Monthly Rewind: January 2024
PLUS an inspiring success story featuring one of our grantees...
Our Grantee’s Song Has Gone Viral! 🎉
Technically, this is a February rather than a January development, but it’s too exciting not to share here. One of last year’s O’Shaughnessy Grants recipients, Justh, a singer-songwriter based in India, recently went to NUMBER ONE on Spotify’s Viral 50 Global Playlist with his song “Chor”. The song now has over 2.8M views on Spotify and over 3M on YouTube.
It’s a wonderful development, although not a surprising one. It was clear to those at OSV who reviewed Justh’s application that he was a phenomenal talent and a perfect example of the kind of creative force we’re aiming to turbocharge with our Grants and Fellowships programs. We’re all so proud of Justh and are excited for the next steps in what promises to be a long and pathbreaking musical career.
This story is a testament both to Justh’s talent and to the power of grant funding to unleash the potential of creators in any domain. Justh told us:
“These are crazy crazy developments for me. I was able to make the song the way it is because of the O Shaughnessy Grants. Thank you so so much. I don’t even have words to express my gratitude ❤️❤️❤️”
To those of you who are thinking of applying to this year's Fellowships but haven’t yet done so - what’s keeping you? As Justh’s story shows, a simple application can be the only thing standing between you and your dream future. Apply here.
Thoughts 💭
"When you resort to violence to prove a point, you’ve just experienced a profound failure of imagination."
- Sherman Alexie
"The ingenuity of self-deception is inexhaustible."
- Hannah More
"The true measure of your worth includes all the benefits others have gained from your success."
- Cullen Hightower
"We live ridiculously for fear of being thought ridiculous."
- Orison Swett Marden
"Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon."
Susan Ertz
Explore our Two Thoughts series: doses of wisdom delivered straight to your inbox every Sunday. Warning: may trigger incurable curiosity.
Conversations 🗣️
Jared Dillian — How To Live a Stress-Free Financial Life
There are better things to worry about than money
“Material things bring us happiness. It's not to say that you have to buy a Lamborghini, but buying a new T-shirt, buying a jacket, buying AirPods, these material things bring us happiness. And it's not wrong to want to have these things.”
Guy Spier — Wealth, Wisdom & Enlightenment
An ode to generalism
“I would not want to be living Warren Buffett's life because this is a guy who genuinely enjoys researching and analyzing and investing and understanding companies and businesses. But if he gets a book about, I don't know, behavioral psychology or the history of Rome, or he'll send it to his friend, Charlie, God bless him, before he even decides to read it, because he's not all that interested. So he has a very, very narrow focus. And I realized for me that's not a plus. It's just not a plus. I don't want to have a narrow focus. If you could tell me that I could have 10 times more money and speak one language less, I don't want to do it.”
Alice Albrecht — On Creativity, Connection & Convergence
How to unleash your creativity
“I think it is innate in that we're all innately capable of creativity. I don't believe that anybody is not creative. I think that we in our minds are set up to learn language innately, and we're set up to creatively solve problems innately, so that we can survive in the world. If we couldn't do that, we wouldn't really survive.”
Lisa Wehden and Minn Kim — America is Open For Business
Accelerating innovation through faster and more transparent immigration services
“Can America revamp its messaging as the home of immigrants? That is America's core superpower. And one of our missions at Plymouth is to advocate for this and to change the conversation to say, yes, there are visa pathways for you to come and build these extraordinary companies. Our mission is to accelerate technological progress by enabling the movement of highly skilled talent globally. We still believe, and we fundamentally believe that America is the best place to build: the access to capital, the access to talent, the access to these extraordinary resources that you have here.”
For root access to your humanOS, dig into our back catalogue of 197 episodes (and counting).
Words ✍️
How to Be Successful | “Read, synthesize ideas, try them, abandon those that aren't working, try new ones, read some more. Tell people about your hopes and goals. Listen for good advice; it does exist. But ruthlessly remove the bad advice, the naysayers, the permanent pessimists. Keep your mind wide open to ideas; indeed, read and understand those you might have an aversion to so that you improve your understanding and knowledge.”
Adventure Time: OSV in 2023 | “From school to space - meet the companies that joined our portfolio in 2023.”
Infinite Loops Hits 200! | “As we hit 200, OSV has been up and running for over a year. Post-pandemic, the Great Reshuffle is well underway, and the nature of work, play, and everything in between is changing faster than you can say “simpatico.” The only thing that hasn’t changed is Jim himself, who remains as insatiably curious and unrelentingly positive as ever.”
News 📰
Flipside, the first movie that OSV has been involved with, is heading for the cinema!
In January, it was announced that the film has been acquired for theatrical distribution by Oscilloscope Laboratories. It is due to be released in theaters later this year.
Directed by Chris Wilcha, co-executive produced by Jim and Knocked Up director Judd Apatow, and released in association with Infinite Films, Apatow Productions and Park Pictures, Flipside offers a raw look into the often tumultuous journey of a creator. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last year to excellent reviews, including from Brian Farvour at The Playlist, who described it as “a leap forward in the documentary genre.”
We’ll let you know once we have more information, and in the meantime, you can discover more about Flipside here.
Wow. Congratulations
Wow, congrats to Justh, that's amazing! 💚 🥃