I’m a man in a blue shirt in an ocean of red. A category of one.
I reject the sterilized surface version of any event or situation. I think in systems and write in plain English. I keep digging past headlines, easy villains, and first-order effects until I reach the past and present root cause and the future second-, third-, and fourth-order effects.
Comedy and systems thinking are the same instrument played in different keys for different audiences. My comedy website is under construction.
I was not assembled all at once.
Born in Concord, California. Raised in the East Bay. Germanic and Celtic by blood. Registered to no political party by conviction. Socially tolerant and fiscally pragmatic.
BUILT unbreakable Discipline and Spirit at MCRD San Diego. Squad Leader. SOI-West. MOS 0331. Honorably discharged from the Reserves. One word to describe me? Marine. Semper Fi.
California CPA. Started in Bay Area audit practice of Ernst & Young. No relation, but impressive business card. Learned why and how businesses succeed or fail. Moved on to startups, public companies, government entities, financial reporting, FP&A, cost accounting, tax, and forensics. I can easily find and explain the financial truth.
Then the genuinely interesting chapter: nearly three years in accounting and finance roles in vertically integrated cannabis enterprises in Nevada, Oregon, and California. I can manage the full financial system of a large operation from seed to sale. I also spent months doing backbreaking cultivation work, learning the process from seed to harvest, because I want to know the origin story of the numbers. I understand growth and atrophy from a financial and cultivation perspective.
I was also a legitimate athlete until a malicious late hit.
All-star central midfielder in youth soccer. Scored goals with left and right foot from corner kicks and as far away as midfield. Three years high school varsity baseball with starting positions across the infield and outfield. Two years high school varsity football as a two-way starting offensive and defensive tackle while also the starting placekicker and punter. There is a small college record that still stands: a 79-yard punt that traveled more than 100 yards through the end zone.
Adventurer. Eagle Scout. Visited every California county and nearly every state. More than a dozen European countries with only a backpack, rail pass, and enough Euros for wild hostels. Lived in California, Nevada, New York, and Florida.
Endured and conquered. Childhood bullying. Devastating injury. Life-threatening illness. Catastrophic financial ruin, not a setback, catastrophic ruin. Adult homelessness. Housing instability that stretched long past the point where optimism is easy. Emergency surgery during the pandemic. Life-altering loss that shocked and collapsed everything.
Forced to choose in total darkness.
Chose to honor the Marine Corps with Discipline and Spirit.
Chose to honor my ancestors with post-traumatic growth.
Chose to honor the lost with authenticity and shared insights.
Once a Marine, Always a Marine
Semper Fi
Scott Ernst at USMC SOI-West
Preparing to climb Mt. MFER with 150 pounds of gear
Insights By Scott Ernst 