Dr. Kryn McClain lost her job on maternity leave. She turned it into a company, sold it in a full exit, then started over from scratch in a new industry. Her lesson: not everything is a glass ball. Some things bounce back.

Golf has a $3,000 problem. Clubs, shoes, greens fees. Larry Hirsh, who's spent decades appraising golf courses, says that's the real reason golf keeps losing the next generation. Not difficulty. Not time. Price. He's built a $300M career being brutally honest about it.

His first startup idea failed. He built a live app for grandparents to read to grandkids over Zoom. It fell apart because getting a kid, grandparent, and parent online at once was basically impossible. So he rebuilt it async. Sometimes the idea isn't wrong, just the constraint

Victoria Abadir opened her art gallery before construction was even done. No art background. No mentor. No partner. 2 years later: profitable, 24 resident artists. Her secret? She never dug in when challenged. "I take 24 hours... oftentimes my mind is changed."

Paul Spiegel couldn't find experienced people for a role that didn't exist yet. So he hired for passion instead. His first hire offered to work for you free because she believed in the mission. Years later, she's still there. Bet on hungry, not "qualified."

Matt Bramson told me the "fake it till you make it" era is over. The conversations that actually close deals aren't the polished pitch. They're the honest, uncertain ones. Confidence isn't what's convincing founders anymore. Vulnerability is. Full episode link in reply 👇

Had Michele Sullivan on the show. Ran the Caterpillar Foundation for 7+ years, sat in the Oval Office with Obama. What stuck with me: she has to start every conversation herself, to make people comfortable being four feet tall.