Level 1 Success

A test in IQ and EQ

I was at a live poker tournament in Europe, enjoying the usual conversations and banter, when a player asked me what sports I enjoyed. I shared that I loved baseball, but that I had taken up boxing more recently.

The player then asked me who I thought the best brawling boxer of all time was. When I instantly responded with “Mike Tyson,” he and 2 other players at the table gasped as if I had just said a forbidden word.

“He’s a rapist,” one player screeched. “He’s a terrible person,” another player mentioned.

I responded with, “you asked me about boxing. How does that have anything to do with it?”

Other players at the table stayed out of the way, seemingly focused on other things, but I endured another couple hours of the 3 players harassing me to change my mind, before the table broke.

I didn’t change my mind.

Herd mentality, envy, and the inability to separate hope from action are all diseases.

These diseases aren’t spoken about too often within entrepreneurship, because it’s the dark side of success. As you level up in life, every disease I mention above is trying to surround you.

I’m pulling back the curtain to show you one (of many) facets of what it’s like when you have a little bit success, and a little bit of these diseases pop up.

1. Most of these comments below were posted after a documentary came out on us, showing how the business had adapted during the pandemic. This was about ¼ of the comments.

2. Somehow, the diseases mentioned above also flow into the inability to separate a person from a product. One person is Elon Musk. If you ask me what I know about him, I’ll tell you this.

He is the world’s greatest capital allocator.

His products are incredibly engineered.

Would I want his home or family life? No.

I pre ordered the Tesla Cybertruck the day it became available in November 2019.

I’m a giant science fiction nerd and the truck reminded me of something out of some of my favorite science fiction stories. I figured I’d live on a farm when it became available and could put it to work. I also knew that Tesla was focused more on AI than vehicles.

Having a vehicle with more utility = slower depreciation. Those were my reasons for buying it, when it became available to me in May 2024—although I don’t owe anyone a reason.

Here’s more recent messages of people harassing Clayton Farms, because I own a Cybertruck.

Someone telling me that I support Nazis was not on my 2025 bingo card.

I also wish more people would understand the definition of harassment, slander, and libel.

3. It’s safe to assume you’re always being recorded. Your social media posts are always being saved. In the example of my Cybertruck, it’s recording 24/7, from its 11 cameras.

The truck has been messed with and/or vandalized 7 times now. The worst so far was when someone decided to write FU*K ELON across the hood with a permanent marker.

I have been on Iowa State University campus 3 times over the past week—both in delivering catered food and volunteering to speak with classes and share my entrepreneurial story. Each of the 3 times, I’ve arrived back at my truck with some new form of message. I’ve decided to start publicly sharing the footage of whoever messes with my truck, from here on out.

If you’re wondering what the note read…

PS, it’s a truck, not a car. This was at 6:47 pm today (Feb 27, 2025) in the ROTC parking lot on Iowa State University campus. I was inside the Student Innovation Center, donating an hour of my time to Society of Asian Scientist and Engineers (SASE) and Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW). They asked me to share my entrepreneurial story with them.

Mike Tyson is the greatest brawling boxer ever.

Elon Musk is the greatest capital allocator ever.

I’m neither of them, but I can box a little, and I’m trying my best to deliver food that people want.