I’ve lived a life that doesn’t fit neatly into any container. It’s been full of adventure, missteps, windfalls, and having to borrow money to keep the lights on. Looking back, I somehow lived my bucket list without trying to.
I share this because when people sit down with me — usually exhausted from trying to force their companies or their lives into a perfect straight line — they need to know they are talking to someone with a high capacity for reality, not another sterile framework.
The ability to hold a quiet, unbothered space for people doesn't come from a strategy. It comes from the things I survived, the moments of strange serendipity, and the times I had no choice but to drop the armor.
A few things that happened along the way:
– I helped build the 3rd .com website in history, and the very first kraftfoods.com site, on which I hid an Easter egg just to see if I could, and nearly got fired for it.
– I started a software company at 23.
– I was mugged at gunpoint in a Detroit parking lot and negotiated to get my wallet back.
– I once came across a fatal car accident where the trained EMTs were so shaken they froze. Having never done it before, I ended up directing the firefighters and the jaws of life.
– I spent a week fearing arrest by the FBI after falling victim to a complicated con job in Goa.
– I sang Hava Nagila at a club in Bangalore with an 80-year-old, chain-smoking former Playboy bunny.
– I rode a bicycle from Seattle to San Francisco when I was 16.
– I have photographs archived in the Smithsonian.
– I got married in Israel, divorced 3 years later, moved into a rented room in New York City, and spent three months walking the streets at night taking photographs until my feet couldn't take it anymore.
– I once let a strange guy I met in a New York bar sleep on my couch in Boston. He introduced me to a woman who became one of my best friends and hired me for a multi-year contract that changed my life.