Do you know that people could not understand how a textile manufacturer could own such disparate businesses? They all wondered what it meant for the textile manufacturer itself to be sold, while the business keeps the original name? How could a business just OWN businesses in completely different fields - get into insurance, candy, prefabricated houses, carbonated sugar water, furniture, jewelry... the list goes on. Warren Buffett is not ordinary - he followed the path that felt right to him. It occurred to me while meditating on Berkshire Hathaway that my business does not need to be defined right now - at least not the details.
As for the general philosophy, I imagine it running separate ventures. Some will deal with operations, some will not. I can see it investing. I see it huge. I kept wondering how to deal with the dance aspect, because that is a very real reason for opening it. I want it to support dance in the community. I want to create. I want to create things that are so mind-blowingly beautiful that people come all from all over the world to participate.
I had thought that I would donate profits, maybe start a separate company, maybe a 501(c)3, but then it occurred to me that I want control. I don't want a board that I have to answer to. I just want to create an explosion of whim and creativity, so why not keep everything under the same umbrella? Why not just one company - like Berkshire? It won't make sense to people, but it doesn't need to. Why can't a company be more than we think of a company being? I always thought of businesses being either for-profit OR not-for-profit. This means maximizing resources towards private benefit or towards social benefit, but I want to split it. I want a company that is known for making lots of money, but also one responsible for creating beauty unspeakable. I don't particularly like pigeon-holes, and I don't like bureaucracy. Who's to say a company can't be whatever you want it to be? Maybe there are companies our there like I'm envisioning; I'd be interested to hear from anyone about them.
The basic premise of all this is that capitalism gets a bad rap. I want a business that creates wealth and does cool stuff. Hmm, it occurs to me that maybe Google has beaten me to this premise, and that makes so much sense. This is the new capitalism. It's boring to just rack up wealth. All it means is faster cars and bigger houses (while not bad); this eventually belies a lack of CREATIVITY. That's what it really all comes down to. There's too much wealth and freedom in this country NOT to be wildly creative.
There are so many fun things I want to do.
