If I had to put money on it, I would bet that at some point in our lives, we have all been guilty of looking at someone super fit and thinking It must be nice to be them! I would also bet that we are all guilty of willfully ignoring the hard work that it took them to get there. Muscles do not just spontaneously grow. In order to get in shape and stay in shape, you have to put in a lot of hard, uncomfortable work. The next time you see someone who looks fantastic, think about the 5am workouts, the slices of pizza they did not eat, and how sore they probably are after every workout. When you consider the work put in, the outcome feels earned.

It is no secret that I have recently enjoyed some astounding success. In early 2021, a company I founded and self-funded sold for more than a billion dollars. It is an achievement I had barely hoped to dream of for myself, and I still wake up some mornings having to remind myself that it actually happened. I am incredibly grateful for the success, and fully recognize that I could not have gotten there on my own.

I have long said that I am ruthless with my circles. By that, I mean that I am very thoughtful about who I let close to me. I firmly believe that the people we surround ourselves with impact everything from our personal happiness to our financial success, and so I make sure that the people in my inner circle lift me up rather than hold me down. For a long time, I curated my circles based on my gut. If I had a good feeling about someone, I kept them around. If I suspected that they were opportunistic, lazy, or entitled, I distanced myself. Lately, I have been reflecting on where that gut instinct comes from and I realized that it all boils down to my personal core values.

Let’s talk about fear. Everyone is afraid of something - most of us are afraid of multiple things at once. Painting with a wide brush, I would say that most people are afraid of a few very common things. Fear of romantic rejection is a big one, as is fear of losing a job, the death of a loved one, and looking stupid in front of other people.

Henry Ford once said, “Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right.” It is an incredibly succinct statement that speaks to the power of internal drive, motivation, and the inevitable outcomes of both.

Throughout my life, I have seen that the people most driven to succeed are often the ones who do so. Success is not something that comes accidentally. It is hard-won, and the hardest battle you have to fight is the one with yourself. If you do not believe in yourself, how can you expect anyone else to? I approach both my career and my personal life with unflappable confidence in myself, first and foremost.

March 2021 marks a full year since the COVID-19 pandemic upended our world. For twelve months now, infection and death rates have dominated the news, anxiety has influenced our social interactions, and both our work and social lives have suffered immeasurably. At the beginning of the crisis, leadership was all about agility. The businesses that survived were the ones that could make quick and decisive changes. At the time, we thought we were implementing solutions that would last for a few weeks...months at the most. But now that a year has passed, it is time to examine the long-term impact of the pandemic.

I recently announced the sale of Byte, a direct-to-consumer dental aligner company that I co-founded with a business partner in 2017. This has been a tremendous personal and professional win. As I reflect on the journey (and celebrate the outcome), I realize that Byte was different from my previous ventures in several key ways. When I began Byte I knew it had incredible potential, but never anticipated the explosive success that we have enjoyed. As I pondered why that was, I realized that I have been unconsciously incorporating hard-won lessons in entrepreneurship in ways that poised Byte for success from the very beginning.

A few weeks ago I accomplished something that I never thought possible, even in my wildest dreams. I sold a company for more than a billion dollars. I founded the company in question, Byte, just a few years ago. As a career entrepreneur I had founded and sold businesses before, but I had never experienced such incredible growth in such a short amount of time. I learned a lot throughout the process, but as the dust settles post-sale I find myself reflecting on one significant truth that I did not expect to uncover...a truth about happiness.

The COVID-19 pandemic does not seem to be going anywhere fast. Our city has shut down, initiated an open, suffered a spike, and partially closed again. Amidst the constantly changing rules, regulations, and public opinion on the matter, one thing has become abundantly clear; business owners must quickly learn to balance the health and wellness of their employees with their goals and missions as a business.

I have been starting and operating businesses for about two decades now. I am experienced, so believe me when I tell you that the current confluence of a global pandemic, the upcoming election, and the dramatic shift in public perception is….complicated. The solutions people are calling for are not going to be simple to achieve.

Fred Rogers (of Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood fame) once shared this pearl of wisdom with his fans:

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’”

The COVID-19 crisis has fundamentally changed the way society and businesses are run. Restaurants and social gatherings are shut down, furloughs are happening left and right, and anyone who can work at home is working at home. We are being fed the narrative that this is all temporary, but it would be naive to think that this crisis won’t change the world in some lasting and impactful ways. A great divide is coming and it is time to ask yourself, are you a linchpin?

Have you ever thrown a pebble into a lake and watched the ripples expand? The pebble you begin with can be tiny, but eventually, the ripples will amplify to reach every corner of the standing water. That is how I look at the relationships I have enjoyed throughout my life. The relationships you maintain will ripple into every corner of your life. They will affect your health, your happiness, your decision-making, and your career. I have spoken about it before in my piece on how the people you chose to spend time within high school can be used as a predictor of success, but the older I get the more I find that this principle remains true well into adulthood.

January 1st 2020 marked not only a new year, but also a new decade. The 2010s are over and all we have got are the ‘20s to look forward to (jury is still out on whether they will roar or not). I am anxious to see what type of technology, politics, and culture will emerge in the coming years, but while we wait for the time to tick by it is worth reflecting on what the past decade meant to all of us. Personally, I learned a lot.

The holiday season is always a blur. It is busy at work, busy at home…busy everywhere. But as the last few days of 2019 passed me by, I couldn’t help but reflect on what I experienced this year and the lessons I will be taking with me into 2020.

This year was a busy one for me. I launched byte, a direct-to-consumer invisible aligner company. It has taken a lot of hard work, long hours, and course correcting but the business is doing well. Most of what I learned this year is related to growing that business. I have launched several businesses throughout my career, and so the lessons detailed below are not groundbreaking or newly discovered. Instead, they are fundamental life lessons that deserve to be repeated, and are reinforced for me year after year after year. 

I recently heard a story from a friend about his grandmother. She is a WWII refugee from Eastern Europe, who had known a lot of struggle in her early life. Now, she was old and living comfortably in the United States as she had been for more than 60 years. A friend of hers recently developed Alzheimer’s, which I think we can all agree is a horrible disease that is incredibly difficult on the family and friends of the victim. But when that friend’s wife complained about how difficult the illness was to deal with, that little old refugee responded to her with a blank stare, saying, “I don’t get it. You are warm. You have a home. You have clothes to wear and food to eat…what is so hard?”

When I was 25 years old, I was working in sales. It was exciting and stressful, and I often had no idea where my next deal was coming from. I was new to the industry. It was competitive, and the pressure to perform well was ever present. Instead of panicking, I decided to keep my head down and move forward. I would start looking for a new deal before I had even closed out the last one and in that way I kept myself busy and the stress at bay. Months later, when I finally picked up my gaze and looked around; I was surprised to find that I was the head sales rep by leaps and bounds. The journey had been nerve-wracking and unpredictable, but through that forward momentum I was able to go farther than I ever anticipated.

Different people, and the life experiences they bring to the table fascinate me. They always have. I love learning about someone’s accomplishments, how he or she achieved them, and what they learned along the way. Throughout my life, I have spoken to hundreds if not thousands of people, and I have been passively learning through their experiences.

Have you ever heard the phrase, “defense wins championships”? This nugget of sports wisdom asserts that offense, while glorified and exciting, will not actually determine who comes out on top. If your team wants to win they are better off laying a foundation and protecting the home turf. But defense-heavy strategy is often frustrating to fans and players alike. Defense is the smart way to play, but offense is more fun. Charging the line, racking up points, and playing aggressively is exciting. It gets the adrenaline pumping and makes the players feel like champions, but it will never yield great results by itself.

I was recently interviewed by a major publication on my entrepreneurial experience and the importance of tenacity and perspective.

Here are a few sound bites pulled directly from the piece:

“I start every deal from scratch – from the scouting (i.e. what business to get into next) to the financing. We only do one thing at a time, so we have no distractions and only two options – to fail or succeed.