"Every Man for Himself and God Against All"
A book for startup founders. A short review.
Hey, I’m Casey. Welcome to our newsletter, sharing the startup journey of Kamui Whisky K.K. We’ve been busy, but when we aren’t overwhelmed, we’ll share a story as we craft up a whisky distillery on a remote, frozen, volcanic island in the most northern part of Japan.
Today, I’m trying something different—a brief dive into a book that resonates with the difficult journey of building a single malt whisky distillery on a remote, windswept island in Japan’s frozen north.
It’s a short book review of Werner Herzog’s memoir, “Every Man for Himself and God Against All”.
This post was inspired by a) Herzog’s compelling memoir, and b) Adam Mastroianni’s induction to use “an underused blog format: the short book review, where you draw a few interesting bits out of a book, add some insight to them, and then get outta there, ‘cause there’s a whole lotta books to read.”
Herzog is a world-class, poetic filmmaker. Daring. A risk-taker with extremely unique experiences. With his own, extremely unique voice. Much like the whisky we aspire to make: capturing Rishiri’s own, extremely unique terroir in a bottle.
There have been many times when I thought our startup journey was hard—like having our production stopped for a month because we were caught in the middle of a political fight, with one party trying desperately to cover their ass. But that would have barely affected Herzog’s heart rate. It was tough here, here, and here, amongst others not yet catalogued.
Herzog Has Had Some Crazy Difficult Experiences
Shooting a film on Cerro Torre, a remote peak in Patagonia, and considered the most dangerous climb by professional climbers, Herzog was stranded on a high, remote ridge for days because of a White Out. Somehow, with only a few minutes window where the days long White Out calmed, he was helicoptered off, but could only hang on to the helicopters runner where his fingers froze to it. Someone had to piss on his fingers so they could peel them off (pg 235 - 239).
By pure luck, was at the last minute kicked off a flight that crashed into the jungle (pg pg 177 - 179).
Nearly eaten by cannibals.
And many, many more stories of Herzog’s tenacity and resilience.
Startup Death Experiences
Knocking on the doors of random houses1 to get money for a film-shoot, “Aguirre: The Wrath of God,” that would have ben shut down for lack of funds (pg 143 - 144).
I’ve mentioned to Javier, our Head Distiller, that whenever we think it is tough here in Rishiri, it is nothing compared to just one of the incredible things that Herzog has endured.
“Every Man for Himself and God Against All” is a great read for a startup founder. “The Hard Thing About Hard Things” is about the best book you can read to “borrow” perspective to get through all the tough stuff about startups, Herzog’s sits next to it. It gives perspective to help you endure - “this isn’t really all that bad” - you’ll come away with more grit in your belly.
Watch Herzog talk about chickens:
We are Hiring / スタッフ募集
Speaking of endurance and passion, we’re looking for a few more brave souls to join us.
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必要なのは、いくつかのスキル、良い心、正しいメンタリティ、そして共有された価値観です:
「つながり」を通して
国籍・性別・宗教・障害を超えて
安心して意見を語り合える仲間
関わる全ての人とのつながりを感じて
利尻のために
島の子どもたちの未来のため
島を支える人たちのため
まだ利尻を知らない人たちのため
情熱と共に
挑戦する気持ちを忘れない
立ち直る力と共に支え合う
島の魅力を、作る私たちにも
物語を大切に
世界中に語り伝える
利尻の育む自然とウィスキーの物語
関わる全ての人の物語
As an entrepreneur I’ve been in more than a handful of financial pinches myself, but so far, haven’t had to go knocking door-to-door.