During the years leading up to, and particularly the couple prior to starting Awake, I had much clarity about the nature of the universe and of my own place in it. I had never been religious growing up, but I was able to see there was more to the world than what was visible to the eye or obvious to the mind. Most of the time we are engrossed with material things and sensory experiences and never go past the surface level of what appears to be daily life.
I discovered that there was infinite depth in all things, in all people, and in all situations. And I discovered that there is a greater reality behind all what is experienced and experienceable, and if there is anything that can be called the meaning of life, it is That absolute and constant reality. When I spoke of this insight, people thought I had become "spiritual" and I guess I had, only to the extent that it was in reference to material things.
Matter, or the material dimension, is the objective part of the universe. I discovered that while matter is not self-aware aka it is inert and does not know itself, there is something that cognizes matter and gives it purpose and meaning. If all this sounds very abstract, it's because it is. If material or matter is concrete and specific, spirituality has to do with the abstract and ethereal. Not in a mystical sort of way, but in a very practical, scientific sort of way.
After all, if matter has specific dimensions and exists at specific points in time, then it followed that there had to be something that transcended dimensions of space and time. And if all this made spirituality the dual of materiality, if it became a point of view or a philosophy, what exactly would be the practical meaning of spirituality? What would be the point of it at all?
Social Commerce
So far on the Internet, in the guise of social media and other networks, tech platforms have amassed trillions of dollars of value at the expense of regular people. These big tech companies act as gatekeepers to the Internet economy, and despite the decades that have passed since the original World Wide Web was launched to the public, it is still extraordinarily difficult (technologically) and extraordinarily expensive (to drive sales) for most people and small businesses to create a living online, let alone thrive.
Why is it even called social commerce?
Spiritual Commerce
More than a technological revolution and much more than exploring outer space, humanity urgently needs a cultural revolution and needs to spend time on exploring inner space. In that space of clarity, one will see that technology will keep getting more and more advanced, but human beings can't change their fundamental nature, and that one has to allow everyone to play if society has to have any meaning. In that same space of clarity, one will see that the world is not a zero sum game, and as we saw earlier: value is everywhere.
The world needs to move from this idea of social commerce to true Spiritual Commerce. We need to recognize that instead of scarcity, it is abundance that is our very nature, and that we need to and we can manifest a better world for each other.
Just like Newton discovered gravity, and Einstein discovered relativity, I realized that the actual social commerce was Spiritual Commerce.
Spiritual Commerce is a very simple formula that allows anyone to leverage the abundance of the universe in order to materialize anything one needs or wants for anyone else. Spiritual Commerce can be simplified into basic arithmetic and into something that may resonate with most people: I can make unlimited amount of money if for every dollar I make for myself, I first make you 22.
The numbers can vary, but Spiritual Commerce is based on the laws of nature, or at least the Law of Natural Commerce. If I plant a single seed, the universe pays me back first with a whole tree, and then with a whole forest from the seeds of that first tree. If I want to make a billion dollars for myself, I simply need to make twenty-two for someone else. Probably a lot less.
And on the Internet, the Spiritual Commerce business model just means: remove high-margin arbitrage wherever you see it, don't keep it, instead redistribute it to others who co-created the value behind it, rinse-and-repeat. Well, keep a small transactional fee to sustain yourself. We drank our own kool-aid, this arbitrage-free approach is what makes coselling possible.
Teaching
Just as anyone can learn from nature because it is the greatest of teachers, Spiritual Commerce is about the knowledge economy. It is about teaching others to fish, and giving them the means to catch all the fish they want, and also helping them realize their ability to manifest oceans full of fantastic creatures.
If I wanted to make twenty-two billion dollars for others, is it not more efficient for me to enable a lot more people to do the same in turn with me, and drive up the snowball through a massively parallel cooperative effort, and share the total upside? Heck, maybe we could all work together and generate several times more value for ourselves than we would ever do by fighting alone.
Job Creation
Spiritual Commerce is about job creation at massive scale so all people could come together with dignity and pride. And what better way to empower someone to earn a living than to empower them to become a business owner? Spiritual Commerce enables not just a job for the individual but empowers anyone to become job creators for others.
As we saw earlier, entrepreneurship has the power to transform mankind in ways that allow humans to self-actualize their potential and live their full lives. It allows people to co-create value not just for themselves and their families but also their communities, their countries, and the world.
VLSI
Spiritual Commerce is not about technology, but instead about a new kind of VLSI: very large scale integration of populations, industries, platforms, processes, cultures, and so much more than makes us unique and that also keeps us fundamentally the same.
We must leverage our individual strengths and uniqueness to co-create a greater whole for humanity. It is time to think about things greater than oneself, and to think in terms of the sum total of all that exists, and to improve the world for all living beings.
Socialist VC
I realized in a moment of vivid clarity that also made me laugh out loud: extreme capitalism has a very simple solution - capitalism taken to the ultimate extreme, or to stretch it so much that it solves itself by losing any semblance of meaning.
There are two types of capitalism - one based on monetary view of economics and scarcity and incentives and all of that nonsense, and another based not on scarcity but on abundance. This latter can not be called capitalism in the classical sense but is also not socialism since it does not rely on a state actor.
It is perhaps a socialist view on private capitalism, where social is defined how it is in the dictionary: relating to society or its organization. While this may seem like a poor choice of words from someone who has founded a private equity network, it is far more accurate than "social commerce".
AwakeVC is Spiritual PE.
