David Segal: Building a $200m Business

1. Embrace Consistent Effort

Understand that there are no shortcuts or magic solutions; success and overcoming challenges are built on consistent habits, especially doing things even when you don’t want to.

2. Act When Motivation Lags

When feeling tired, sluggish, or unmotivated, that is precisely when you need to push yourself to do the necessary actions, like going for a run, as it matters most then.

3. Manage Your Psychology

Recognize that entrepreneurship is a personal journey requiring significant focus on managing your own psychology to navigate the extreme highs and lows.

4. Defer Major Decisions

When experiencing a bad day, week, or month, avoid making big decisions or acting on biases; instead, broaden your perspective and only make major evaluations when in a good mental state and over longer periods (e.g., annually).

5. Implement Self-Care Routines

Prioritize self-care through consistent routines and rituals, such as daily mindfulness and meditation (even 10 minutes of breathing) and regular exercise, to calm your nervous system and gain perspective.

6. Practice Self-Compassion, Restart

Be compassionate with yourself when you slip up or miss a day of a habit; don’t beat yourself up, but simply restart and keep trying, recognizing that life is dynamic and imperfect.

7. Cultivate Hope, Release Expectations

Maintain hope for a better future or outcome, but release rigid expectations about the timeline or specific way it will unfold, as this mindset can foster resilience in difficult times.

8. Control Your Life Narrative

Take control of your internal narrative and perspective, continuously working to sharpen it so you can celebrate life and overcome challenges, regardless of their relative scale.

9. Strive for Full Potential

Aim to self-actualize and tap into your full potential, ensuring you don’t look back and feel you “shortchanged yourself,” regardless of external achievements.

10. Love the Journey, Not Just Outcome

Cultivate a love for the process and journey of building, rather than solely focusing on the end result, as achieving a major success without purpose can lead to profound emptiness.

11. Prioritize Purpose, Process Stress

When money is no longer the primary driver, deeply reflect on your purpose and “why” you do things, and actively process past stresses and internal conflicts to maintain mental well-being.

12. Seek Internal Validation

Continuously reinvent yourself and challenge self-imposed age limits, focusing on internal validation and fulfillment from achievements rather than external validation or success metrics.

13. Define Life’s Core Elements

Reflect on and define your “something to do” (purpose), “someone to love” (relationships), and “something to look forward to” (goals), as these are the core elements for a meaningful life.

14. Adopt Early Morning Routine

Get up early and incorporate morning workouts or other productive activities, as many successful people follow this habit.

15. Disconnect for Presence

Implement a strict evening phone cutoff (e.g., using a locking device) to prevent mindless scrolling, allowing you to be more present with family and engage in meaningful activities.

16. Implement Personal “Sabbath”

Adopt a personal version of the Sabbath (e.g., Friday night to Saturday night) to shift into a relaxed mindset, focusing on family, date nights, and “working on the business” (reflection) rather than “in the business.”

17. Recognize Evening Fatigue

Be aware that late evening (e.g., 9:30-11:30 PM) is often the least productive and most mentally vulnerable time; recognize fatigue, distance yourself from negative thoughts, and go to bed.

18. Practice Weekly Gratitude

On Friday nights, take time to reflect on and appreciate all the good things in your life, reminding yourself how fortunate you are.

19. Balance Intense Work, Weekend Reflection

During the work week, operate with intense urgency and a hypercritical focus on improvement, but temper it to avoid being too strong with your team or forcing things that need time; then, on Friday nights, step back to enjoy and appreciate life.

20. Cultivate Patience

Understand that a lack of patience can negatively alter outcomes, and trying to rush things faster than they naturally should happen can lead to worse results.

21. Annual Progress Measurement

Evaluate your progress or business growth on an annual basis, focusing on whether you improved compared to the previous year, rather than solely on reaching a desired end state.

22. Evaluate Decision Impact & Risk

Before making a decision, ask if it’s easily recoverable if wrong, and what the risk of doing nothing is; for big decisions, prioritize gathering more information.

23. Prioritize Urgency for Micro-Tasks

Apply an incredible sense of urgency to small, daily tasks that improve service or product quality, but analyze bigger, strategic decisions (like product direction or branding) on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis.

24. Engage in Business Details

Successful entrepreneurs must be “in the details” of their business, understanding the granular operations.

25. Master Small Transactions

Recognize that the core of any business lies in its small, transactional interactions, and continually strive to improve and apply urgency to these to enhance overall service and product.

26. Empower Front-Line Urgency

Create a culture where front-line employees operate with urgency to consistently add value to the customer in every transaction.

27. Prioritize Will Over Skill

When hiring, prioritize “will” (caring about the work) over “skill,” as skill can be taught, but the intrinsic motivation and sense of urgency must be cultivated by the individual.

28. Stay Connected to Customers

As a business leader, avoid “ivory tower syndrome” by staying connected to your customers and the operational realities, rather than issuing decrees from a disconnected position.

29. Adapt Processes, Uphold Values

While a company’s core values and what it stands for should remain constant, its processes and how things are done should continuously evolve and adapt.

30. Empower Staff, Avoid Rigidity

Implement processes and procedures that facilitate information flow without stifling creativity or independent decision-making, empowering front-line staff to think for themselves and avoid rigid “policy-only” responses.

31. Lead with Awareness, Not Micromanagement

As a leader, stay informed about the lowest levels of your company where customer interactions occur, but avoid micromanaging, allowing empowered staff to succeed and learn from their own failures.

32. Initiate Action, Inspire Support

Don’t wait for a perfect plan; start taking action, even small, persistent steps, as this can often inspire others to join and help you achieve your goal.

33. Cultivate Intrinsic Motivation

Develop a deep interest and care for your work, operating with urgency and engaging proactively, as this intrinsic motivation often leads to outperforming others.

34. Seek Elevating Partners

Surround yourself with people, like a partner, who inspire and bring out the best in you, leading to improved habits and performance.

35. Build Must-Have Solutions

In business, ensure your product or service is a “must-have” solution that delivers tangible value, rather than just an “interesting” or “nice-to-have” idea, to ensure market adoption.

36. Combine Youth and Experience

In business, seek partnerships that combine the drive and fresh perspective of youth with the wisdom and experience of seasoned individuals for optimal growth.

37. Persist Through Initial Struggles

If a new venture doesn’t immediately succeed, persist by continuously improving and iterating until it gains traction and catches on with customers.

38. Uncommoditize with Experience

Transform a commodity product by creating a unique, sensory, and engaging experience around it to differentiate it from competitors.

39. Continuously Develop Expertise

Immerse yourself deeply in your product or field, continuously learning and developing your expertise and taste, even if it differs from current market demands.

40. Educate on Quality Alternatives

Introduce people to higher-quality versions of common products, explaining the benefits and differences, as many are unaware of superior alternatives.

41. Prioritize Natural Ingredients

Opt for products made with real, high-quality ingredients (e.g., real vanilla, ginger, turmeric) rather than flavorings, which often contain unlisted preservatives and additives that create a less nuanced taste.

42. Design Complementary Products

Create high-quality, specialized accessories and complementary products that enhance the user experience for your primary offering, paying obsessive attention to small details.

43. Establish Family Rituals

Create simple, enjoyable family rituals, like making and sharing tea after dinner, to connect and chat with your kids, fostering a sense of togetherness.

44. Share Quality Experiences

When you discover a high-quality product or ritual that enhances life, share it with others, demonstrating its value and encouraging them to adopt it.

45. Focus on Timeless Quality

While trends and disruptions change, consistently prioritize and invest energy in delivering a great quality product, as this fundamental principle remains constant for business success.

46. Build for Longevity and Trust

Aim to build a long-lasting company that people can trust, one that maintains its core principles and does not waver over time.

47. Seek Products for Daily Pause

Choose products, like loose leaf tea, that offer a moment of pause in your day, provide full health benefits, and allow for an engaging experience (e.g., watching leaves expand).

48. Offer Non-Alcoholic Social Options

Provide or seek out non-alcoholic options, like high-quality tea, for social gatherings during the week, offering a moment of connection and conversation without alcohol.

49. Target Niche Audiences

Leverage modern media to target niche audiences and cultivate “a thousand true fans” by focusing on what you do best and servicing customers who deeply care about your specific offering.

50. Give Health-Oriented Gifts

Consider tea or similar products as gifts, as they convey a message of caring for the recipient’s health, wellbeing, and offer moments of pause or social connection.

51. Design for Aesthetic Appeal

Design products not just for function, but also for aesthetic appeal, so they can be displayed prominently and enhance the user’s environment.

52. Embrace Failure for Growth

Do not fear failure; recognize it as an inevitable part of the entrepreneurial journey that can humble you and often precedes upward movement.

53. Persist, Iterate Through Failure

Recognize that “failure” can also mean things taking too long; persist through repeated failures, learning “what not to do,” and adapt your approach until you find success.

54. Honest Assessment, Transform Problems

Be honest about the current, undesirable state of a situation (“chicken shit”) and commit to the hard work and time required to transform it into something successful (“chicken salad”).

55. Understand Money’s Limits

Recognize that money and material possessions do not buy meaning or lasting fulfillment; instead, focus on understanding who you are and what you truly want, independent of wealth.

56. Avoid Artificial Timelines

After a major achievement, resist the urge to set artificial timelines or make ego-driven decisions to quickly “get back in the game”; instead, take time to thoughtfully plan your next steps.

57. Maintain Structure Post-Exit

After a significant career exit, maintain a sense of structure (e.g., a dedicated workspace) and consult with others who have navigated similar transitions to avoid a sudden loss of purpose and routine.

58. Overcome Action Bias

Strive to overcome the “action bias” by making fewer, but highly convicted, decisions, allowing for deep reflection rather than constant movement.

59. Develop Clear Communication

Actively work to improve your writing and communication skills, especially the ability to express complex ideas in simple, persuasive terms, as this is a crucial and often overlooked asset.

60. Cultivate Decision Patience

Recognize the value of patience in decision-making, sitting on things longer than most, as this rare quality can lead to better outcomes.

61. Set Multi-Timeline Goals Annually

Annually, sit down to write out clear goals for one year, three years, and ten years to provide direction and focus.

62. Apply “Rocking Chair Test”

Use the “rocking chair test” as a yardstick for decisions, asking yourself if this will matter when you look back on your life in old age.

63. Practice Daily Perspective Shift

Understand that shifting your perspective or mindset is a practice, not an overnight change; take consistent, small steps forward each day to cultivate a more positive outlook and enjoy life more.

64. Start Small with Habits

When building new habits like meditation, start with very short durations (e.g., 3-5 minutes) and gradually build up, treating it like building a muscle.

65. Briefly Celebrate Success

When experiencing highs, celebrate them with a quick “high five” but then quickly return to work, avoiding prolonged indulgence.

66. Support Content Creators

Hit the follow button on podcasts you enjoy, as increased followers can help the show attract better guests.

67. Utilize Shopify for Business

Use Shopify as a global commerce platform to help your business grow, whether you’re just starting or already operating a multi-million dollar company.