Enjoy Your Fourth of July
The Best Holiday of the Year
I am on vacation this week, so no specific topic to discuss, other than just a general love for one’s country. The Fourth of July is my favorite holiday, by a long shot - nothing really even comes close. There are dozens of reasons for this (not least of which is that I almost always take a week-long vacation around this time and play a ton of golf), but I think the biggest is simply what this holiday represents - hope.
The Declaration of Independence, the signing and ratification of which we are celebrating this upcoming weekend, was a hope-filled document. It is also a list of grievances which the King of Great Britain had perpetrated against the American states. The authors of this document made it clear that those grievances were not to be tolerated and they were going to form a country to try and address these problems.
The Declaration of Independence does not swear fealty to any man and it doesn’t swear fealty to any god (although they purposefully invoke the Almighty’s name to show how serious they were about their intent). Instead, the designers of our country recognize that this country is not a place, it’s a people. And it’s those people that are going to try and make this place better.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States
At the time, that was a pretty radical idea, and over time the people in this country have changed, but that idea remains the same. You are an American if you believe in Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. And therein lies the hope - we are a great, vast, and diverse people, all striving to make a better life for ourselves and those around us. Certainly things aren’t perfect now, but America wasn’t created to preserve something - it was created to build something new. And build we have done, and build we will continue to do.
Friday Links
I said this a few weeks ago, but this might be one of the most important IPO’s the whole year, and right now it’s ripping. The public markets are certainly all jacked up but pay attention to this space. If you thought that insurance was a fully mature industry with no new tricks up its sleeve, this IPO launch would disagree. It’s a long road ahead for this company, and plenty of ways for them to mess it up, but an auspicious start for sure.
Lululemon Acquires Mirror for $500 Million
Last week, I talked about how every company is a tech company. Some companies are taking that more seriously than others. I am very curious to see how this plays out and if the corporate synergies LULU thinks they can pull off will actually work. If I wasn’t on vacation, I was probably going to write about this one.
Obligatory Midwest Startups Repost
Need to figure out a more efficient way to get this series directly plugged into my newsletter.
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