Blake Mycoskie, founder of TOMS, reflects on achieving massive social impact and financial success prior to his battle with depression.
Insight
Hiring big-company executives for scaling is 'the biggest bunch of bullshit'
“Once you grow and you get to a certain size, you need experts. That's the biggest bunch of bullshit ever. I mean, literally like the number of people that I brought in to Tom's later, like once we were like a couple hundred million dollar business that quote h…”
Disclosure
Blake Mycoskie lost $3.5M on Huberman-advised habit startup Madefor
“I started a habit formation company called Made For with a good friend of mine Navy SEAL, amazing. We had Andrew Huberman as one of our advisors. Like, it was locked and loaded, and I put three and a half million dollars in it. Zero today.”
Insight
Industry experience limits founder innovation by reinforcing existing rules
“I don't think that having experience in an industry makes you more likely to have success. Because when you have experience, you kind of know the rules, so you don't have, like, the courage to break them. And you're limited. You already start with a set of bel…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
AI therapy fills a critical gap for off-hours 4 AM panic attacks
“And one of the things that's really a bummer with therapy is if I have a panic attack, it doesn't happen at two o'clock on a Thursday, two o'clock on a Thursday. It happens at four fucking in the morning. And my therapist, I don't care how much money you have,…”
Insight
Hire creatives for distinct personal style rather than general taste
“I care more about someone having a sense of style than taste, and I don't care if it's my style or not. Like, they could be hardcore cowboy. Great. But if they lean into it, and like, that's them, I respect that. You know, or they're really into, you know, vin…”
Disclosure
Hundreds of cold calls to celebrity advocates yielded only six partners
“You can think of any mental health celebrity, any celebrity that has had a mental health challenge that has talked publicly about it, or any Olympic athlete that has a huge platform about mental health. I have cold called every single one of them now, and I on…”