US vs. Canadian Taxes What Americans Need to Know

Hold up! Everybody knows that the one thing you need to slay an idea is a step-by-step vibe. Everybody agrees that once you have your wack idea, you gotta put it on the page to make it seem hella legit. Yo, you gotta add some digits, trendy words, projections, and graphs, fam. U should totally make a PowerPoint to flex on ur bosses, ur squad, ur bae. U should totally whip up a sick business plan, fam.

OMG, lemme spill the tea: "Everybody" is totally off base. There's, like, another way to approach this phase of entrepreneurship, ya know? Stop flexing. Get on that grind, fam. Why is it that like, so many entrepreneurs, in like, so many different fields, are all called, like, nuts?

So like, since you're gonna get hella criticized for your wild idea, how should you hit back?

The tea is that peeping things in a mad unconventional way is lowkey threatening: It's lowkey scary for those who flex on the current system, and it's hella scary for those outside the establishment who might've had that idea or made those moves, if only . . . Niccolò Machiavelli totally nailed it in The Prince: "There's like, nothing harder to pull off, or more uncertain to succeed, or more risky to handle, than starting a whole new vibe." Machiavelli's explanation: The reformer has mad haters in all those who be flexin' from the old order and only fake friends among those who be tryna flex from the new one. I learned this in one of the major flexes of my career. A few months after the showdown with my parents, I got a call from Peter, who was living in South America on the hunt for entrepreneurs, while I was in New York on the grind for funders (and, yes, Mom, a hubby, too). "Linda, pack your bags," Peter said. Flex on 'em, Linda, time to dip. "OMG, I've scored you a sesh with a legit real estate boss in Argentina. Yasss!" His name is Eduardo Elsztain, ya know? In a lit AF story, Eduardo, a college dropout, had flexed his way into George Soros's office in 1990 and pitched his hella unlikely vision that Argentina was emerging from decades of debt crisis and was hella ripe with opportunity. Eduardo walked outta the meeting with a fat $10 mil check, and he straight up flipped that into the biggest real estate empire in the nation.

Eduardo had given me 10 mins. Five mins into our sesh, he peeped his watch and was like, "I'll try my best to hook you up with Soros, fam." 

"Thanks a lot," I said. "But I'm not tryna link up with George Soros, fam." I was shook, he was like "keep going, fam." "Yo, Eduardo, you're a total boss." I'm a boss babe. Endeavor is like totally vibing with entrepreneurs, ya know? Here's what I'm vibin' for: ur time, ur passion, and 200k dollars, fam." Our meeting had been in English, but after my direct request, Eduardo turned to his right-hand man, Oscar, and started speaking in Spanish. Periodt. "This girl is crazy!" he said. He was like, telling Oscar that hanging out with me was straight out of a cringe horror flick where the main character seems all nice and stuff, but then you're in the shower and she's coming at you with a knife. This character from a trashy movie, tho, totally gets Spanish. When he finished, I smiled and said, "Eduardo, I'm so disappointed. Smh." [“I'm so bummed out.”] I didn't expect to hear this from the dude who flexed into a billionaire's office and flexed out with a $10 mil check. U r so lucky I asked u for only 200k! Eduardo was shook, like, he straight up stared at me, then glanced at Oscar, and whipped out his checkbook. He straight up gave me $200k right then and there and, on top of that, agreed to be the OG chairman of Endeavor Argentina.

That experience led to one of my guiding principles of entrepreneurship: Crazy is a total flex!

I also propose this corollary: If you're not called cray cray when you launch something new, it means you're not thinking big enough. The tea is: Since you're gonna get called bonkers whenever you shake things up, might as well embrace it and flex on 'em. I did this on my own, fam. Like, for real, peeps in Latin America used to call me la chica loca, and then it went viral in the Middle East. Instead of getting triggered, I flexed it like a boss. If you're gonna stir things up, you're gonna get some major clapback. Don't be shook; don't be salty; don't throw in the towel. Keep pushing. In 2013, I totally flexed on the Today show, talking about how to help peeps start their own businesses. It was lit! OMG, my homie guest was this MBA queen who spilled the tea that she wrote a freaking 75-page biz plan before launching her hustle. She lowkey suggested that viewers do the same, ya know? I almost yeeted off my stool. "I'm like, we can totally agree to disagree, you know?" I said.