SOURCE - https://brightwanderer.tumblr.com/post/681806049845608448
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I think a lot about how we as a culture have turned “forever” into the only acceptable definition of success.
Like... if you open a coffee shop and run it for a while and it makes you happy but then stuff gets too expensive and stressful and you want to do something else so you close it, it’s a “failed” business. If you write a book or two, then decide that you don’t actually want to keep doing that, you're a “failed” writer. If you marry someone, and that marriage is good for a while, and then stops working and you get divorced, it’s a “failed” marriage.
The only acceptable “win condition” is “you keep doing that thing forever”. A friendship that lasts for a few years but then its time is done and you move on is considered less valuable or not a “real” friendship. A hobby that you do for a while and then are done with is a “phase” - or, alternatively, a “pity” that you don’t do that thing any more. A fandom is “dying” because people have had a lot of fun with it but are now moving on to other things.
| just think that something can be good, and also end, and that thing was still good. And it’s okay to be sad that it ended, too. But the idea that anything that ends is automatically less than this hypothetical eternal state of success... I don’t think that’s doing us any good at all.
I already mentioned: intelectual property, unique products, client base, location, assets, etc.
A YouTuber or mechanic can have all of those, but you said you wouldn't count them. At this point I'm not even sure what you're getting at. My original point is that not all businesses can be sold for tens of thousands. You can disagree or redefine the word business if you want but I know the reality of it. Neither of us are getting anywhere at this point so I'm happy to just end this here.
Because that ain't a business, that's a freelancer. LMG has some intellectual property. If Linus is hit by a bus they might lose views, but will survive. Mkbhd (the company) doesn't, if marques is hit by a bus the channel dies. Because that's not a business, that's a freelancer with a production team.