Life is the sum of your choices, says Jeffrey Kolovson, COO and Co-Founder of Faire, an online wholesale marketplace for retailers and brands. At the end of the day, it’s not what you say, it's what you do and the choices you make and the accumulation of those over time that matters. 

“I once had a mentor tell me that the prize for winning the donut eating competition is more donuts. And that kind of stuck with me, as things don't necessarily get easier. And the more you do, the more you have to do.”

Jeff isn’t one for taking the easy route. He’s made quite a few interesting choices over the years. Like the time he had to build 60 futons in 36 hours, or the time he left Square to start Faire only to have to leave Faire in its infancy, before returning once more to Faire a few years later. 

Now, having just raised $400 million in their last funding round off the back of a $12.4 billion valuation, why did Jeff have to leave Faire in the first place? Well, for very good reason - to protect his mental health.

“And so you both have to one: figure out how to be at peace with the unrelenting nature of it and two: how you don't let it overwhelm you at any given time. One of the tricks I do is that I like to think about the problems from a year ago or two years ago, how quaint they seem to me now.”

The thing is, says Jeff, when you put your head down and work hard, you have to be able to enjoy it. There has to be enough about what you’re doing and the people you’re doing it with, that you derive enjoyment from what you’re doing, otherwise, what’s the point?

--

Sponsors

Vorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleaders

Vanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleaders

Vertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretleaders

--

Newsletter

Sign up here: https://secretleaders.email/

You can find our historic newsletters here: https://www.secretleaders.com/episodes

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices