Spain needs investigative initiatives against corruption in the PSOE and major public authorities.

After doing some research on WHY there is a housing crisis in the Canary Islands and WHY it takes so long to deliver parcels to the islands, I came across the deliberate refusal of the responsible authorities to work and the awarding of contracts to suspicious people.

A recent ruling by Spain’s Supreme Court awarded German real estate mogul Matthias Kühn 96 million euros in compensation after the PSOE government retroactively reclassified land he had bought and planned to develop as “non-buildable”.

It shows once again: the justice system in Spain works – it just needs tough investigative journalism and activism to rid the country of massive deliberate incompetence and hidden corruption.

I believe that with political reform – moving away from socialism – and a massive reduction of its corruption problems, Spain can become a leading world power and the most livable country on earth. It is one of the world’s most beautiful countries, home to beautiful and highly educated people (many of whom are currently working abroad because of the lack of prospects in Spain).

¡Viva la libertad, carajo!

Artificial intelligence will determine whether companies and entire industries will fail or thrive. AI is moving so fast that even the people programming the models do not know what it will be able to do in six months. However, it is crystal clear that the impact of AI will be beyond anything we can imagine.

In the past, the rise of the internet disrupted entire industries. The impact of AI will be much greater.

The internet primarily affected how things were done by creating new channels and platforms. AI, however, goes deeper by influencing what is done and why. It analyzes data to uncover hidden patterns and will even make decisions traditionally reserved for humans. This fundamental shift will reshape entire industries from the ground up.

While I’m currently looking for a new venture, I’m looking at different industries from a whole new perspective by asking myself how that industry will be disrupted by massive advances in AI. How quickly could it happen? What are the risks and opportunities of AI disrupting this industry?

For example, I am currently looking at doing acquisitions and considering starting an M&A consultancy focussed on preparing businesses for a successful exit. The M&A process involves a lot of manual and repetitive tasks, including data extraction, data analysis, due diligence, valuation modeling, document generation and review. There is no future scenario in which the current landscape of M&A will not be completely disrupted by AI, performing close to all the work happening in the background to make M&A deals happen. There is a high chance AI will oust well paid jobs such as data analysts, research associates, paralegals, financial modelers, loan underwriters, accountants, auditors, and even lawyers. Hence, the only way to build a successful M&A advisory firm is to develop and leverage such AI tools while focusing on strategic advice and the human touch.

There are many industries that will ultimately be disrupted by AI. In addition to the traditional financial industry, I would not get into industries such as insurance, education, advertising, and eventually even programming.

Other industries may be less affected by AI, such as construction and food – we will still live in a physical home and eat real food.

At the same time, I see a lot of potential and a lot of money to be made in industries that will benefit greatly from AI over the next 20 years – particularly healthcare, logistics, and manufacturing.

In 2020, I formed the Valenus Group with the intention to acquire and merge successful businesses in the healthcare industry in Germany. I recruited a small team of advisors and business partners, as well as external advisors who support me along this journey.

Since then, I talked to hundreds of business owners, I submitted a dozen of LOIs, have looked at a handful of companies in the due diligence. I agreed to a binding LOI in late 2021 when suddenly mandatory vaccination for healthcare personnel was introduced in late 2021. Then, a first deal fell apart as key employees suddenly left the company. I paused the entire venture for over a year. In 2023, I continued pursing deals with Valenus Group and quickly found an excellent dental laboratory in South Germany. We agreed on fair terms, but the deal ultimately failed in late 2023 due to a huge delay in the financing, which ultimately came down to a high dependency on the current owner of the business.

I learned a couple of things in this painful self-funded search and process:

1. Most small businesses are unsellable as they are too dependent on the owner, which makes it either too risky for a buyer and/or too risky for the financing bank.
2. Most small business owners have unrealistic asking prices, as they project most of the potential value of their business into the future.
3. Many business brokers in Germany are unprofessional intermediaries which are great at talking and creatively adjusting the EBITDA but do too little to get the deal done.
4. The tax code in Germany is preventing many successions and deals by making seller’s financing largely unattractive.
5. The process to find a truly great business takes at least 10x longer than anticipated.

As I self-funded this entire process, I unfortunately have to call 2023 a big failure for myself. Yet, I am not giving up. I have greatly enjoyed the process, and I find great joy in the deal-making process. I am more actively than ever looking for promising deals in very specific niches in the health/technology industry in Germany, Switzerland, and the United States. Doing deals is certainly something I want to keep doing until I die.

Yet, coming close to the depletion of my personal resources to self-fund my search any further, I realized that I can add a lot of value. By helping business owners optimize their business so that – instead of having an unsellable business – they have an attractive, growing, and future-proof asset they can sell at their desired price.

That is why I am announcing the founding of ReadySell, a succession consultancy and agency focussed on maximizing company value for a successful and guaranteed exit within 3 years.

I will bring in everything I have learned over the past 3 years, combine it with my unique know-how and skills when it comes to growth, innovation, recruiting, and sales to help business owners secure their succession.

Going on, I focus on ReadySell while actively continuing the search for Valenus Group. To avoid any conflicts of interest, ReadySell will not accept clients from the healthcare industry, unless agreeing upfront on a potential exit to Valenus Group.

If you want to learn more about the ReadySell Method I have developed or if you are interested in selling your business, please contact me personally.

A few days ago, I was in an interview with an experienced senior sales executive. For me, the key when it comes to qualifying leads and truly understanding their needs is to ask questions.

He told me: “Never ask questions you don’t know the answer to!”

I was caught off guard, because I didn’t expect to hear this from someone who was much more senior than me.

I think it is bad advice.

1. Why would I ask questions I know the answer to?
2. How do I find out things I don’t know the answer to?

For me, venturing into the unknown — asking questions you don’t know the answers to — is critical to finding new insights, innovative solutions, and even business opportunities that may not be obvious at first.

By asking questions you don’t know the answers to, you expose yourself to new perspectives and encourage out-of-the-box thinking. You create a better understanding of customer needs, market trends, and competitive dynamics.

We could improve the conventional advice to: “Never ask questions you can easily find the answers to.

But even then, I truly believe that what’s publicly known is not necessarily factual truth. Public knowledge is often inchoate, embellished, and sometimes outright false.

If you don’t ask questions you don’t know the answers to, you won’t gain a competitive advantage. You will not build deep trust with your counterparts. You will not learn and progress as quickly.

I think you have to question everything. And asking questions that you know the answer to is like going in circles—it gives you the illusion of movement but takes you nowhere.

World Record Mindset + Meritocratic Basic Income + Invention Funding = Progress

I truly believe that humanity will progress faster when individuals have the freedom to pursue risky and meaningful ideas.

Today, the smartest people in the world work in professions which don’t build and invent things: finance, consulting, academia, SAAS software, etc.

They do it, because that’s where they can earn the most, get VC funding the easiest, and enjoy the highest social reputation.

A SAAS business – for example – can now easily have 10,000 employees providing a digital signature solution or just another productivity software.

9,900 of these employees are not working on any meaningful ideas which significantly move humanity and our collective consciousness forward.

We have to provide these individuals with the freedom to pursue risky ideas to invent new technologies, come up with groundbreaking scientific breakthroughs which refute current “impossibilities”, and set new world records in any fields – physics, longevity, etc.

If you think about it, historically any inventor had to rely on the funding from their rulers. From religious leaders, governments, entrepreneurs, bankers, and nowadays venture capitalists

Nikola Tesla – for example – relied heavily on J.P. Morgan which enabled him to invent, while at the same time thwarted him to invent even more.

I don’t think of a universal basic income as a socialist idea – I see it much more libertarian and entrepreneurial as a way to give individuals the freedom to pursue meaningful risky endeavors.

We must establish a libertarian meritocracy where doing nothing is despised – yet doing something meaningful is rewarded with the financial freedom to pursue it.

The Thiel Fellowship is a great example where grants give smart individuals the freedom to pursue bold things. If these bold things turn out to work, the funding to realize these ideas and prototypes is available.

Our task is to establish a libertarian meritocracy which supports go-getters in a free-market environment.

We are already 15 days into 2024. I feel it is time to reflect not so much on the past year, but on a chapter of my life that is coming to an end. A formative decade of self-exploration, learning, and experimentation.

I traveled the world. Met and married the love of my life. I started my first business. I started meditating. I graduated from college. I accepted my first job. I rebelled against the crowd. Wrote my first book. I started dozens of business ideas. Failed at dozens of business ideas. I moved to a foreign country. I discovered myself spiritually. I took part in my first Ayahuasca ceremony. I became a father. I turned 30 years old.

Late last year, I felt that this beautiful and exploratory chapter of my life was coming to an end. While 2023 was one of the best years of my life, it was my least financially successful year. I worked hard and put everything into acquiring a business—which ultimately failed.

Good? Bad? Who knows!

Life gave me a new lesson. A new perspective. And told me that change is necessary.

So on the last day of November, I pulled the trigger. We gave our landlord notice that we would be moving out by the end of December. I wasn’t sure where we were going yet, but deep down I felt that change was necessary.

While we were living our dream life in Tenerife, an island many people dream of retiring to, I felt an indescribable intuition and urge to step up my game, to surround myself with ambitious people, to create and build things.

For me, 2024 is not just a new year. It is a new chapter in my life. I now know my strengths, I know my weaknesses, I know who I am, I know where I want to go, I know what kind of life I want to live and create for myself and my family.

Now is the time to focus. To sit down, work, build and create.

I am ready.

Let’s go!

Politics and true democracy only works within the narrow confines of our local communities — our villages, towns, and neighborhoods. Beyond this local realm, we must minimize politics and advocate for pure libertarianism. This means a lean but robust state that guarantees our safety through relentless law enforcement and secure borders. In this minimalist but powerful state, politicians and parties are superfluous because the focus is solely on the freedom of the individual and the unassailable legal framework that protects it. This is the vision of a society that places the freedom of the individual above all else, a vision that I firmly support.

My major learning from 2023 can be found in Miyamoto Musashi’s “Dokkōdō”:

Be indifferent to where you live.

Miyamoto Musashi

I shouldn’t allow myself to become overly attached to a specific location or let my happiness be dictated by my surroundings. If my home country treats me poorly, I shouldn’t feel obligated to stay. However, I also shouldn’t expect to find happiness by moving somewhere else in the world. I can find contentment wherever I choose to live. After all, living is living, regardless of the location.