A short case for healthy self-interest.

On every flight, the instruction is the same: put your own mask on before you help the person next to you. Not because you matter more — because an unconscious person is no use to anyone. That's the whole idea here.

An egoist, in this sense, isn't someone who takes more than their share. It's someone who refuses to run a deficit — of money, of health, of attention — because a deficit is what turns a capable person into a liability, to themselves and to everyone counting on them.

There are two ways to spend a life. You can move into an oasis someone else built, pay rent on it, and hope it's maintained. Or you can learn to find water in dry ground and build the thing yourself — slower, harder, and actually yours. This consultancy exists for people making the second choice, across whatever sector they're making it in.

Practically, that means the same handful of habits applied everywhere: know the real numbers before you commit to a story about them, protect the downside before you chase the upside, and don't hand judgment on anything that matters to someone who doesn't share your risk.

This page will get longer as the ventures do. For now, it's short on purpose — a principle is only useful if you can repeat it back without notes.