Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, thank you for tuning in.

Had an interesting day.

You know, first of all, it was raining like crazy.

But the weather has been so beautiful for the past six months, actually probably the best I have experienced in the past decade or two. And I'm like grateful

for the rain. And even if it rains for the next five weeks, I'm cool with that. But I hopped

on a scooter in the rain. And it was like rain just slapping me in the face. I had some

on my piano in my ears. And I went to Staples to pick up some

labels for my printer. You know, I'm shipping out the reminder deck to all of you who have

purchased. Thank you so much, by the way. It truly, you know, supports what we're doing over here.

And I was checking out when the teller asked me if if I wanted to join some preferred customer program. And normally, you know, like, you know, I was going to say no. But he was just so friendly and kind. And he mentioned it cost me nothing. So I was like, all right, sure, whatever, bro. Give me a pencil. And then he said, thank you. Because we have to fight the online. We have to put up this fight. And I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I feel you. I wasn't really paying attention. And as I'm writing my name down, he says, we already lost our other store. AI is coming, you know. My job will be gone. This company will be gone. We're all going to feel it.

And I looked at him and I was like, brother, trust me. I think about it every single day. I know.

And he looked at me with the most serious face and said, it's a losing battle, but we must fight.

He mentioned that he already knows his store has no chance. For him,

he said it's about his dignity. And this man was truly like an all-star employee, you know,

like kind, helpful. I was almost confused. Like, bro, like, who cares? It's just staples. But

he was the kind of worker who you actually remember when you walk out the store.

I mean, like I'm talking about him right now.

Like, that's how impactful he was.

But in my mind, I'm like, bro, you don't own this company.

Like, why is your loyalty there?

Then I realized that's also my individualistic mindset, you know, the Western mind speaking.

You know, he was from the Philippines. He was older, probably late 50s, 60s.

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