Accountability and apprenticeship

Accountability and apprenticeship are really two sides of the same coin in building real, transferable knowledge. Accountability means putting your name on the line — taking ownership of outcomes even when it’s risky — because that’s how judgment and trust are built. Apprenticeship means learning through proximity, not theory: by working alongside people who already operate at the frontier of what’s possible. The best education doesn’t happen in classrooms but in the rooms where real decisions are made. It’s not about getting paid for your time but about absorbing patterns of thinking, taste, and responsibility that can’t be codified into rules. Whether you’re shadowing a founder, supporting an investor, or helping a craftsman, you’re training your judgment in context. So if you want to learn fast, take responsibility early, stay close to the action, and—put simply—find someone great and work for the Don.