The Bear Retreats to its Den

December 12–16, Hunenberg, Switzerland
Seasonal Memoir #44

What a difference a year makes. We learn of a new variant called Omicron, that shows signs of being much more contagious than the last one (Delta), and possibly less severe, and we just shrug our shoulders and say matter-of-factly, “Here we go again. Bring it on.”

The specter of Omicron has reached Switzerland, and we’ve taken a few more precautions around school — fewer in-person meetings, FF2P masks — but we’ve kept school open, and anticipate doing so after the winter break, even if cases explode. All we can do is wait for the wave, and hope that nobody is seriously affected, and that the variant is a step in the right direction in Covid-19’s evolution away from its pandemic-status. Two years on!

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I’ve been working on an idea for the past several months, one that I think could be worth $250m or so (ha, ha), and one that only I seem to think has value to the world. Jim Collins, the leadership guru, once said, “I had a choice between developing a profitable company, or developing ideas; I chose ideas.” As I love leading schools, and don’t have the risk tolerance of a businessperson, I’ll also choose ideas.

In that spirit, I share here the idea, called Referee, in the form of a poor-man’s business plan. And pardon this statement, if for some reason Mark Cuban or Peter Thiel read this (have your people call my people): Intellectual Property Statement: This document and translations of its contents are the sole property of the author, Paul Richards, and may not be forwarded, copied, or used without the express permission of the author. All rights reserved. December, 2021.

Referee

NDA required…