Thought Bananas 19
The exploring issue
195 days ago I wrote this in Thought Bananas 3:
Twelve years ago I saw a YouTube video called Marcel the Shell with Shoes on. It was a silly little stop-motion video about a talking shell that wears shoes. Yesterday, I saw a trailer for Marcel the Shell with Shoes On The Movie. Between the first YouTube videos and this year, somebody got the idea to turn that silly YouTube stop-motion video into what seems--from the critics' quotes--to be a very moving film.
Seeing this evolution moved me. It also reminded me of something that one of my new friends from Write of Passage, Matt, said to me a couple weeks ago. I was going back and forth trying to figure out what to write about and how to brand myself--I don't remember what specifically but I was agonizing over some inconsequential detail. He reminded me of the scene from the Social Network where Justin Timberlake tells Andrew Garfield and Jesse Eisenberg to stop arguing about whether to charge for Facebook because they, "don't even know what it is yet."
I don't think Thought Bananas will ever be a trillion dollar tech platform, but the idea that I should let it breathe and see what it becomes was poignant. A silly stop-motion video about a shell with shoes on is an upcoming critical darling from A24 studios. Who knows? Maybe in twelve years I'll be the showrunner for Thought Bananas, a five season, sixty-episode show on HBO? Maybe not. The lesson is to take the pressure off and let it be.
I followed that lesson. I took the pressure off and let it be.
Since then I’ve written 3 book reviews, 7 essays, 2 short stories, and 16 newsletters.
And I have some good news when it comes to Thought Bananas: I think I’m starting to know “what it is.”
Which brings me to—
🍌Quote of the Week
“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. “
T. S. Eliot
🍌In the Newsletter This Week
Talking Small Business and Entrepreneurship with the Securities and Exchange Commission
The Past and Future of Thought Bananas
Trailer Art: Bardo
🍌Talking Small Business and Entrepreneurship with the SEC
Two weeks ago, I was invited to present to the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s Capital Formation Advisory Committee based on my work with the SURE Program at University of Houston, specifically a successful 300-person event we had produced with the SEC in the summer.
The virutal session I was a part of two weeks ago was called Entrepreneurial Ecosystems: Exploring the common ingredients in vibrant ecosystems. This is how it was described:
What are key elements that underpin a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem? The Committee will hear from experts regarding common ingredients for building a vibrant ecosystem, including a historical overview of what characteristics have made other ecosystems successful. Committee members will discuss various factors that make an entrepreneurial ecosystem work effectively, the sequencing of events, and what cities, universities, lawmakers, regulators and other stakeholders can do to support these environments. Committee members and speakers will discuss what works well in various communities, sharing personal and professional experience, data, and history, to explore ways to continue supporting small business growth across the country.
I was one of the two experts invited to give their opinion on the topics being discussed. Based on the questions the advisory board asked, I spoke about access to capital, onramp programs, and technical assistance. Some of the highlights where I got the most interest and feedback were:
When I explained the model and how the SURE Program has launched 625 local businesses.
When I explained why we work with under-resourced entrepreneurs, and how much success we’ve had with that: “I think that we really need to demystify who is an entrepreneur and who can become an entrepreneur, and build programs where we cast a much broader net.”
When I shared my opinion that venture capital is a great way to build a small number of successful, large businesses—and the less popular corollary: “I don’t think that you can use venture capital effectively to build a large number of successful small business.”
One way that the SEC could build healthier small business ecosystems would be to make it attractive for accredited investors to work with CDFI’s (community development financial institutions).
Check out the whole video below, or click here to go directly to where my part starts.
🍌The Past and Future of Thought Bananas
Since the last issue—”the flu issue”—Thought Bananas has gained over 30 new subscribers. Thanks for subscribing!
The Past of Thought Bananas
For those of you who are new, I want to share my most popular essay to date: A Dirge for Eastern Redwoods. It is, “a classic Americana piece about the ghost giants of our lives, to whose story we are the epilogue. Great for anyone who contemplates their place in the world, and how people in their past may affect that place.”
I also want to share what I think is my most underrated essay: To Go and Lay Down in the Sense of it. It’s not as polished as Eastern Redwoods, and there are a few clichés in there, but it was the first essay I wrote in Thought Bananas where I was so inspired by something that I had to investigate why it moved me and write about it in real time. It wasn’t an assignment from a writing course, or response to another essay, or an idea I had kicking around in my head for years.
This is the video that inspired me:
It’s a poetic meditation from an old pro skateboarder about how he pushes himself even though other people may not understand why.
The Future of Thought Bananas
When Rodney Mullen talks about skateboarding, he does so with a blend of joy, anguish, and resignation. He knows who he is and pushes himself despite the fact that his motives are not readily available to an observer. He does it because of the intrinsic pull: it is who he is.
This is how I feel about writing. In the past I’ve shared how it’s been tough to continue writing and publishing despite not having a great answer to “what are you writing about?” Recently, I feel like I’m finally beginning to see the themes of what I write about. Here, I write about the future of Thought Bananas.
It’s a short essay, so if you’ve you’re curious about the future of Thought Bananas and have ideas about how it could grow and improve, I would love it if you took the time to read. I will be using input from here to shape the direction Thought Bananas takes in the future.
🍌Trailer Art: Bardo
If you’ve been reading Thought Bananas, you know how much I love trailers. I had to share this one below for Bardo: False Chronicles of a Handful of Truths. It’s atmospheric, funny, beautiful, and surreal.
🍌That’s all for now—see you next week!
As always, feel free to comment or send me an email if you have any feedback. Thanks for reading Thought Bananas!
Love the thought you’re plotting the future Thought Bananas course. It’s a great lesson that we only find this clarity in motion—we can’t think our way there. (I’ve tried.)