"Creating Your Own Luck"
Every Wednesday morning features a new newsletter from NGL on how culture influences business, the future of the media, and the pods, songs, and memes you should be paying attention to! This week starts off on a sensitive topic before moving into the idea of creating your own luck, the new Rich Paul Rule, Kanye's Star Wars-inspired houses, and more.
This weekend, 31 people were shot and killed.
I didn't really process that number over the last couple of days. Couldn't, really.
After all, I was at an ultimate frisbee tournament. While folks in Ohio and Texas lost relatives and loved ones on Saturday, I spent the night nursing an injured hamstring. The only thing I cared about was mentally and physically preparing myself to play the next day, and once Monday rolled around, it was back to work. Business as usual.
Then I read the stories. Stories about an uncle who watched his nephew die right in front of him in El Paso. Stories about a family set to celebrate their son's 30th in Dayton, only for the birthday card to remain unopened on their kitchen table. Blood-curdling, goosebump-inducing stories.
I'm not here to advance tired talking points on this horrific slice of American culture. While I believe we owe it to ourselves to properly reflect on these things and not just "move on," I don't think it helps anyone when we sit behind a screen and send out the same bite-size, 280-character tropes.
If you've ever taken an entrepreneurship class, you know that startups are often taught in a specific way: find a problem, and go solve it. Well, I've thought about gun violence for a over a year now in this manner and keep coming back to a simple fact. We need to talk about this issue more.
The next generation of voters, of creators, of thinkers, of people filling prominent positions of power in this country...we need to talk about this culture of bloodshed. We need to foster real conversations, and not focus on carefully-crafted comebacks and manicured memes.
We need to give a shit. About human lives.
I'm not exactly sure about how to prompt these conversations. My first instinct is to put together panel discussions featuring voices from all across the Second Amendment spectrum because before we take a step forward, we have to know where the hell people stand.
If you're interested in helping me set this kind of thing up (or have other ideas as to actionable plans), I would love all and any input. Send an email my way at ngl@powderbluemedia.com, and I'll make sure to get back to you as soon as I can.
This is a real, breathing, terrifying problem. Let's go solve it.
Creating Your Own Luck: The Whole Foods Story
If you read my Letter From the Editor in last week's newsletter, then you know I'm extremely grateful for the opportunity to work with Jeremy, Jake, and Jared on 'Whistles,' an inside look at the student-athlete lifestyle. These guys have been putting in serious work, and in turn, they've created a thoroughly entertaining and thoughtful show.
Yes, this whole idea fell into our lap, but when you really explore the stories of some of the most prominent entrepreneurs, time and time again, there's a specific, defining moment or decision that defies all logic and ends up being the difference between succeeding and failing. Personally, I point to the story of John Mackey, the creator of Whole Foods, who went on 'How I Built This' two years ago.
Mackey touched on his company's turbulent time during the late '70s, when he was running a vegetarian natural foods store in Austin called SaferWay (and living in it, too). With a slew of interested investors hesitant to pull the trigger — losing half of his money the first year certainly didn't help — he was running out of options.
One day, though, at his local pickup basketball game, Mackey noticed a fellow regular named Jay drive off in a BMW. Turns out that Jay, a 26-year-old at the time, had inherited a nest egg in the millions and didn't work...but he was looking into investing, and had started shopping more often at SaferWay due to his own "food consciousness awakening." After Jay wrote a $50k check, Mackey's board decided to invest more, and the rest is history.
To sum, two things. One: if you're not listening to 'How I Built This,' you owe it to yourself to go check out NPR's podcast on "innovators, entrepreneurs, idealists, and the stories behind the movements they built."
And two: wherever life takes you, whatever venture you pursue...none of it is easy. No one can ever truly comprehend the grind, the lump sum of passion you pour into your endeavors.
But every once in a while, take a step back and look at everything you've done, everything you've created. And when the time comes, all you can do is prepare for that next life-changing moment.
TWIC: Bowling is Back and The Rich Paul Rule
Can Bowling Win Over the ‘Lebowski’ Generation? (The Ringer)
(Ringer Illustration)
If you know me, you know that a) I love The Big Lebowski and b) I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for bowling after running the bowling club in high school. So chalk me up as surprised when The Ringer's Bryan Curtis wrote a phenomenal piece on the success Fox has found in purchasing broadcast rights to the PBA.
Bowling will always be a niche sport, he writes, but due to its lack of mainstream coverage, tournaments are always evergreen, meaning Fox can replay them 10 times and create household names like Kyle Troup and Norm Duke. It'll be interesting to see if bowling can ever reach a similar level that poker did 15 years ago, with tournaments becoming true television events worth tuning into on the regular.
The Future of Tech With Kara Swisher (The Bill Simmons Pod)
Yeah, I know, I'm plugging The Ringer even more here, but this episode of The BS Pod was definitely worth the listen. Simmons brings on Swisher, a lifelong tech journalist and co-founder of Recode, to talk about how much power big tech companies such as Google and Facebook are exerting in the modern age and how Disney's massive library of content will affect the media industry moving forward.
These are topics that we talk about everywhere nowadays, but it's refreshing to hear Swisher discuss these topics with Simmons in his traditional, low-key fashion. We think of him as The Boston Sports Guy, the dude talking about silly, non-trivial things for over 20 years now, yet in reality, he's razor-sharp on these topics and truly insightful on media companies and their movements. Be warned, though: you might have to start and pause multiple times to finish this one, as it does hold a 1.5-hour run time.
Ye Builds 'Star Wars'-Inspired Dome Houses (TMZ)
(TMZ)
No, this is not a joke. TMZ originally broke the news that Kanye West has been working on a architectural project in Calabasas as some sort of...commune? Yep, the rapper-turned-designer-turned-architect believes these homes will break the barriers that separate socioeconomic classes.
For people who have visited, they actually think this is a solid idea, with the domes deemed really efficient in regards to space. We'll see if the Louis Vuitton Don can truly make changes in the architecture industry, though, given that he supposedly violated a building code and the prototypes might get torn down.
The NCAA Creates "The Rich Paul Rule"
This week, the NCAA sent out a memo announcing that they were implementing a new rule for agents who represent college basektball players that go through the draft process while retaining their scholarship rights. This new rule requires agents to take a special exam and have received a Bachelor's Degree, leading many to unofficially dub it "The Rich Paul Rule."
Who is Rich Paul? He's the founder of Kluth Sports Group and the agent for LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Ben Simmons, and more. Paul was 21 when he met LeBron, then a 17-year-old high school phenom, and the two have been extremely tight since, with the agent becoming a huge influence on the basketballing world.
The NCAA can defend this decision all they want, but the truth of the matter is that they truly cherish control, which this move certainly entails. Soon enough, though, this all won't really matter, as the NBA is looking to get rid of the one-and-done rule in the next five years. Therefore, I think we can view this as a last-ditch effort for the NCAA to profit off of some of their most prominent superstars (mainly, freshman phenoms) before they all start skipping college and going pro out of high school.
What I'm Watching: 'The Boys'
Amazon's new hit show might seem like another flashy superhero project on the surface, but the truth is it's a complete teardown of corporate greed and humanity.
Okay, no, not exactly. Based on the mid-2000s comic series of the same name, 'The Boys' follows a mild-mannered protagonist in Hughie as he navigates a world in which superheroes are backed and marketed by a large company called Vought International. "Supes" are told what babies to kiss and what victims to save; in turn, they get to be millionaires who commit atrocities such as rape and murder, only to have it all covered up.
Hughie sets on a path to take down The Seven, Vought's highly-marketed, pseudo-Avengers, when one of them kills his girlfriend Robin in an accident. Vought offers him $45k in hush money and falsely tells the public A-Train was on the way to stop a robbery...and Robin simply got in the way. A furious Hughie then teams up with The Boys (led by a diabolocal Karl Urban), and the show explores their oft-hilarious, oft-emotional journey.
With real, authentic messages about what happens when humans wield godly powers, 'The Boys' just might be the show of the year. Watch it on Amazon Prime if you have it...or find a stream somewhere online like me :).
Odds & Ends
Ep. 31: SamIAm the MC on Supporting Artists and Battle-Rapping in Chicago
On this episode of the podcast, I dug back into the archives and pulled up an interview with freestyle-rapping legend SamIAm the MC. Sam laid down some bars off the dome before getting into his history growing up with the genre, winning battle rap competitions on MTV, and how he feels about the effects streaming has had on the music industry.
Click here to find my podcast on all your favorite streaming platforms!
WE 👏 LAUNCHED 👏 OUR 👏 NEW 👏 WEBSITE!
Thanks to a ton of hard work from Karim Noorani, we have launched the official new UNPLUGG'D website! You can view it by clicking here or by logging on at beunpluggd.com.
Bookmark it, save it, treasure it...whatever you do, we're happy to have this thing up and running with you! We'll still publish content on our Medium page for the near future, but we will begin to transition everything over. Make sure to let us know what you think about it!
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NGL is an O.G. sneakerhead, diehard Chargers fan, and huge advocate of ultimate frisbee. You can follow him on Twitter here.