How to Plant, Nurture, and Grow an Adventure Capitalist
It's not about seeking money - it's about growth
Cup your palm. Examine your petite prize as it idles, quiet within the scribbles of your palmar creases. Small as a grain of rice, delicate as a silkworm. It is warm and pulsing. Eager to be planted, it cannot wait to begin the journey.
This precious thing wants nothing more than to sprout and stretch and grow in all directions along your expectant timeline, mapping the intricate lines and setting down its fresh and vibrant runners upon this landscape.
To hike, climb, jump, and explore. To tickle at the insides and the outs. To find the you of you.
This mysterious, shelled thing. For some time you have felt the pull of it at the threads of your jumper. Heard its call from some distant cupboard or lockbox at the back of your curious brain, echoing through corridors and eaves, swirling in the emptiness.
Call.
Response.
You followed the sound with eyes closed, a warmth in your heart as the call intensified. Caught in an inquisitive slipstream, your consciousness flowed on, down hallways and through thought doors, pausing momentarily in forgotten rooms of memory and regret before moving on.
And on.
On and on.
You found it on a small, metallic tray, nestled like some tiny tick of brain jewelry in amongst your precious mind trinkets. The first kisses. The blue ribbons. The faces of been and gones.
It is a jewel—this grain, this precious pit, this germ of a notion.
Cup your palm. Examine your petite prize.
This is going to take you places. Into the world, out past the edges of your consciousness, and beyond the realm of your dreams.
This seed.
Your Adventure Capitalist seed.
The investment begins now.
Your first challenge will be “First Sprout”—the initial twitch and burst of momentum that sets you onto the path of achieving the desired outcome of Adventure Capitalism: soul profiting from a life lived with curiosity.
First Sprout, also known as First Curiosity, is the exploratory spurt of a “What’s out there?” seedling, setting in motion a long life filled with the need to strike out, to form new pathways, and to explore the world and all the people in it.
To get things going, one suggestion is to find some fresh brain soil for your Adventure Capitalist seed. This soil should be rich with the minerals of possibility—the phosphorous of pioneering, the carbon of creation, the oxygen of openness, just to name a few.
It should be noted, if one is using brain soil, the soil must contain the nitrogen of nerve else you risk the chance of your tall seedling sprouting with no courage component. To balance your soil, fear iron and cautionary calcium should also be sprinkled liberally with the nitrogen.
Don’t have soil? Water works. All you really need is water.
As the liquid of your incubation seeps in—through soils or in a dish or whatever—your germination will be mere moments away.
Plant that seed. Lay it on some damp cotton balls. Place your investment on the window sill (though again, light is not essential since some of the best adventure potatoes begin life in the dark), and stand back. Grow that investment!
Warmth and moisture. Looking out and in. Incubation. Germination. Growth. Taking root. Branching out. Thriving. These are just words and phrases. They are also the logical parameters and phases on which to trellis your Adventure Capitalist plan.
ROI Prospectus Summary
- Adventurous spirit.
- Curious mind.
- A Lush and fertile life.
These are all measurable upon the doorjamb of life, but for now, the seed. The Adventure Capitalist seed.
The seed knows all it needs to know to kick this off. Plumule and radicle, aching to burst forth from the nutrient of you. To break through your shell and strike out and out and out into the world.
Incubation leads to germination leads to excitation leads to growth.
Start up, little Start Up!
Push through hesitation and doubt. We welcome this golden era—the rise of the seedling, stretching its roots and first leaves in the best directions, sprouting the new sprout of the newly staked Adventure Capitalist.
What about food? What does the Adventure Capitalist seed eat? That’s inside of you—or at least, it will be if you feed your seed correctly. Books. Thoughts. Conversations. Relationships. Life. Landscape. Experience. Consume them all at the early stages of growth. And the late stages. And the middle stages. At all stages. Growth never stops. It must continue to be fed.
From seed to stalk to towering adventure tree—eat everything. Seek out the same and seek out the different and seek out the confusing and seek out the self. Dissect ugliness and swim laps in beauty. Sit quietly and listen loudly and stride flat and lie long. Act on and be acted upon by others.
Eat.
The morals and ethics and thought structures of your root system, the flexing of your branches and opening of your leaves—all are enriched and strengthened by the cuisines found on your adventure, served up by menu mentors. Adventure is generated by being in the world and with the world and of the world and all who are in it.
In and out. We are all breathing.
A word of warning: Someone will ask you at some point, “Where did you find that Adventure Capitalist seed? You sure as hell didn’t get it from me or your father!” Or words to that effect.
You must not question the arrival of your seed, nor its appearance when it comes to you. You are under no obligation to justify the existence of this seed. Many will not understand how you came to find a seed—many will not find one—nor agree with your growth strategies.
You may, in their eyes, begin to grow away.
When you answer this question, your answer must be rooted in love.
As an Adventure Capitalist you have but one duty: to your growth.
There are no shareholders. There is only you.
Tend to yourself. Ward off spiritual blight. Be not root nor pot bound. Protect yourself from the diseases of soul that so easily decimate the potential ROI of an Adventure Capitalist.
All is invested. All is investment in you.
Be warm. In your heart. In your blood. In your countenance.
Growth is an uncertain bet. Because of this, all Adventure Capitalists are gamblers, taking a risk on themselves, on life, and on finding meaning throughout.
You are unproven in this endeavor.
You may experience a high rate of failure.
Wealth, when it comes, is cashed out in the next life. At your exit from the investment plan. You will not see how successful you are in the eyes of others. You will not hear your own eulogy. A life lived. A world explored. When the tree falls, you will not hear it.
Did it all pan out? Did your leaves turn brown? Did you overwater or under feed your life?
You will never know.
Look in your hand. There it is—the promise of growth. The promise of the twisting of branches, the sinking of roots, the seeking of the air and the earth and the touching at the edges.
Plant that thing.
Partner with and invest in yourself.
Build that equity in your very soul with a stake in your life and the outcome.
Live your life at scale as an Adventure Capitalist.
All profit. No loss.
And it all starts with this seed.
This week’s amends…
"Good editors are really the third eye. Cool. Dispassionate. They don’t love you or your work."– Toni Morrison, Paris Review, Art of Fiction interview, Issue 128 (Fall 1993)
On Rotation: “Mum Does the Washing” by Joshua Idehen
A reminder that all songs featured in this newsletter over the years are added to the giant mega super playlist of magnificents and magnificence which you can access with an effortless depress of this button. 👇
I’ve been on a bit of a Nick Cave kick since I listened to him on what is currently my favorite podcast, Bella Freud’s “Fashion Neurosis.” This podcast takes the standard form (if you’re listening to it on a podcast app) but where it really shines is the construct for how the people are set up for their interview: Guests are interviewed as on what could easily be a therapist’s couch.
There’s something about this shaking up of the form that makes interviewees seem… I don’t know, more vulnerable and honest? They are looking at the ceiling/up (I’m assuming they see the camera too) but they seem able to just wander around in their brains thinking of the answer rather than having to make eye contact. It’s actually a nice podcast to watch. Beautiful even.
I also love hearing about how people relate to their clothes. Great concept. Just watched the Cate Blanchett one. ICON!
Now, one of my favorite parts of the Nick Cave episode is the revelation that Russell Crowe asked him to write a script for the Gladiator sequel (I’m assuming this was way back) and it is a bonkers concept and I would’ve LOVED to have seen it. It wasn’t quite what they had in mind, I guess. I haven’t watched that latest Gladiator 2, but I’m guessing it’s not this.
Anyway, catching up with Nick Cave on that must’ve triggered my YT algorithm to show me this video about the making of Wild God. Love this kind of stuff.
The correct usage of an AI generator for the images?
Shameless Podcast Plug
Listen to audio versions of early issues of The Stream on my podcast, Field of Streams, available on 👉 all major podcasting platforms 👈
Here’s Apple