Do More Faster India, 2nd Edition

Chapter 33Karma Matters

Warren Katz

Warren was the cofounder of MÄK Technologies, a company that makes distribution simulation software, and was a founding investor in Techstars Boston. He has been a Techstars mentor since 2009 and is now the managing director of the Techstars Autonomous Technology Accelerator with the U.S. Air Force.

As you go through life, you wind up hanging out with family (mostly no choice), lovers (surprisingly little choice as well), friends (a lot of choice here), and business acquaintances (less choice). You also have a spectrum of things you do to live (work, earn money, pay bills) and things you live to do (wild sex, fixing cars, fishing, restoration of architectural millwork). The very luckiest among us get to hang out with the people we really like (whether by birth or choice) and do the things we really love (retire early, have a lifestyle job, have a hobby that pays the bills, or enjoy a perfectly directed career). Most people are not so lucky. They are forced to do things they don’t like and spend time with people they’re not thrilled with in order to subsidize their preferred pursuits.

Business and making money are usually, and unfortunately, necessary evils that tend to push people toward spending more time with those they don’t like and doing things they don’t want to do so they can maximize the freedom that more money can provide. Also, in business, when one person gives something to another that results in an increase in remuneration (a ...