Lessons for ambitious visionaries: Kanye & Virgils Abloh venture into streetwear x luxury fashion

Goood morning! Just watched this piece on how Kanye West and Virgil Abloh (RIP) broke into the fashion industry. Merch design has been a big topic @ Peak Shift this year with @Lana and I working on a variety of posters, stickers, shirts, possibly socks for an upcoming BOLT.FUN drop as well as the conference merch for Adopting Bitcoin!

Kanye's journey was interesting to see. His struggle to rise above his image as just a musician and assert his own unique vision for fashion x culture was eye-opening. And of-course, realising a grand vision isn't a solo endeavour; it demands finding the right collaborators. This means assembling a team that shares your vision, and then collectively learning how to bring it to life cause there's not a precise template yet.

There's lots of parallels to founding startups in disruptive industries like sovereign tech (bitcoin, nostr, privacy preserving AI). Go up to someone on the street and tell them you're free the world of tyranny and without them looking at you as if you're crazy.

I dream to help raise the palette and raise the taste level of a generation
Kanye West

If you are trying to do something new and ambitious, in any field you need to have a passionate and supportive team behind you. At the beginning you can't even really communicate clearly what it is you are trying to do without sounding crazy.

At these early stages no one really is great* and there's lots of learning and experimenting that needs to happen before that entire vision can be realised. You're not always going to get the outside validation,

They themselves will have their own dreams of what they want to achieve sometime and it's only a good thing to support those around you to get to where they're going.