“It’s only through
moments of reflection
that our greatest insights,
ideas and quite frankly
what it means to be
human happens.”
Remarkable ideas from Daniel Forrester

This Readitfor.me
Remarkable Business // Remarkable Life
interview is with Daniel Forrester.
He’s the founder of THRUUE Inc. which is
devoted to the intersection of culture &
strategy, and he’s published a book called
Consider. He’s a speaker, a reflective
thinker, husband, and father…

?W hen did you first get the itch to become an entrepreneur?

My sister Rosemary, used to do these candy drives
at her school. The more chocolate bars you sell,
the more money is raised for the school. I quickly
saw an opportunity to help her accelerate her
sales, and there was a $100 reward for the top
salesperson. I single handedly took and helped her
win that award a couple of times in a row and
we split the money together. That $50 incentive
was very interesting to me
when I was 10.
$50!

I was fearless as a kid going door to door. BrEne Brown says
that you have to allow yourself to be vulnerable, and I had
an early inclination to do that.

?W hat was it like for the first few months running that
business, stepping out on your own, what did you learn
from that experience?

You experience ambiguity and the
realization of how small you are.
At my old company I had people that I
could turn to for legal, technology,
business development… and when
you are on your own there’s an
amazing moment of loneliness
that you get when
the buck stops with you.

In that moment what I chose
to do is to focus on the client, focus
on the value and dream so that first
60 days was a little bit of
scrappiness. In that first 60 - 90 days
I learned to manage fear. Becoming
an entrepreneur is all about that.
You can’t conquer fear but you can
manage fear and talk to
yourself and say where do
we go with this.

?W hat do you think entrepreneurs should be doing
in order to be building their remarkable business?

The first one is based on the book
Consider, which I wrote a few years
ago. I had a very simple idea:
that it’s only through moments of
reflection that our greatest
insights, ideas and quite frankly
what it means to be human happens.

The world around us, with always-on technology and
connectedness is slowly making us lose that idea. So my
first bit of advice would be around reflection and valuing
it. If you have a constant bias towards action and
activity, and you’re not doing the habitual step back and
considering what happened, why are we doing this, and not
giving yourself space to dream… you’re missing out.

The second thing I often
think about is this idea of
creating things that are
remarkable and new. I
worked with General
Petraeus for several years
as I was writing my book. He
said that the first job of a
leader is to get the big ideas
right. These big ideas do not
just fall from the tree
easily: they take time,
they take reflection.

The last thing I’m learning is something
that my father taught me incredibly
well. He said life comes down to people.
A company with the greatest
technology in the world, the fanciest
apps or a consulting company with the
wildest set of new analytic thinking…
make no mistake you know this is going
to come down to the people that are
around me, the people that are quite
frankly thinking differently than me.

The last thing in the world that I wanted
was someone who agreed with me. So quite
honestly, the ability to have dissent,
healthy discussion and dialogue is probably
the thing that I am nurturing and for as
long as I get to run this we’re going to be a
company of dialogue and give and take and a
company that respects the people in it and if
I get that wrong…
I think it’s all going to fall apart.

?W hat’s your best pieces of advice for entrepreneurs
who are also trying to lead a remarkable life?

I don’t think a remarkable life can happen
unless you get better at being able to switch
between family and work modes. When I’m in
work I’m in, and I try to be very present for
everything that is in front of me because
that is what I’m called to do.
WORK LIFE BALANCE

An entrepreneur’s world,
especially in the early stages,
forces a reset of priorities. I
struggle with it. I think my
remarkable life will be the
intersection between the joy of
the work that I do and the joy
that is in front of me from the
people I love the most.

Then there’s Validation. I think
there is a very unhealthy side to
the American psyche of our quest
for fame. It makes you think to
yourself am I doing things
because I’m able to
validate myself?
Life has given me more
validation and more
meaning with two beautiful
children and a wife than I
could imagine.

So my remarkable life
is one in which you
come to grips with the
tonic of validation and
can seek something
that moves your soul
and taps at the more
deeper core of who you
are. For me that
journey of validation
is about being
conscious of all the
unhealthiness that
comes my way and not
seeking it out.
JUDGE ME WELL
(please)
(please)
(please)
(please)
(please)

as an entrepreneur I’ve made a ton of mistakes. Those mistakes have
economic consequences, in fact, they have all sorts of consequences.
The learning is that my growth is to be found by taking a big step
back and asking how did I make that mistake. Not just
because I don’t want to repeat them, but also because There is
something in my mind that would have wanted me
to keep going
down
that
path.

An entrepreneur is
called to be a risk
taker, but the
journey of growth is
going to be filled
with how well you
curate your way
around the mistakes
and learning and
getting feedback and
getting yourself back
up and keeping going.

Learn more about Daniel Forrester:
www.thruue.com
www.danielforrester.com
Twitter: @dpforrester

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