#18 - Julien Smith | Serial Entrepreneurship, Executive Coaching and The Power of Courage

“The flinch is your real opponent, and information won't help you fight it. It's behind every unhappy relationship, every hesitation in your business life, every missed opportunity, and every regret you ever had." - Julien Smith

Julien Smith is a serial tech entrepreneur and NYT best-selling author of the books Trust Agents and The Flinch. In 2012 he founded Breather a flexible real-estate company that raised over $150M. His latest venture is Practice, a tool for solopreneurs funded by a16z and Tony Robbins.

In this episode we discuss Julien’s life and his highly practical, courage-inducing, stimulant-of-a-book The Flinch.

Topics include:

* On courage and The Big Life

* Why people don’t do the things they claim they want to do

* What is “the flinch” and how is it robbing you of our dreams?

* How Seth Godin challenged Julien to create something he’d be in awe of (and how it made him mad)

* The relationship between art and suffering

* The primary quality that defines exceptional founders

* Silicon Valley’s executive coaching secret

* How to choose successful long-term projects and make big bets

* How accepting discomfort engenders vitality

Check out Julien’s Twitter and his company Practice.do.