That was brilliant, micro, and much appreciated. Thank for taking the time to write it.
I know not everyone is 'made' to make a business. But that misses most of the point I am reading in your message: the business makes you at least as much as you make it. It changes you, hopefully for the better, as you change it. And most small businesses, and owners of small businesses, are, or have been, suffering. And the small businesses of the country provide MOST of this country's jobs!
There are a lot of successful people in Trump's team, and a lot of self-made business people. Most of those businesses started small.
I hope one or more of Trump's team has the courage to seek a heart-to-heart with Trump. And advise him honestly. And I hope Trump listens honestly. And then I hope Trump does something really courageous, and smart: I hope he initiates a one-on-one with Musk, so the two might try to set things right...for their own good, as well as the good of MAGA and the country. (Which I think is mostly aligned with the good of humanity).)
If they do that, they will BOTH become better men. And the country and world will, hopefully, be set at least a little close to right.
---
By a bit of happenstance, yesterday I got a call from an old girlfriend asking for advice. We hadn't been able to talk about anything serious for years, because of the craziness of politics and the intersection with life, our individual challenges, and our egos.
That's right: she voted left. And in the aftermath of the 2024 election she was getting nervous and called asking for my advice on how to get out of the country because it was becoming a 'Fascist' dictatorship.
I said, "Well, now I guess you have some idea how I have felt the previous four years!" And, yes, I did tell her that there is an actual definition of "Fascist", from Mussolini himself, and that it DOES include “authoritarian” government, but otherwise doesn't mean most of what most people think it means.
Rather than allowing the phone call to become another failed attempt to communicate, only driving us further into our positions, we agreed to just set aside the word “Fascist” and agree that we were living in “an Oligarchy”, and that the oligarchy had just flipped from one group of authoritarian oligarchs to another!
(I think it is more fundamental than that, because calling things an oligarchy ignored the prerequisite need to get elected under a fair (enough) election by informed citizens. And, IMO, that was the miracle of 2024.)
But we put the difference in politic issues aside. And I did my best to be a good friend and give her the best advice I could give her, trying to be as clear and yet neutral in my speech as I could.
I don't know what she is going to end up doing; that has to be her choice. But I told her what countries I liked, personally, the best, and why, and made sure to underscore that she had to know her own preferences and make her own decisions. And she should go and visit countries she thought might be best for herself and her situation. I also suggested she not be rash in making decisions -- although timely is always a good idea!
We had a good conversation -- and unquestionably the best and most honest discussion we'd had in years. And I think we both left that conversation a little better for the effort.
| 
