit it, changing the message of the piece, even though the article was meant to be my opinion. Most people would have consented to the edits to have the honor of being in the newspaper. I decided not to be published and turned down the opportunity. Here's the last draft of the article: Chinese Labor Isn't Just Cheaper; It’s Better. We Need to Fix That. Why is everything made in China? Yes, the labor is cheaper, but that’s not really why. The real why is hard to read. America’s workers are in a sorry state. Robots and AI won’t save us. China is installing more industrial robots per capita than we are. Even so, the flexible adaptable human will be working in manufacturing (alongside machines) for decades to come. Manufacturing is about people, and ours need an upgrade. For 15 years, I’ve been manufacturing in China, Southeast Asia, and the Americas. I have great respect for the people I’ve worked with and I want to see them and all Americans thrive, but to do that, we must first be honest with ourselves about the state of US manufacturing labor. We are too fat to work in factories. Manufacturing is not a desk job. You’re on your feet all day, walking miles in the factory. To make quality products at reasonable prices, your workers need to be efficient. The obese suffer from chronic pain, move too slowly, are prone to work-ending to injury, and cannot perform the movements necessary to make physical products. We eat garbage. Manufacturing is intellectually demanding work. With apologies to the makers of spreadsheets, legal pleadings, software, and newspaper columns, making physical things is harder than you think. The American manufacturing worker starts their day with processed food from a drive-through, while their competitor in China eats rice congee and brain-building fish. Who do you think is more likely to improve their manufacturing process? We graduate but can’t do math. “The 9’s always get me!” exclaimed a sincere but math-challenged new potential hire. Too many American workers cannot do their times tables without a calculator, slowing down and degrading their work. Despite our world-beating GDP, American PISA math scores are not only below average, but in decline. Last time China took the same test, they scored 24% better than the USA. We don’t speak one language. 5,000 characters, every sound has four tones, and every sound-tone combination can have multiple meanings. Chinese is hard, but at least China has a single working language. In the US, English-speaking management struggles to communicate with the teams doing the hard work because they speak Spanish or other foreign languages. We are on drugs. In the US, not only will your team show up high, but it won’t show up at all, especially the day after it gets paid. If it’s not hard drugs, it’s industrial strength marijuana causing cognitive decline. When caught, employees lose their driver’s license and can’t get to work. Chinese workers walk to work, use safe public transport, or live in dormitories at the factory. We come from broken homes. In China, children are significantly more likely to grow up in 2 parent households, reducing the chance that an employee has to choose between their child’s needs and their job. Child support can cut an American parent’s wage by 60%, driving them to leave gainful manufacturing employment and turn to under-the-table cash odd jobs or dealing drugs. We have too many HR problems to improve operations. Before Americans can optimize our manufacturing processes, we must first navigate a human resource minefield of drug-addiction, violent felonies, and trouble at home to assemble a team, all while avoiding lawsuits. Making improvements on the factory floor is not easy while running what many in the industry call “adult daycare”. Our social media is toxic to worker motivation and culture. Open the apps to watch videos celebrating arriving to work late, 30 minute bathroom breaks, sky-high OnlyFans incomes, and step-by-step guides to filing discrimination lawsuits against your employer. Chinese social media is less demotivating and it shows. Chinese workers don’t storm off mid-shift and or hide in the corner to swipe their phone. We taught our people to commit fraud instead of work. The most efficient day laborer we ever had was acrobatic and on disability. During Covid, unemployment benefits exceeded employed worker incomes. These bad incentives have permanently damaged the psyche and spirit of our people. And we don’t believe in the system, because it betrayed us. Between 2015 and 2025 US manufacturing wages rose 40%, while the cost of purchasing a home rose 93%. Meanwhile, in China, manufacturing wages increased 110% while housing prices were flat. No wonder Chinese workers work harder. From houses to cars and washing machines, Chinese workers are more motivated to work because what they want keeps getting cheaper (and better) in terms of their wages. In America, electrical engineers and computer science graduates, who otherwise might work in manufacturing, improving products and processes to make US products more competitive and by consequence increasing US manufacturing wages, instead, went into finance. The incentives in the United States do not support a vibrant manufacturing economy and we’re kidding ourselves if we think otherwise. The Chinese system is not holistically better. Unions are banned and employees do harder work for longer hours. But, if you look at our country vs. theirs in terms of speed, quality, and cost, we’re not just bad, America is getting worse. The problem is fixable, but it will take decades. It’s not as simple as slapping some tariffs on Chinese goods and repeating nostalgic slogans of American greatness. America needs an educational and cultural transformation to compete with China and reverse the decline in living standards that Americans have suffered over decades. We need to start with open-mindedness. We need to be copying the best policies from other countries regardless of whether they are our allies, share our democratic values, or have “communist” in their name. We need to play to our strengths. China will have world-beating semiconductor chips before they score a goal in soccer’s World Cup. But manufacturing and product development are like soccer, creative team-oriented problem solving. That and greenfield innovation are skills at which the United States thrives. And risk-taking, we have that in spades, especially when it comes to novel products and processes. And our people, we still have high expectations for product quality while China is still plagued by their “good-enough” chabuduo mentality. Teddy Roosevelt said “complaining about a problem without proposing a solution is called whining”. Reforming the prison system to teach manufacturing instead of recidivism, strengthening English second language requirements at US schools, reducing English and history classes to increase math and science, longer school hours and less vacations, visas for manufacturing because America’s forgotten how it’s made, special economic lawsuit-free zones, worker dormitories, increasing teacher pay, zero income tax for manufacturing workers, managers, and owners (not tips!), cutting student loans for non-STEM fields, and making universities responsible for unpaid student debt. You may hate these ideas and you might be right to, but it’s time to open up the conversation, because it’s becoming clearer every day that what we’re doing isn’t working. And this isn’t about beating China. It’s about doing the right thing for our country and our people, who do the hard, important work on which our cushy modern life relies. Chinese labor may be cheaper, but ours can be better. Let’s make it happen.