We were doing some guesstimates with bus services and rental properties. I didn’t realize that business owners are kind of powerful.

They have power, capacity, and ability in the sense that they can get things done for you.

Just like a bus owner can say, “Hey, I have the power to take you from this city to that city.” Or a homeowner can say, “Hey, I have the power to give you a place to sleep, and of course, in exchange, give me money.”

They are trading their capacities and power in exchange for money.

Of course, one can be better at some capacity and power than another. That can be a competitive advantage.

Just starting a business can be thought of in terms of capacity building and being magical, being able to have the power to do this and that.

Like imagine back in the Gupta empire times, that somebody is saying, “Hey, I can get you from Nagpur to Guwahati in just 4 hours.”

That’s kind of magical, but we currently have people who have the capacity to do that.

You should look at what capacities and powers you have and can develop. You are taking money from people in exchange for the impact we make using those things. We make them feel, we transport them, we give them comfort, we get things for them, you automate things for them, and all this stems from your own capacities and power.

Like someone with the power to manipulate fire would just become a wizard in some story, right? A character with healing power could just become the medic. It’s just natural. So, having some capacity and power would just make you a businessman in this world. And I think it can be more intuitive when it comes to physical stuff. Of course, intellectual services are a thing, but a home, a teddy bear, a transportation service – none of these are just too intuitive in this framework, right?

People pay you exactly for this magic, right? That I’m giving you food that literally keeps you alive. That I’m giving you a space where you feel safe. Literal wonders lol. You’re creating magical experiences and consequences with your capacity and power. And all of us has it in them. Life itself is a miracle. Being able to sustain it or being able to improve it is magical in the most sincere form of that word.

A restaurant owner is performing the minor miracle of sustaining human life, just packaged in a mundane transaction. We call these “services” but they’re closer to small miracles we’ve industrialized. Instagram is the magic of showing you millions of humans and what their life looks like. Qoves is the magic of literally improving how your face looks like. And what’s profound is that we’ve become so good at these miracles that we’ve forgotten they’re miraculous. The better we get at sustaining and improving life, the more mundane it seems. But understanding that it is not mundane is what takes us to a position where we can start doing this thing.

When you see business as “I have developed the power to sustain/improve life, and I’m offering that power to others” ,it reframes the entire relationship. Because if you can’t see that Instagram is performing the miracle of “witness millions of human lives instantly”, you just see it as “an app.” If you can’t see that looksmaxing app is performing the miracle of “reshape how light reflects off your face to change how humans perceive you” , you just see it as “a cosmetic service.” The mundanity blinds most people to the opportunity.

Imagine you help someone sleep better, you help someone eat better, you help someone feel mentally better, you help someone teleport from one place to another, you help someone connect with someone else, it’s like there are millions of things to do, but these are the basic things that we are doing. A million, billion valuable actions and services at the top of funnel which, as they happen, touch these handful, very impactful points.

So, what would be the fundamental miracles?

It’s a cat and mouse thing. Sometimes we want things because of how they make us feel. But sometimes we are speaking a certain way so we want things. It’s a cat and mouse. It’s like dominoes that do cause each other, but they can be in front of each other or behind each other, no heads or tails. The wanting and the feeling chase each other in loops. Sometimes the product creates the desire, Sometimes the feeling creates the want, Sometimes having one thing reveals the absence of another, Sometimes we want things because we think we’re supposed to want them. Let’s go towards what is certain. What is undeniably, universally true about humans?

Humans are:

Physical bodies that need maintenance (fuel, rest, repair, protection)
Sensing organisms that experience sensations (pain, pleasure, temperature, etc.)
Social animals that exist in relation to other humans
Conscious beings that have internal mental/emotional states
Agents that act on the world and want effects from those actions

Interventions in these domains are the fundamental miracles

Things like Keeping this body alive, Delivering desired senses, Maintaining and elevating relations, Curation and maintenance of desired internal mental and emotional states, Tools that help and aid in decision and execution of actions.

A restaurant essentially gives your body something that keeps it alive. The ambience gives you the desired senses. And it serves as a place of gathering and elevates your relations.

Thus, if you are having capacities that impact these domains of humans, you have a business. How can one connect their capacity to the 5 domains?

From claude:

You can cook rice properly

Physical maintenance: Literally fuel people's bodies
Sensory experience: Make it taste good, smell good, look appealing
Social connection: Cooking for others is an ancient bonding ritual
Mental/emotional states: Comfort food that triggers nostalgic emotional states
Agency/action: Meal prep services that free people's time/energy for other things

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businesses exist because humans have needs arising from being physical, sensing, social, conscious agents