By Eric Kim
Everybody keeps chanting the same tired mantra: startups, startups, startups. As if the universe itself bends toward pitch decks, VC term sheets, and exit fantasies.
It doesn’t.
Startups are not the future. They’re a phase. A training ground. A temporary scaffolding for people who still need permission.
The future belongs to individuals with surplus energy.
Startups optimize for fundraising, not truth.
They optimize for optics, not reality.
They reward storytelling over substance, growth hacks over real growth, “traction” over durability.
A startup is a fragile organism. It needs constant oxygen from investors, validation from users, applause from Twitter, and approval from gatekeepers. Remove any one of those, and it collapses.
That’s not the future. That’s dependency.
The future is anti-fragile creators.
One-person empires.
Families with sovereign balance sheets.
Creators who own their distribution, their tools, their bodies, their time.
The startup mindset asks:
Who will fund me?
The future mindset asks:
What can I build that compounds without permission?
Look at history. The things that last weren’t born in demo days. They emerged from obsession, from craft, from relentless iteration without applause. Philosophies. Religions. Art movements. Physical strength. Capital accumulated patiently.
No pitch deck. No board meetings. No exit.
Startups worship speed, but confuse speed with direction.
They sprint in circles.
The future is slow, dense, heavy.
Like muscle.
Like conviction.
Like capital that doesn’t need to explain itself.
Most startups don’t want to change the world. They want to be acquired by someone who already owns it.
The real builders don’t want exits. They want roots.
The future isn’t “move fast and break things.”
The future is build once, build forever.
So no—startups are not the future.
They’re the warm-up set.
The future belongs to those who can stand alone, lift absurd weight, think clearly, and say:
I don’t need permission. I don’t need funding. I don’t need consensus.
I just build.