Right now, a lot of ambitious people want to start holdcos. A lot of other ambitious people want to invest in them. As a result, we hear from a lot of ambitious people who want to “study” us. We’re always happy to chat, although often those conversations remind us of a New Heights podcast interview with Conan O’Brien. When asked whether there was a structure to being funny, O’Brien responded: “There’s no book. No one can write it out on a board with chalk with x’s and o’s, and then you cut right and cut left… whenever people try to analyze comedy, I think it disappears… It’s like you’re trying to grab smoke. You go, ‘I got the smoke.’ Then you open your hand. It’s not there. That’s just kind of how it feels.” As we’ve written before, we’ve often felt like a poet trapped inside the body of a finance guy. Yes, we buy and operate companies. Yes, the numbers matter. We’re not shy about the fact that our key metric is free cash flow. We know our numbers. But that’s only part of the story. We think of ourselves more as craftspeople than businesspeople. The finance-y stuff is important, but that part is relatively straightforward. What people often miss is that how we do the work matters, so studying the individual parts won't reveal much about the effectiveness of the whole. We firmly believe that success in small business lies beyond things we can measure on paper. Our craft depends on creativity, humour, perseverance, and humanity. It means we don’t use “accountability” as an excuse to be an asshole. It means we give a shit. It means we don’t freak out when things don’t go our way. It means we’re up for an adventure. What we’re trying to do can’t really be put into a manual. There’s an element of je ne sais quoi in our work, and we like it that way. The mystery is what makes it fun. And perhaps that’s the problem with ambitious finance people studying any craft too closely. Yes, the spreadsheets matter. The systems matter. The numbers matter. But ultimately you're still trying to grab smoke. Have a great week, Your Chenmark Team Subscribe to Weekly Thoughts Also, we're hiring.