Voice Dictation for Substack: Newsletters, Essays & Subscriber Content

Contextli outputs:

# In Praise of Boring Businesses

I've been thinking about boring lately.

Not the existential kind—the business kind. Specifically, why the most successful small business owners I know run incredibly *boring* companies.

Laundromats. HVAC repair. Accounting firms. Dental practices.

Nothing that would make a VC's heart race. Nothing that would trend on Twitter. Just steady, profitable, sustainable businesses that quietly compound year after year.

## The Boring Business Advantage

Meanwhile, I watch flashy startups flame out constantly. Revolutionary this, disruptive that—and then... gone.

The laundromat? Still there. Still profitable. Still boring.

There's something to learn here.

## The Lesson

Boring is underrated. "Exciting" is often just "risky" with better marketing.

The next time you're evaluating a business opportunity, ask yourself: is this exciting because it's good, or is it exciting because it's novel? Those aren't the same thing.

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That's it for this week. Hit reply if you've had similar realizations—I'd love to hear your boring business stories.

Until next time.

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I almost quit last week.

Not in the dramatic, announce-it-on-Twitter way. In the quiet way where you just... stop. Stop writing. Stop showing up. Let the newsletter die silently.

I was burned out. Completely, totally, utterly done.

Then I got an email from one of you.

It wasn't particularly long or eloquent. Just a note saying that last week's issue helped them make a decision they'd been avoiding for months.

That email is why I'm writing this now.

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## The Credential Collapse

Credentials are a proxy. That's all they've ever been.

When information was scarce and verification was expensive, we needed shortcuts. A degree from a good university said "this person is probably competent" without requiring the employer to actually verify competence.

But something shifted.

First, credentials proliferated. When everyone has a degree, having one stops signaling anything. It's table stakes, not differentiation.

Second, verification got cheap. The internet made it possible to demonstrate skills directly. Why trust a piece of paper when you can see someone's actual work?

**Portfolios beat credentials. Proof beats promises.**

Employers are catching on. The smartest companies I know care less about where you went to school and more about what you can show them.

The credential economy is giving way to a proof-of-work economy. The question isn't "what degree do you have?" It's "what have you built?"