Ben Gunn: Volatility, Stoicism & Anti-Fragile Networks
“You don’t need motivation — you need to have a very clear understanding about your identity and only take on work that that identity is loyal to. Because the days up here, there’s no motivation in the world that gets you up here on a bad day.”
Today, I had a rare opportunity on the podcast to talk with Ben Gunn.
Pseudonymous Ben is somewhat of an elusive character (and I mean that in the best possible way.) He’s a grafter, a proof-of-worker, and he doesn’t sit down and do podcasts very often.
I drove up the Welsh borders to visit him at his woodland estate last week to chat about a number of things. The idea was initially sparked by a conversation we had in Prague a few months prior when he told me he was starting a company in Próspera.
We meander through a number of subjects during this chat, diving under the surface of Ben’s forestry project in Wales and the ethics that underpin its business model. We talk about his experiences living on Roatan in Honduras, about the pandemic, inflection points, and the broader implications of global economic shifts.
Ben is a former broker and he uses the language of finance to frame many of the interesting concepts we speak about, including my request for him to explain “Long Vol” to me. If you don’t know what that means, I’m not about to explain it here but its something I’ve been grappling with for a while. Thankfully Ben sorted me out this time, so many thanks for that, and listen on for your own answers and much more.
Enjoy the conversation.