Tim Chermak

Small business owner. Classical liberal. Happy Capitalist.

[Tim Chermak @timmychermak]

Yes.

[Nicholas Charriere @nichochar]

https://t.co/3SBVH0QwgS

[Tim Chermak @timmychermak]

—C.S. Lewis

[Tim Chermak @timmychermak]

“Being good at business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art, and working is art, and good business is the best art.” -Andy Warhol

[Tim Chermak @timmychermak]

Imagine that the government taxed art based on how wonderful and creative and original it was. The more beautiful the art, the higher the tax.

What do you think would happen to art and artists? What incentives would this create?

Predictably, progressives would be outraged.

And they should be.

When you penalize success, you will get less of it. Instead of making the best art possible, artists would eventually spend their time making art that’s still pretty good, but not good enough to get taxed at the highest rates. Their creative energy would be spent playing defense, not offense.

We would all pay the consequences of living in a world with less beauty.

[Tim Chermak @timmychermak]

But this is how conservatives feel about business. It’s their creative canvas.

And it’s why income taxes create such an emotional and visceral reaction—it literally penalizes success for being success.

An entrepreneur is an artist whose canvas is a business model.

[Tim Chermak @timmychermak]

@waitbutwhy Insane.

[Tim Chermak @timmychermak]

Business advice

Hire a literal person named Claude as an executive assistant. Have them to do vital and manual things for you like shopping for groceries, mowing your lawn, doing laundry, and writing handwritten thank you notes.

Tell everyone the amazing things “Claude is doing for you.”

Be enthusiastic how much Claude is changing your life.

Your competition will waste time, talent, and tokens trying to figure out how you trained Claude to do your laundry.

While they are frustrated and invest resources trying to keep up with you, you will gain market share.

Claude ftw.

[Tim Chermak @timmychermak]

Time to lock in.

Retirement isn’t going to fund itself.

[Tesla @Tesla]

There’s life before FSD Supervised

And then there’s life after

[Tim Chermak @timmychermak]

Some people think they’re petty, but they’re only playing in the minor leagues. There is a whole ‘nother level of passive aggression that takes years to develop. Few people ever achieve it. It is epigenetic and requires a commitment to the craft that most people simply don’t have.

Let me share an example.

I once attended a town hall meeting with my state representative, state senator, and several other Minnesota state officials who were trying to pitch the public on increasing the state minimum wage.

Their presentation was condescending and elitist, aimed at “educating” the supposedly provincial idiots of rural Minnesota. One of the speakers from Golden Valley had a degree from Harvard. He was a prick. You know the type.

And then there was me.

I showed up with a box of books.

During the open mic Q&A, I asked each panelist if they were familiar with Henry Hazlitt. None of them were.

So I walked up to the stage and calmly handed each person a copy of “Economics In One Lesson.” I had earmarked the chapter on minimum wage.

Welcome to the big leagues.

[Tim Chermak @timmychermak]

There are two ways to view the world.

One perspective is that the most important function of a business is its people, technology, manufacturing efficiency, culture, or literally anything but the godforsaken HR department

The second worldview is that the HR department is the most important thing in the entire company because they know how to do everything better and safer than you do and they have college degrees

Guess which type of person votes a certain way.

[Tim Chermak @timmychermak]

Answer:

air conditioning

[Tim Chermak @timmychermak]

Guess what happened in the 1950's?

[Tim Chermak @timmychermak]

@SMB_Attorney Or, just, like, go to church

[Tim Chermak @timmychermak]

@cboyack @VanderDussenS Imagine being lucky enough to capture this insanely heroic bravery on camera…and then giving a narcissistic sermon about intellectual property that no one asked for

[Tim Chermak @timmychermak]

@ArtemisConsort @cremieuxrecueil Government institutions are not synonymous with culture.

Culture is the prerequisite.

[Tim Chermak @timmychermak]

And this is a good example of why it’s actually hard to be “selfish.”

Doing what’s in your own best interest doesn’t always bring immediate gratification, but that’s what the virtue of selfishness means: acting in your own long-term rational self interest.

[Tim Chermak @timmychermak]

Most people are pretty cool. When they’re not, it’s usually because they have something going in their life that you don’t know about. Be cool to them anyways. Not because they deserve it, but because you do.

From a purely practical perspective, it’s not fun to be stressed or angry—even when it might be justified.

Happiness is as much a strategy as it is a goal.

[Tim Chermak @timmychermak]

For 20 years, “Chief Executive” magazine has been polling American CEO’s asking the simple question: what are the best and worst states to do business in? This year they polled more than 700 CEO’s. Here’s the results:

1. Texas
2. Florida
3. Tennessee
4. North Carolina
5. Georgia
6. South Carolina
7. Ohio
8. Arizona
9. Indiana
10. Virginia
11. Utah
12. Nevada
13. South Dakota
14. Idaho
15. Iowa
16. Wyoming
17. Wisconsin
18. Missouri
19. Kentucky
20. North Dakota
21. Montana
22. New Hampshire
23. Oklahoma
24. Michigan
25. Delaware
26. Kansas
27. Pennsylvania
28. Arkansas
29. Nebraska
30. New Mexico
31. West Virginia
32. Maine
33. Maryland
34. Vermont
35. Mississippi
36. Colorado
37. Rhode Island
38. Mississippi
39. Alaska
40. Hawaii
41. Connecticut
42. Hawaii
43. Minnesota
44. Massachusetts
45. New Jersey
46. Oregon
47. Washington
48. Illinois
49. New York
50. California

[Tim Chermak @timmychermak]

You never know who’s watching.

[Tim Chermak @timmychermak]

More than a decade before the Revolutionary War, Patrick Henry gave a fiery speech in the Virginia House of Representatives. It was so intense that word spread around town while the speech was still going on. A crowd soon gathered.

Henry declared that Virginians had the right to elect their own representatives, and to only be taxed by the direct representatives they voted for. He warned that if British Parliament violated these rights with the Stamp Act (or any future legislation) they should be prepared for resistance.

He was merely saying what most Americans were already thinking, but were too afraid to say out loud.

Some of his colleagues tried to calm him down, realizing he was risking his reputation and that of the entire Virginia House.

His speech only grew more intense.

Soon the representatives most loyal to Parliament accused him of treason.

Treason was punishable by death.

Mr. Henry shouted back, “If THIS be treason, make the most of it!”

A young and impressionable 22 year old law student was standing in the crowd that day. He had “goosebumps” listening to Henry’s speech, and the fearlessness with which he delivered it.

His name was Thomas Jefferson, and 11 years later he wrote the Declaration of Independence.