Six years ago, Renée and I were living in San Francisco. I had just closed a round of funding for Clarity.fm while Renée had just co-founded a new marketing agency of her own. Things were crazy. But they were about to get crazier ;-) Turns out Renée was pregnant with our first son, Max… and it took a whole 3-months after Max was born for Noah to sneak into the picture. Add it all up and our two boys are

Tell them what to do.   Check that’s been done. Tell them what to do next. Leadership 101 right there. A fine recipe if you want to run a mediocre company with eight or  ten B level players that constantly tap into your managerial bandwidth and cripple your capacity to achieve accelerated growth. An outdated paradigm for any SaaS founder with more ambitious plans to scale. For that SaaS founder, I offer a major upgrade from the “transactional leadership” approach.

We’ve all suffered through it. The end-of-year Zoom call where the fearless founder, likely fueled by a few craft beers, starts riffing off bold projections for the upcoming year. “We’re gonna crush it”   “We’re gonna change the game” “2x… 5x… 10x” You get the idea ;-) I’m all for setting ambitious goals, and have crazy amounts of respect for any founder audacious enough to pursue them.

At 8 years old, I got diagnosed with ADHD. I felt broken. Burdened by a “brain’ that would surely screw me out of any type of meaningful contribution in the world. Every day was a crapshoot. Without knowing how I’d “show up” on any given day, setting goals (and pursuing them) felt like a fool’s game -- and when I’d inevitably fail, it only supported my belief that I was messed up beyond repair. Over the next decade, I spiraled

I believe there are two types of people in the world... ... those who’ve been punched in the face - and those who haven’t. Growing up, I got in a lot of trouble. That meant getting into fist fights. It’s always amazed me how paralyzed with fear someone will get at the threat of getting in a fight. I’ve seen guys freeze up, piss themselves, and pass out... all before a punch was thrown. How does this apply to growing

When I was 28 I came home to find my fiance crying in the kitchen holding her engagement ring letting me know it was over. The truth is... I was a horrible partner. I unapologetically worked 100 hours a week using the justification that I was doing it all for her and our life ahead of us. It was complete *bullshit*. No one had asked me to sacrifice those hours... and if I was being honest, I knew it was

Want to know one habit ultra-successful people have in common? They read. A lot. In fact, when Warren Buffett was asked about the key to his success, he pointed to a stack of books and said: “Read 500 pages like this every day. That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will do it.” It’s why you’ll find a bookshelf or library in most wealthy

When I was 8 years old I was diagnosed with ADHD, and for most of my childhood I felt broken. Taking Ritalin everyday to help me “be normal” left me with a super low self-esteem and many bouts with depression, that almost ended in me taking my life in a drug crazed high speed chase. Three things saved my life...

In my early 20’s I was a workaholic. It took a toll on my health, my relationships and my business... ... although I didn’t know it at the time. Even though the financial outcome of that work ethic resulted in the acquisition of my company Spheric at 28 years old... ... I wouldn’t do it again. It was stupid.

Even though he almost fired me after 2 weeks... ... my leadership style came from a guy named Darcy. I was 21 years old, and just got a contract position with a company in Fort McMurray, Alberta working on the tech team at Syncrude. Somehow I was hired even though the people reporting to me were 10 years older. Darcy gave me 2 weeks to “figure it out.”