A founder is the emotional energy aorta of a company. The energy that emanates from a founder attracts people and capital to the endeavor. When that energy goes away, it can feel impossible to do the job.
— Andy Dunn
A protective self-narrative during conflict and duress sometimes obscures us from seeing the worst in ourselves. When the self-sustaining haze lifts after that conflict has subsided, we may recognize in ourselves the flaws the other saw in us at the time that we didn't have the emotional bandwidth to examine in the moment.
I am particularly wary of authors who put themselves on the cover of their own book.
Culture is an output of a bunch of inputs that have to come together the right way. Specifically, it is the collision of people and their context, how they interact with each other in that context, and then how that context evolves based on those interactions as they multiply.
Everyone knows robots write the best books and make the best music. Just look at Daft Punk.
It's easy to be cynical about American politics. It's more important not to be.
Being a founder is about being so driven to distraction by the world that you want to put something new in it. It's an act of creation, of irreverence, of defiance, of hope, and arguably one of narcissism.
My own belief is all men should be feminists, and with enthusiasm.
Bonobos are not monkeys! Bonobos are apes.
Tenacity is not about avoiding being overwhelmed but being indomitable in the face of the overwhelming odds of your venture's failure.
The digitally-native vertical brand drives a lot more customer intimacy than its competition. The data is better because every transaction and interaction is captured.
The digitally native vertical brand (DNVB) is born on the Internet. It is aimed squarely at millennials and digital natives. It doesn't have to adapt to the future; it is the future. It doesn't need to get younger customers. It starts with younger customers.
The people that elected Donald Trump are Americans. They are every bit as entitled to weigh in on who should lead as any of us. The fact that they disagree with the values some of us hold dear is the point - America has always been about a battle of ideas that plays out over time.
Sometimes, to move into the future, you must go back the past.
I have always loved the Day of the Dead - a chance to celebrate death rather than to treat it like that awful scene in the cemetery.
Taking risks and being focused, sometimes, are at odds. Both are required to build a great company.
Money talks, and when it starts to say goodbye, humans listen and act accordingly.
It is obvious, in retrospect, to lean on those who love us most. With depression, in part because of the shame attached to it, it's harder to be honest.
Empathy is the bridge to understand those who you may be lucky to one day lead, and it is - in my opinion - the most under-appreciated human skill in business.
Business books are generally read and written by people who aren't good at business.
Most of the time, when you need something at a company, you make it. If you want to sell a product, you create it. If you need a head of marketing, you hire one. If you want to create a great company culture, what do you do? The lack of a clear answer on this is why I believe most companies don't have a great culture.
At Bonobos, we believe that human beings are tired of shopping in stores.
A founder plays a magical role at the company: they invented or, as in my case, co-invented it. If and when a founder walks out the door, there is something spiritual that walks out the door, too.
You don't think, when you start a company as the founding CEO, that if your venture actually works, you end up with three jobs: founder, CEO, and chair of the board. The first eight years at Bonobos, I have learned a lot about the tension between the first two. It didn't even occur to me that I had the third job until much later.
My own hope is that, as a human species, we are on a long journey of evolution toward increasingly more tolerant and nonviolent behavior.
A good idea is not enough. It must be the fit of a particular idea for a particular entrepreneur and, ideally, unfair advantages in why said particular entrepreneur is going to address said particular idea.
It's now arguably over-written about and over-discussed how hard it is to be an entrepreneur. Of course it's hard. So is being a parent. Let's stop over-congratulating ourselves and let's just do our work.
The general rule is that entrepreneurs need the fear of their brand's demise to make it magic. It is too safe to do it as a corporate subsidiary.
The illusion when things are going your way is that it's gonna just keep going. But it never does.
Perhaps America works like this: Presidencies swing, as reactions to each other, like a pendulum. My optimistic belief is it is how we keep our country in balance.
Money greases the wheel of American democracy and corrupts it all.
However much risk we are taking, we can and probably should take more.
What separates humans from other animals is our empathy. With the possible exception of bonobos, we are the most empathetic animal on the planet.
Marriage equality is not an issue of politics: it is an issue of justice achieved by political means.
Oddly, I believe that emotional proximity we feel to close loved ones makes it hard to be honest with them about feelings of depression.
The hardest thing in leadership is managing your own psychology, and yet it's also the least talked about.
A company that can't fire people well is like a forest that never has a fire. It becomes overgrown, full of weeds, and it fails.
No one gave me a recipe for how to create company culture. I wish I had had one.
Your sympathy is worthless to people in need without action.
Every company can use someone advocating loudly for the customer.
If you are a real leader, every single thing is your fault.
There are five kinds of great apes: bonobos, chimpanzees, orangutans, gorillas, and the one which people always think of last: Humans!
Plenty of entrepreneurs can start a company. What is more rare is to evolve it and to scale with it over time.
'Hamilton' is not just the best musical I've ever seen. It may be the best thing I've ever seen.
The history of innovation is the story of ideas that seemed dumb at the time.
I'm not naive enough to believe it's in our nature to step outside our comfort zones.
Lincoln was an American messiah, seemingly sent by God to save our country, our union, and our soul. He prioritized unity above all. Perhaps we should do the same.
Not all Millennials think alike. A demographic is not a psychographic.
We do not talk enough about spirit in business, yet it is what moves employees, customers, and shareholders alike.
When the forces of liberalism and capitalism converge, change happens.
