What is Wagmi? Why you need some of it in your life

A couple of weeks ago, our humble studio in Shahpur Jat was sprawling with security personnel.?A bunch of very solemn looking men inspected our office and the near vicinity for potential bomb threats and other security nuisances, tried to investigate our building safety codes (that were non-existent), and tried to suss out fire exits in case of an emergency (also, non-existent). A cavalcade of bulletproof cars cleared out traffic near our area, we tried to clear up our office, and then we stood at our building entrance in eager anticipation.?

That Saturday afternoon, through a series of serendipitous events that involved the team from the Canadian company Shopify (the e-commerce platform that hosts our website) and the good folk at the Canadian Embassy - we found ourselves preparing for a visit from Canada's Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development - The Honourable Mary Ng.?

The minister was visiting our country to further foster Canadian-Indian bilateral ties; and was engaging with Indian trade and commerce ministers as well as meeting local entrepreneurs, to engender a deeper understanding of how business was conducted in India.?

The visit to our office lasted 45 minutes. While both of us were nervous wrecks, trying to stutter intelligible answers to her incisive questions, the minister herself was incredibly impressive: razor-sharp, witty, energetic, high-spirited, perceptive, curious and wise. As a passionate advocate of female entrepreneurship in Canada, she had a refreshing take on how female-led businesses should grow; through compassion and sustainability without compromising quality and integrity; and how funds need to adapt to these values to help such businesses scale.?

It was wonderfully validating to have her words echoed in our vision for The Wishing Chair; and the minister’s description of how women-run businesses are steered in Canada led us to the term (that we have grudgingly borrowed from the crypto-community): "WAGMI". Wagmi stands for "We're all gonna make it."?

We love the wagmi spirit because it stands in marked contrast to much of what we're used to in a more aggressive, dog-eat-dog, traditional, alpha-led business mindset.?

The wagmi spirit:?

- positive-sum, (not a zero-sum game where for me to win, you need to lose.) ● emphasizes community, not competition?

- Is friendly and collaborative, not combative and adversarial?

- Is optimistic, not pessimistic?

- Brings everyone up along the vertically integrated chain.?

The economist Tyler Cowen once wrote about how one of the greatest things you can do is raise someone's aspirations: "At critical moments in time, you can raise the aspirations of other people significantly, simply by suggesting they do something better or more ambitious than what they might have in mind. It costs you relatively little to do this, but the benefit to them, and to the broader world, may be enormous."

So, thank you honourable Mary Ng, for embodying the wagmi spirit!?

We aren't here on this miraculous planet very long. We are all sharing our lives together. It's all too short and too beautiful to not lift each other up.?