One thing this bear market won’t change is how you have to spend to dominate.

Bob Lefsetz has a great riff on the subject in describing Netflix and America today:

But the bottom line is dominance pays dividends. In costs, in attention, in furtherance of your mission. You lose money until you rake it in. Not that every startup succeeds, then again, they are oftentimes undercapitalized with a suspect mission and they’re not playing for all the marbles.

That’s the essence of today, running the table, otherwise you’re an also-ran. And it’s gonna get worse. We’ve seen consolidation in tech platforms/companies, one movie wins every week, the long tail is for suckers, people living in backwaters trying to stay alive.

Oh, maybe you say you’re happy in your backwater, but you’re lying, everybody wants to reach more people, everybody wants to make more money, and in today’s world, if you’re not busy succeeding, you’re failing.

So, Reed Hastings had the vision. And he raised the money. And he led the audience.

This applies across the board, this is why television is decimating film and music in mindshare and money. And it’s why video games and esports are so big.

Then again, this world is one of winners and losers, and most are afraid to play the game.

Meanwhile, there are no jobs guaranteed for life and oftentimes you can’t make it on your salary. So if you personally are not fighting to get ahead, you’re falling behind.

That’s America today.

Yessir!