Foster a culture of disagreement

“It’s important to foster a culture of disagreement in which people can challenge one another. They can certainly challenge me. Yet eventually, decisions need to be made and you’ve got to move forward—and you have to move forward as a team. So this idea of disagree-then-commit is, I think, very important for an organization to have, particularly as you grow, because you’re going to have a lot of different departments working with one another. You want people to feel comfortable professionally challenging one another. I think it helps you realize that you cannot be debating something forever. At the end of the day, you have to move ahead: there’s a debate, and there’s a decision. And once that decision is made, everyone is on the train. I think that’s been an important guiding principle with us. And, at times when the company was probably less efficient, it was because everyone thought that a full consensus was the way to make decisions, and that’s just inefficient.”

Slow your pace to foster creativity

“I’ve started to go on long walks. I think there’s something important about moving your body at a comfortable pace and being able to observe the world around you. There’s so much to appreciate, and so much that inspires creativity, when you really stop and look around. The opposite of this is staring at your phone. If you want to drain creativity, scrolling is a good way to do it.”

Be hyper-present—and patient

“I’m certainly learning on the go here, but my son was born 14 months ago and I think first and foremost, being hyper-present is essential in fatherhood, but I am finding it to be applicable across all disciplines of life. That, and patience. I would say that I’m an impatient person. I think that’s actually been helpful at times for being an entrepreneur, but you need to be patient as a parent.”

Exercise at least five times a week

“I’ve loved to exercise through sports across my entire life. I try to exercise five days a week at a minimum. And I play a lot of squash, so that gives me the high-intensity cardio. From a fitness standpoint, you want to spend time in zones four and five of your heart rate, and you also want strength training time. Playing squash for me really hits those high heart rate zones, and then I do weight lifting, which is at a lower heart rate but it builds strength. I mix in other forms, too: golf, Barry’s Bootcamp, and I’ve gotten into pilates a little bit.”

Do the work

“I believe the only way to overcome work stress is often to work. There’s a thing that people do where they have a problem at work and then they try to avoid it. I think a great way to be less stressed is to actually face the problem. That moment might be a higher intensity period of stress, but on the other side of it, you’ll feel a lot better.”