Ben Gilbert: belief

Transcript context

…I was only there for a few years. I've been investing twice as long as I've been a journalist at this point. It's something that captures people's imagination. It's like, how did it affect you? And it really is. I think the greatest way that it affected me was, I think starting your career off in a dying industry gives you a different perspective than if you start your career off in a company that is just filled with abundance. You understand what death looks like versus momentum. That was probably very formative for me coming out to the valley and then seeing what good looks like. It's the same thing as the child psychology studies of people that always, not necessarily grew up with a tremendous amount of wealth, but who did not come from scarcity. There's a general underlying belief in every subsequent decision that gets made that I'll always be okay. I think the same sort of translates to career decisions and people being willing to take risks and believe that there is a growing pie, rather than I need to fight for my corner of it. And also just understanding culture. I don't think people understand the difference between a culture of scarcity and a culture of abundance unless they've experienced both. I do think I've been really fortunate now. I'm definitely part of a culture of abundance. An abundance culture leads to yes. It leads to, oh, yeah, try that. The idea of building an American dynamism practice can only come out of a place that has movement and that has growth. Those types of things cannot be built in a culture of scarcity. I do think Washington is a culture of scarcity, just by its nature, that the incentives are, every two years, there's an election. Half the people who are in charge will leave, and the other half will come in. The people who are kicked out will go to think tanks. It is very zero sum and it's every two to four years. It is not a long-term cycle, because that's just not how we structured our democracy.…

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