"...the person that had the most impact on me is Travis Scalanik...gave me a lot of pointers of how to scale Polsia, how to think about growing Polsia, how to be extremely ambitious about the vision for Polsia" said Ben Cera, founder of Polsia, in the September 2026 video 'Everything I Learned Working with Travis Kalanick' (around minute 0:50).

In 1980, Dolly Parton sung '9 to 5': 

"Tumble outta bed and I stumble to the kitchen
Pour myself a cup of ambition"

In 2022, Pink sung a section of the chorus in her tribute speech during Dolly Parton's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (at minute 2:28): 

"Working 9 to 5
Ain't enough to make a living"

There is no doubt that Dolly Parton had a big impact on Pink. Dolly's music also had an impact on me, especially in terms of storytelling. I was introduced to her albums via my Dad's record collection, albums such as "Here you come again", with the iconic red shirt and blue jeans; Parton and Wagoner duet albums such as 'Just the two of us'; 'Love and music' and 'Once More' which features the hilarious 'Fight and Scratch'.

In the first verse of 'Fight and Scratch', it seems the argument is basically about the lack of abundance:

"Well you just bought a foal last month now you want a wig
It looks like you couldn't understand my paycheck ain't that big
Well what about the dough you lose in them poker games downtown
Yeah and that brand new boat and that fishin' gear..."

Dolly Parton talks about the red shirt and blue jeans outfit, the pink outfit she wore at the film premiere of '9 to 5' and other outfits, in a Vogue video titled 'Dolly Parton breaks down 11 looks from 1975 to now". At minute 0:19 - the 'Jolene' album cover outfit; (Did you know, there's a goth version of 'Jolene'? It was sung by the Sisters of Mercy in 1983. You can read more about it in 'When Dolly Met Goth'. )

At minute 1:00 of the Vogue Video, Dolly talks about the 'Here you come again' 1977 album cover. According to hypergallery.com, you can buy the photo, signed by the photographer Ed Caraeff for Ksh 256,400. Ed Caraeff said: "I would shoot 1,000 photos of Dolly in a session, and then we'd pick two shots: one for the front, one for the back."

1000 photos?! Now, that's abundance!

To put things in perspective (no pun intended!), consider what it took to take photographs in the early days of photography. According to Wikipedia, History of Photography:

"In 1826, Nicephore Niepce first managed to fix an image that was captured with a camera, but at least eight hours or even several days of exposure in the camera were required and the earliest results were very crude." Louis Daguerre was Niepce's associate and the former went on to develop the daguerreotype process. I found it interesting that: "for granting the rights of the invention to the public, Daguerre and Niepce were awarded generous annuities for life."

A photograph is like a twin, a clone. There's even clone photography. I was surprised to learn via 'Dolly Parton: Science Icon" by Jake Currie that the first successfully cloned mammal was named after THE Dolly Parton, and the reason was that "Dolly the sheep had been cloned from the cell of a mammary gland" and the scientists “couldn’t think of a more impressive pair of glands than Dolly Parton’s.”  

Pink quipped during the induction ceremony, at around minute 4:30: "... I imagine that most men look at Dolly Parton and I wonder how often they deeply gaze into your eyes..." She also commented on Dolly's playful nature and humour:"...Dolly didn't just get the joke she wrote it and she doesn't care if you're laughing as long as you're listening."

In an interview featured in The Guardian, Dolly Parton's response after the cloned sheep died was: “I was sorry when she died, though I don’t want be cloned myself."

Well...

According to an August 31st 2026 Forbes article titled 'Dolly Parton's Voice Raises the next AI Accountability Test' by Cindy Rodriguez Constable, Dolly Parton's estate is "the first real test of a law Tennessee passed two years ago". That law is the wonderfully named ELVIS Act -  Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security Act. Constable writes: "any company that wants to license her voice for AI training, produce a synthetic performance, or build a hologram tour needs consent from whoever holds those rights..." Constable goes on to address AI companies: "a person's voice belongs to that person or their heirs, cloned or not, and using it requires consent."

"I will always love you", made world famous by Whitney Houston, was actually written by Dolly Parton. In an August 2nd 2021, npr.org article titled "Dolly Parton Invested Royalties from Whitney Houston Cover in Black Community" by Joe Hernandez, Dolly Parton is quoted as saying: "I just thought, 'This was great. I'm going to be down here with her people, who are my people as well.' And so I just love the fact that I spent that money on a complex. And I think, 'This is the house that Whitney built.'' How much did Dolly Parton get in roylaties from 'I will always love you'? Approximately $10 million, as mentioned by Anthony L. Hall in 'Dolly Parton and the House that Whitney Built.'

We all may not be as rich as Dolly Parton but according to Peter H. Diamandis' August 16th, 2026 article, thanks to artificial intelligence, 'You're about to live like a millionaire'. He makes an intriguing claim: "The king had power. You have abundance. And abundance is better."

I would add that abundance can lead to empowerment.

A few days before reading the Diamandis article, I read with interest an August 12th 2026 article by Nicole Villeneuve posted on historyfacts.com titled '6 Strange Things Rich People Did for Status'. I was tickled to read that, because of scarcity, the humble pineapple used to be a status symbol! I was so amused that I recently put together an Afrogoth A.I. Fashion Show concept inspired by pineapples. I wrote a simple poem in Swahili then used flowmusic.app to set it to music. The A.I. song 'Mananasi' (Pineapples) accompanies this A.I Fashion show concept.

You can watch the Afrogoth Pineapples A.I. Fashion Show Concept HERE.

I tried out Polsia in March 2026 and was impressed. Here is Polsia's tweet about Afrogoth: 

"New company on Polsia today. A founder in Nairobi is building the digital home for a fashion subculture that fuses African heritage with gothic aesthetics. Nobody owns this niche yet. She will."

Wishing you an abundant month!