TONY G TOPS A LONG LIST OF MAGATS WHO ARE PERVERTS AND CRIMINALS IN CONGRESS

 

ANOTHER CRUSHING LOSS FOR TRUMP AND PIRRO WHO IS A DRUNK AND A MORON

 

 TOO SAD THAT THESE 6 PEOPLE CAN'T SUE THESE 2 CRIMINALS FOR ABUSE AND FOR ALL THE COSTS OF DEFENDING THESE PHONY SUITS.

NEW INC. MAGAZINE COLUMN BY HOWARD TULLMAN

 

3 Tips for Long-Term Success in an Instant Gratification World

A transactional mindset that focuses on immediate success rather than patience is leaking into every aspect of our lives.

EXPERT OPINION BY HOWARD TULLMAN, GENERAL MANAGING PARTNER, G2T3V AND CHICAGO HIGH TECH INVESTORS @HOWARDTULLMAN1

Feb 17, 2026

 

These days, we’re all afflicted with what I call hurry sickness, where everyone wants everything right now. Amazon’s not entirely to blame for this, although no single enterprise has done more to enable and encourage the demands of the world’s consumers for instant gratification. And one of the clearest messages  from Amazon’s aggressive actions and the continual raising of the delivery bar is that no other retailer (large or small) is immune from the pressure and necessity to respond and try to compete if they want to hang on to their customers. 

Price is always a consideration, but speed is now the name of the game. Today, most of us acknowledge that our time is scarcer and more valuable than our money in most mundane transactions. One Jeff Bezos quote that will live in infamy was the observation that “people don’t want to negotiate the price of things they buy every day.” He went on to make this theory the very heart of the Amazon pricing algorithms. What’s an extra buck or two if I can have it delivered this afternoon? Brand and quality are secondary considerations at best. Ease of access and convenience are critical.

In an environment where a million choices are just a click or two away, and where the expectations of buyers are perpetually progressive, it’s a “what have you done for me lately” world. Loyalty these days means nothing more than “I haven’t seen anything better—yet”. This transactional mindset—“what’s in it for me”—is leaking into every aspect of our lives.  

The most shameless advocate of this selfish and self-serving philosophy is the Great Grifter himself, for whom everything in life is about illegal shortcuts, cutting corners, reneging on promises and running one grift after another by taking advantage of someone. Trump is too corrupt to be salvageable, but thousands of student athletes whose lives are being turned upside down by the financial insanity of the NIL (name, image and likeness) market aren’t. Neither are the millions of young prospective entrepreneurs and new business builders who are being told that learning your craft, paying your dues, and waiting your turn are stupid strategies in today’s high-speed and hyper-competitive world.  

You don’t need to know much of the NIL details (which change every six months anyway) other than to know that since the NCAA changed the rules in 2021, student athletes can now sell and profit directly from their own name, image and likeness through all manner of cockamamie side deals, endorsements and promotional arrangements, and other behind the scenes funding scams which are now “legal,” if still shabby and hypocritical.  

Even more material changes in the ability of players to jump from school to school every year through the transfer portal without any eligibility penalties came along a few years later and, of course, everyone knows that both the quarterbacks in the college national championship football game (as well as the Heisman Trophy winner) were transfer students as were the quarterbacks in the prior year and those who will start for both teams in 2026. 
 
College ballplayers in multiple sports are being bribed by big donors and collectives with NIL dollars to jump ship, abandon their school and teammates, skip the learning curve spent sitting on the bench, and move to another program where they have a shot at being a starter whether they’re ready and mature enough for the challenge or not. Similarly, VCs and headhunters are frantically pitching second-tier talented A.I. techies at every major computer company to spin out, grab a couple of buddies, start their own businesses with Day One unicorn funding, and try to figure out how to spend hundreds of millions of dollars overnight. Many of these men and women have never run a Kool-Aid stand before or frankly managed a team of others.  

Just to be clear, most of the most visible NIL “winners” in the short term (with upfront payments of millions of dollars) are likely to find that the whole process is a double-edged sword and that the slightest hiccup in their super-hyped and expected performance will have them moved aside or dumped entirely (with their careers in the crapper) in favor of the next hot guy coming through the transfer portal. In the same way, hundreds of new A.I.-adjacent startups will implode and tank (without skid marks) because their founders were in such a rush and so far out over their skis that no one could pull off the miracle which they eagerly signed up for at the behest of the usual greedy VCs. 

There are a few common lessons and plenty of cautions here that apply across the board. Whether you’re a parent, peer, coach, counselor, prospective employer or just someone interested in the future mental and physical health of our kids, it’s essential to remind all these excited jocks, new business builders, and other up-and-comers of a few facts of life to accompany and hopefully help to offset all the sweet talk and  “tricks of the trade” that are being whispered in their ears – especially about their exceptional talent – by people who see them as nothing more than their latest meal ticket.  

First, you can’t succeed in the long run by relying on your talent alone, even if it’s extraordinary. Great competitors in any field will tell you that failing along the way (especially early in their careers) is what taught them that it takes more than raw ability to succeed. Failure is a better teacher than success. When someone does something really well and gets praised for it, very often they don’t learn anything new for a long time. But failure can make them confront what they have been doing wrong and drive them to new learning. Talent combined with education and mental agility is what wins. Great quarterbacks aren’t just stronger and more skilled than the others, they’re much smarter and more analytical as well. Fernando Mendoza can fling it a mile, but it’s his powerful pre-snap recognition that makes him a winner and a Number 1 draft. 

Second, talent takes some time to temper and season along with good coaching and mentoring. Managing and overcoming the inevitable bumps in the road that you face in the early years builds mental strength, character and persistence. Winning takes talent, winning repeatedly takes character. Without some grit, maturity and patience, you end up being too fragile to succeed instead of being resilient. Resilience turns out to be at least as critical as talent, and the combination creates the ability to keep going in the face of defeat. Before you “roll your own,” it’s essential that you learn from others and spend some time as a role player. Waiting and watching pays big dividends down the line as you discover that you didn’t know what you didn’t know. 

If you try to jump and grab the brass ring too soon, you may quickly end up empty handed. 

Third, it turns out that the most talented professionals just happen to be among the very hardest workers as well. They’re constantly building on their base and they’re absolutely willing to work harder than anyone else and it shows. Carlos Alcaraz just won the Australian Open and became the youngest man in tennis history to complete the Grand Slam. Amid all the compliments about his natural ability and talent, he was careful to point out that “Nobody knows how hard I have been working” to improve his serve and other key aspects of his game.  

Finally, there’s a lot to be said – even in these sad days – for loyalty and for focusing on the here and now rather than on what’s next. Temptations are everywhere. Plenty of folks will tell you that you’ve got to seize the moment and move on. But, as one NFL player recently told me about dealing with all the tantalizing offers and greener grass, his mantra was to “be where his feet were,” keep his head down and on the ball, not worry about what other guys were saying or doing, and rely on his own abilities and performance to make his way forward. He didn’t need to look elsewhere for his satisfaction or success. Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it. 

 

Hey Team USA Men's Hockey, Congratulations, You Just Won The Gold Medal in Misogyny

John Pavlovitz

Feb 23, 2026

Hey, US Men’s Hockey Team, you may not realize this, but you just won the gold medal.

Not just in ice hockey, but in misogyny.

Watching you all hunched around a phone loudly laughing it up while a court-adjudicated rapist and likely serial pedophile unnecessarily (but quite predictably) belittles your female counterparts, I gotta tell ya, the national pride was off the charts.

I mean, I was this close to throwing on some acid-washed jorts, lighting up a bottle rocket, waving a flag, and crankin’ me up some Kid Rock.

Look, I get it, guys: you were in a rough spot: still flooded with adrenaline after having just accomplished the greatest athletic feat of your lives, something you surely worked tirelessly for and should be extremely proud of, I can imagine it was impossibly easy to get caught up in the moment.

Such spots are where real men show up.

Having the so-called leader of what currently passes for the Free World (whose name appears tens of thousands of times in the Epstein files) shamelessly gushing over you, all while the crazy-eyed head of the FBI guzzles beer like a frat party first-timer who’ll soon be vomiting into the nacho bar, was a lot to contend with.

Women always have to contend with a lot.

And being young men, there’s a good chance you may not have any clue about the terrible optics of you all yukin’ it up with an Olympic-level predator like Donald Trump; a guy who’s already spent the last couple of weeks attacking your brethren in free skiing and skating for not wanting to claim ownership of trafficking ring coverups and masked death squads—or for simply having a mouth piercing.

You should have had a clue.

It might not even occur to you the message you sent, not only to the USA Women’s Hockey Team, but to tens of millions of girls and young women throughout this country who spend every single day of their lives having to fight tooth-and-nail for their worth, who work five times as hard for half the respect, who are continually made to feel less-than by the men in their lives.

It should have occurred to you.

There’s a good chance it didn’t even register how this was a deja vu moment where they once again were reminded that this country is not designed for them nor willing to treat them with the dignity they deserve.

It should have registered.

Or, you may simply have been exactly what you looked like to many people. You may be among the terrifyingly large army of young white men throughout this nation who find their identity in a vile, beligerent, spray-tanned knuckle-dragger who’s spent his entire life dehumanizing, berating, and abusing the girls and women in his path.

Some of you might have been raised by fathers whose voices you recognize in his narcissistic, racist, sexist ramblings, so you don’t wince like the rest of us as we watched this all-too-familiar, boys-will-be-boys dudebro huddle. You may be surrounded in your homes and churches and practices and locker rooms by other men who display the same disregard for the feelings, bodies, and wills of women.

Because of this, you may even aspire to become a so-called adult like this President, a man who defiles women without accountability, who defames them without penalty, and whose vast and disgusting body of work declares he has complete contempt for girls and young women.

I truly hope that some of you might have simply laughed along, placed in an almost impossible spot in front of the lights and the cameras and the bombast of a bloviating world leader carelessly using you as propaganda fodder. Just know that as you grow and mature, the test of your manhood is whether or not you can declare the joke unfunny.

I hope that you define yourselves differently, stand for something higher, and believe in a decency that the man leading this nation is not capable of or interested in. After all, good men can stand for what is right, even when that means standing alone.

And if so, I hope that in the quiet of your life, in the private and public exchanges you have with women, and in the individual platforms that these medals afford you, that you’ll hold yourself to a higher standard than the subterranean crater Donald Trump daily excavates.

As it is, your entire team should at the very least apologize to this nation and to the women who call it home, for your collective lack of judgment, your alignment with a predator, and your perpetuation of the toxic masculinity that is doing so much damage to the country you represent.

But just know that disturbing and painful moments like these are why women rightly choose the bear.