Daniel Lubetzky told Nina Zipkin
It’s hard to get perspective when you’re inside something. I started the business with just $10,000, but in 16 years, Kind Snacks has grown to a $7 billion market capitalization company. However, in the past few years since I sold my business, I have reflected on many things.
I realized that the values that helped build Kind into what it is now are the same ones I relied on to learn how to be a good father. I’ve always wanted to teach kids how to build bridges and solve problems together. I’ve found that it’s a skill that all of the best leaders have in common, especially when we live in a time of so much division.
And it’s never been clearer since I started my latest project, an interview series podcast called Build or Break. I have the opportunity to talk to some of the most successful people about how they got to where they are today. My goal was not to glorify them, but to show them at their most human. I wanted to hear about their setbacks and what they did to feed off of them.
Fundamentally, I wanted to create something that would be recommended to children.
“Our failures are works of art that we should respect and learn from.”
I recorded 30 interviews in this series. Everyone I’ve interviewed, from Mark Cuban to Matthew McConaughey to Kendra Scott to Chris Paul, all had periods when they felt deeply depressed. They cried and felt stuck. But they all told me they wouldn’t be where they are today without that moment.
I feel the same way. Kind would never have existed if I hadn’t started PeaceWorks, the company I founded before Kind and struggled for 10 years. We benefited from all these lessons.
I talk to my kids and other entrepreneurs about this all the time. You have to separate your personal self-esteem from your professional career. Always challenge yourself to grow. But when you go to bed at night, your personal growth should be related to whether you treat others with respect and kindness, and whether you are making your own small contribution to making things better.
As part of the podcast’s launch, my team and I organized an Art of Failure pop-up exhibition in New York City for three days in early September. I loved it because I was able to place an artifact representing my guest’s biggest “mistake” in a place of honor. That included my first failure, a jar of sun-dried tomato spread.
Our failures are works of art that we should respect and learn from. We need to celebrate them because, if we treat them with the introspection they deserve, their setbacks are what will distinguish us in the future.
My best advice for anyone starting their career
In a job market influenced by so many external factors, maintaining agency can be discouraging and difficult. But what I always tell my kids and the aspiring entrepreneurs I talk to is that attitude is often destiny. Do your best with whatever you are given. I’m not saying everyone starts from the same place or that this is an easy job. But we all have the chance to show creativity and resilience during difficult times.
It is very important to emphasize creativity in your work. AI will beat us in so many ways, but thinking outside the box is not something AI can do because it is a language learning model that learns from existing patterns. The ability to be creative and dream is what sets us apart. That and our ability to keep trying.
We all start as beginners. Even the most skilled people, whether they’re chess masters, athletes, or entrepreneurs, don’t start out great. Before starting this project, I had never interviewed anyone. That was outside my knowledge. When I was on the other end of a question, I always took for granted how much critical and active listening takes.
This job requires a lot of energy, so you may feel like you ran a marathon when you’re done. It’s much harder and more rewarding than I expected. But this was a common theme with everyone I spoke to. The more you get into a space where you’re not comfortable and can stretch yourself, the stronger it will make you.
Daniel Lubetzky is the founder of KIND Snacks and the creator and host of the podcast Build or Break. He is a social entrepreneur who builds bridges to prevent what happened to his father, a Holocaust survivor, from happening again. He founded the Builders. It is an effort to replace the “us versus them” conflict with a global movement of flexible thinkers and constructive problem solvers who seek to advance the will of the people. He plays a shark on ABC’s “Shark Tank” and is the author of the New York Times bestseller “Do the KIND Thing.” For more information, please visit DanielLubetzky.com.
