An eagle can detect subtle movements from three miles away. Their eyes are larger than ours, their pupils and retinas collect more light, and they produce clearer images than we do - even during rapid dives at 100mph.
They’ve got stereoscopic vision and a wide visual field which is crucial for accurately judging distance and depth when hunting. What makes the eagle so lethal is that it combines visual range with a pinpoint focus.
The transition from surveying a panoramic landscape to a concentrated focus on a single small animal with remarkable accuracy is magnificent. See for yourself:
Mature business have well defined goals and processes. The best run businesses have clearly defined roles and responsibilities. Each day, same as the next. Startups are something completely different.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the dichotomy between a wide field of vision and a narrow myopic focus towards a very specific goal. The eagle must keep a wide field of vision to spot it’s prey before shifting into a laser-focus dive toward that precise spot. A startup, too, must keep a wide field of vision while being prepare to shift into dive mode at any moment.
The fact is, startups can’t afford narrow vision. Certainly not until they start getting real traction. The ground beneath them is too unsettled. Areas of innovation are changing too fast. A startup’s ability to pivot and experiment and fail is perhaps their biggest advantage.
At Armada we are building the most advanced quantitative REIT asset manager in the industry. We are deep down the rabbit hole of machine learning models and a new REIT factor framework. We have our north star, we know who we are.
But, we are also surveying the landscape. The landscape is too damn interesting to ignore.
And if that means that we need to understand opportunity zones or ETF derivative use allowances or on-chain fund offerings, or building a modern media company as a tool for distribution, or interval fund liquidity mechanisms, or CMBS spread trades, or a dozen other areas I’ll keep closer to the vest, then that’s what we are going to do.
But like everything else, it comes with a cost. A juggler who juggles one too many balls doesn’t just drop that last ball. They drop them all.
And there are days I do get tired of juggling.
There is a peace that comes from working in flow state. Flow state, or being in the zone, comes from pushing yourself while experiencing intense focus on a single goal. You lose yourself, you lose track of time, you are fully absorbed in the moment.
You can’t get into flow state while being pulled in multiple directions.
There is a vibe shift coming. There is a vibe shift coming for Armada. We aren’t going to be surveying the landscape for long. But we still are for now. We are talking to partners and clients and investors and thinkers and builders. When we find our prey among the landscape, we’ll know. We’ll shift. We’ll dive down.
We haven’t found our prey yet. We are getting closer, but we aren’t there yet.
This is year two. These are the early days of a great company. This is the grind that precedes an eventual “overnight” success.
Our field of vision is wide. It will narrow.
I dig it. Enjoy the exploration. Follow the attractors.