Markos Podcast

Let me tell you about a feeling. It’s the 11 AM, you’ve just spent three hours walking around the stunning, and stunningly crowded, Grand Palace. You are melting. Your t-shirt is plastered to your back, the sun is a physical, oppressive weight, and the soles of your feet are on fire. And in that moment, you are at your most vulnerable. You are no longer a person; you are a walking, exhausted, and deeply dehydrated wallet. And the s...

Let me tell you about a feeling. It’s the 3 AM, you’re staring at the ceiling, and the only sound in the HDB flat is the low hum of the air-con. But in your mind, it’s deafeningly loud. You’re doing the math, over and over, and it just won’t work. You’ve just been hit by one of life’s sudden, brutal, and completely unexpected financial emergencies. A parent’s medical bill. A critical home repair that cannot wait. A business opp...

Let me tell you about a feeling. It’s the 2 AM, staring at the ceiling, the house is dead quiet, and the only sound is your own heart pounding in your ears. You have a dream, a business, a vision that is so bright and so beautiful that it keeps you up at night, buzzing with a potent and terrifying mix of excitement and pure, unadulterated fear. But you are alone. You are the CEO, the head of marketing, the lead salesperson, the...

There’s a certain kind of romance to doing things by hand. A quiet, noble pride. It’s the meticulous, and often agonizing, stroke of a pen on a blank page, the careful, pixel-by-pixel adjustment of a design in Photoshop, the slow, deliberate process of building something, anything, from the absolute ground up. It’s a beautiful idea. It is also, if you are trying to run a business in the 21st century, a brutally inefficient and deep...

Let me tell you about a feeling. It’s the 2 AM, you’re staring at your laptop, and your brain feels like a browser with a hundred tabs open, all of them playing a different, conflicting, and deeply unhelpful song. You are a builder, a creator, an entrepreneur. You know that to survive, to thrive, to win in this brutally competitive world, you have to keep learning. You have to keep getting better. But you are drowning. You are drow...

There’s a strange kind of silence in the digital world that’s louder than any noise. It’s the silence of a locked door, a drawn curtain. It’s the silence of an Instagram profile that has been switched to “Private.” You’re met with a simple, unbreachable wall: a profile picture, a username, and a cold, polite message informing you that the owner of this digital life has decided that you are not welcome here.

And in that moment, a ver...

There’s a certain kind of romance to doing things by hand. A quiet, noble pride. It’s the meticulous, and often agonizing, stroke of a pen on a blank page, the careful, pixel-by-pixel adjustment of a design in Photoshop, the slow, deliberate process of building something, anything, from the absolute ground up. It’s a beautiful idea. It is also, if you are trying to run a business in the 21st century, a brutally inefficient and deep...

There’s a unique kind of terror that only exists in the digital silence. It’s the unanswered call that goes straight to voicemail, leaving you with the hollow, echoing beep. It’s the text message with only one grey checkmark, a symbol of a message sent but not received, a shout into a void. It’s the dot on the map that shows ‘last seen six hours ago,’ a tiny, digital ghost that marks the last known point of contact before the s...

There’s a certain magic to the air at six o’clock on a Saturday morning, before the sun has had a real chance to burn off the dew. It’s the smell of freshly cut grass on a footy oval, the sharp, clean scent of chlorine from a swimming pool, the rhythmic thud of a basketball on cold asphalt. If you really want to understand the heart and soul of coaching in this country, you don’t find it in a textbook or a fancy certification cours...

Laissez-moi vous parler d'un sentiment. C'est celui que l'on ressent à 2 heures du matin, les yeux rivés sur un écran rempli de graphiques rouges, avec ce nœud froid de panique pure et absolue qui se serre dans l'estomac. Vous êtes un trader de cryptomonnaies. Vous avez fait vos recherches, lu les livres blancs, écouté les gourous sur YouTube. Vous pensiez avoir trouvé le secret. Mais le marché, cette bête sauva...

Let me tell you about a feeling. It’s the 2 AM, staring-at-a-sea-of-red-on-your-trading-screen, a-cold-knot-of-pure-unadulterated-panic-in-your-stomach kind of feeling. You’re a crypto trader. You’ve done the research, you’ve read the whitepapers, you’ve watched the YouTube gurus. You thought you had an edge. But the market, that wild, chaotic, and brutally indifferent beast, has just handed you another devastating loss.

I have been...

Для багатьох з нас, світ онлайн-ставок починається і закінчується футболом. Ми знаємо команди, ми аналізуємо шанси, ми живемо кожним голом. Але іноді, пізно ввечері, коли спортивні арени затихають, цікавість бере гору. Ви натискаєте на ту маленьку, майже непомітну вкладку з написом «Казино», і раптом опиняєтеся в зовсім іншому всесвіті. Це світ Stake казино в Україні, і він набагато глибший і різноманітніший, ніж можна собі уяв...

Ada sebuah perasaan yang akrab bagi banyak dari kita di tengah kesibukan kota ini. Perasaan yang muncul di larut malam, ketika jalanan sudah mulai senyap dan satu-satunya cahaya yang menemani adalah layar ponsel di tangan. Kau baru saja menyelesaikan hari yang panjang, pikiranmu lelah, dan kau mencari sedikit pelarian, sedikit percikan adrenalin di dunia yang seringkali terasa monoton.

Di sanalah pintu itu terbuka. Bukan pintu fisik...

There’s a certain kind of electricity in the air in Nairobi on a Saturday afternoon when the English Premier League is on. You can feel it in the crowded bars in Westlands, you can hear it in the passionate debates erupting around a shared smartphone screen in the middle of town. The whole country holds its breath for ninety minutes. We are a nation of football lovers, of strategists, of armchair managers. And underneath all that p...

Let me tell you about a feeling. It’s the feeling of being a prisoner in your own office. You’re chained to a desk, waiting for a call that could be the biggest deal of the year. But you also have to be at a meeting across town, you have to pick up your kid from school, you have to live your life. And the whole time, that plastic box on your desk, that traditional, old-world telephone, is a silent, ticking time bomb of missed o...

Let me tell you about a sound. It’s the incessant, chirping ring of your business phone, a sound that, at first, was the sweet music of success, but has now become the soundtrack to your own personal hell. You’re a builder, a creator, an entrepreneur. You are the CEO, the head of marketing, the lead salesperson, and, most exhaustingly of all, you are the entire customer service department. And you are drowning. You are drowning in ...

Let me tell you about a feeling. It’s the feeling of being a ghost in your own business. You are everywhere, and you are nowhere, all at the same time. You’re answering comments on your Instagram posts, you’re replying to DMs on Facebook, you’re managing your email inbox, which is a constant, screaming tire fire of inquiries and complaints. You are a master of a dozen different, disconnected conversations, and you have this deep, s...

Մեծ խաղերի գիշերը Երևանում որոշակի էներգիա կա։ Դուք կարող եք զգալ այն Աբովյան փողոցի սրճարաններում, որտեղ տարեց տղամարդիկ կարող են դեռ կռացած լինել նարդու խաղի վրա, բայց հեռուստացույցները բոլորը միացված են Չեմպիոնների լիգային։ Բոլորը դառնում են ստրատեգ, մարզիչ, քննադատ։ Դուք լսում եք կրքոտ բանավեճերը, վստահ կանխատեսումները, հիասթափության տնքոցները։ «Նա պետք է անցներ»։ «Ինչո՞ւ է մարզիչը նրան խաղացնում թևում»։ Եվ այդ ամբողջ աղմու...

À Abidjan, un soir de grand match, l'air vibre différemment. Dans les maquis de Yopougon ou de Marcory, les discussions sont enflammées, passionnées. Chacun a son pronostic, sa certitude. On refait le match avant même qu'il ait commencé, on analyse chaque joueur, chaque tactique. C'est notre culture, cette ferveur pour le ballon rond. Et pour pimenter le tout, pour rendre la victoire plus douce ou la défaite plus amère,...