Nathan Lawless

Middle market CFO. Defender of reality. Family is my greatest gift! Whisk(e)y aficionado. God, country, Notre Dame. GO IRISH! ☘️☘️☘️

[Nathan Lawless @NathanLawless2]

It’s funny because it’s true!

[The Secret CFO @SecretCFO]

Private credit funds: let us know how we can be helpful

The help:

[▼ Kiel James Patrick @KJP]

If you want to hate America watch the news, if you want to love America drive across it. 🇺🇸

[Nathan Lawless @NathanLawless2]

@NUCLRGOLF Depends on who I’m playing with. Some guys (0 to -4 handicap) putt everything out. Others, gimme inside putter length. One group, always putt par or better. Gummies only for bogey or worse.

[Nathan Lawless @NathanLawless2]

@SenTedCruz Media rights might look different for remaining Power 4, but costs will also fall with a return to geographic common sense. At the end of the day, all of these universities have budgets, and they’ve had them for decades. They fight so hard to cap athlete $, but not admin/coaching

[Nathan Lawless @NathanLawless2]

@SenTedCruz Genuinely don’t understand this take. Say the top 24-30 university programs form a Super League separate and distinct from the rest of CFB. Would it be successful? Absolutely. Would the other 100+ programs in Division I survive? Of course! Conferences, bowls, etc remain. #Facts

[Jaynit @jaynitx]

Jeff Bezos reveals the simple phrase that saved him countless arguments running Amazon

"Disagree and commit is a really important principle that saves a lot of arguing"

"One of my direct reports would want to do something. I'd think it was a bad idea. We'd go back and forth and I'd often say, you know what, I don't think you're right, but I'm going to gamble with you"

"You're closer to the ground truth than I am. I've known you for 20 years, you have great judgment"

"At least then you've made a decision and I'm agreeing to commit to that decision. I'm not going to be second guessing it, sniping at it, or saying I told you so"

"I'm going to try actively to help make sure it works. That's a really important teammate behavior"

[Joe Rogan Podcast News @joeroganhq]

"They say curiosity k*lled the cat. Explain this one to me... If the Covid shots were given away for free because they're life-saving, then why aren't chemotherapy, insulin, and EpiPens?"

[Nathan Lawless @NathanLawless2]

@SecretCFO @stevenborrelli Sounds like they were hiring out of the shallow end of the pool honestly. Great CFOs I know view marketing as an investment no different from other CAPEX projects. What is the return overall? What’s the return if we add X dollars more? Where is the point of diminishing returns?

[Chris Murphy 🟧 @ChrisMurphyCT]

I think college sports needs reform. But the new Senate college sports bill is not the way to fix it. It creates two different systems - one for athletes that limits and micromanages their compensation; and another with no limits for coaches, ADS and sports industry execs.

[Nathan Lawless @NathanLawless2]

@On3 Pretty sure @BretBielema is salty because Illinois, despite being a long-tenured member of the BIG10, wouldn’t be invited to a Super League amongst the top 24-30 brands in CFB. His only hope of staying relevant in CFB is for the status quo to remain. Oddly, it won’t help him.

[Nathan Lawless @NathanLawless2]

@alexelisa2727 @tbhorka What? Every university has their own budget, allocation of capital, NIL fund, revenue pool from stadium/swag/licensing/etc. Northwestern’s budget looks nothing like Ohio State’s and both are in the BIG10. Doesn’t touch difference between BIG10 and SunBelt conference. #FactsMatter

[Nathan Lawless @NathanLawless2]

@tbhorka @TJamesND 1. All levels of all sports have moved closer to pro sports. Personal training year round, physical training, etc. it’s a US obsession.
2. University Presidents have chosen the $$$ at every step. The only reason they’re concerned now is having to share $$$ with players.

[Nathan Lawless @NathanLawless2]

@NUCLRGOLF I like it, but how do you determine your score? For example, if an amateur plays from the tips odds are they’re 3-5 shots worse than if they played the same course from the whites. So if you shoot a 82 from the tips and you’d shoot an 77 from the whites, you play what?

[Tyler Horka @tbhorka]

Pete Bevacqua: “If you wanted to maximize media value around college football, I think you would take 24 to 30 teams, create unbelievably competitive scheduling where a team like Notre Dame would play Alabama, Georgia, Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan…”👀

[Nathan Lawless @NathanLawless2]

Even late Gen X (of which I’m one) had many of these experiences. No cell phones, no internet until I was a teenager. Tech (particularly hand held devices) has crippled young people in critical thinking and independence. Don’t even get me started on helicopter parents.

[Supersonic Redhead🛫 @Supersonic_Red]

Dear younger generations,

You have to understand that late Generation Jones and early Gen X were basically raised in the great transitional period between “traditional America” and the modern hyperconnected world.

Our parents often both worked. Many of us were latchkey kids before that even had a name. We came home to empty houses, made our own snacks, rode our bikes until the streetlights came on, and learned independence very early because there often wasn’t another option.

And honestly? We loved a lot of it.

We learned risk assessment by doing stupid things and surviving them. We learned conflict resolution without an HR department. We learned mechanical skills because things actually broke and had to be fixed. We learned how to navigate the world without GPS, how to socialize without screens, and how to entertain ourselves without algorithms feeding us dopamine every 14 seconds.

Were there downsides? Absolutely. Some kids were neglected. Some carried trauma quietly. Some had far too much responsibility far too young.

But there is also a reason many of us became fiercely independent, adaptable adults who can function under pressure without melting down because nobody was hovering over us every second of the day.

And yes, the movies exaggerated it for entertainment. We were not all out fighting ghosts and hacking NORAD from our bedrooms. Most of us were just trying not to get caught jumping ramps on BMX bikes while somebody’s mom yelled from a porch three streets away.

It was chaos.
But it was our chaos.

Life was better before helicopter moms and cell phones. Trust me.

[Nathan Lawless @NathanLawless2]

@Brett_McMurphy 1. They’ll like it just fine - biggest $$$ in CFB & CBB
2. The bottom performers probably get booted (think Northwestern, Mississippi State, etc) to drive $$$/school up. They’re your new conference mates
3. You aren’t going to like what it does to Iowa State et al TV deals/$$$

[Nathan Lawless @NathanLawless2]

@ByKyleKelly @GesuCleveland @JohnCarrollU Congratulations Kyle! True greatness is achieved with the right partner by your side. So happy for you both!

[Nathan Lawless @NathanLawless2]

Spot on

[Supersonic Redhead🛫 @Supersonic_Red]

Sunday morning essay. I've been carrying this one around for a while.

For most of my life those words carried historical weight. “Nazi.” “Hitler.” “Fascist.” They were reserved for actual history, actual evil, actual regimes that murdered millions of people and plunged the world into catastrophe. People understood the gravity of those terms.

Now they are thrown around casually in political disagreements, on social media, on television, and even in everyday conversations. That should concern every one of us regardless of ideology because when language this serious becomes routine, it loses meaning. And when words lose meaning, societies lose perspective.

It is corrosive to individuals because people begin to view neighbors, coworkers, friends, and even family members not as fellow citizens with different opinions, but as existential enemies. That is psychologically unhealthy and socially destabilizing. Constant outrage and demonization changes the way human beings interact. It rewards anger over judgment and tribalism over wisdom.

It is devastating for children and grandchildren because they absorb the emotional environment around them. If every disagreement is framed as tyranny or evil, they grow up believing America is permanently broken and their fellow citizens are monsters. A nation cannot survive long when its youngest generations inherit contempt instead of civic responsibility.

And from a readiness standpoint, this matters far more than people realize. A country facing real external threats cannot afford internal fracture at this level. Military readiness is not just weapons, ships, aircraft, or logistics. It is social cohesion, trust, resilience, and the ability of a population to unite when it matters most. History repeatedly shows that divided societies become weak societies.

America has faced world wars, depressions, terror attacks, and Cold War pressures before. We survived because despite fierce disagreements, most Americans still fundamentally saw each other as Americans first. Once that foundation erodes, adversaries do not even need to defeat us conventionally. We begin exhausting ourselves from within.

Disagreement is normal in a free society. Demonization is not. There is a profound difference between criticizing policies and convincing people their fellow citizens are equivalent to history’s greatest monsters. One strengthens democracy. The other poisons it.

[Nathan Lawless @NathanLawless2]

Not surprising in the least. Massive capacity expansion and a long to-market cycle nearly guaranteed a glut in quality spirit. History always repeats itself as public tastes change. Sad for the folks whose jobs are affected. Glad stocks will age and quality increase. @brettatlas

[The Wall Street Journal @WSJ]

Distillers that added capacity during the pandemic are facing a hangover as more Americans join the ranks of the sober-curious. https://t.co/r5KFzf6Alp

[Nathan Lawless @NathanLawless2]

@WSJ A lot of folks in the industry saw this coming as early as 2017-2018. They wouldn’t talk about it much, but the capacity expansions at the major players (Beam, Jack Daniels, Heaven Hill, etc) plus the explosion of craft distilleries guaranteed a glut & crash when tastes cycled.