Here’s Jared’s Story:

I grew up in a home where I ate and drank possibility.

Let’s go to that event, set up that lemonade stand, mow a lawn, pressure wash a house, make a widget, sell it, make money to pay for the trip, and take some home - and do that as often as possible. This meant going to the Olympics, Democratic and Republican conventions- you name it, we tried it. We loved creating products and services that satisfied the demand at those events.

This led to fixing up houses, scaling businesses, and selling them. Not as fun as selling Monopoly games at the Olympics but a close second.

Along the way, I realized that any organization, project or venture lives or dies by the person or persons leading out. It led me to believe that a leader casts a vision so beautiful, so grand, that he or she cannot accomplish it alone. The leader transitions from a philosophical dreamer to a visionary leader when they begin to persuade and influence others to join them in accomplishing this noble, meaningful endeavor.

Why do people follow? Because they crave vision.  They crave growth. They crave meaning. We only regret not trying once it is all said and done. People want to feel alive - risk and venturing out often satisfy that desire within us.

One should not become discouraged if at first people aren’t following them and helping them with their vision. They should continue to resiliently share their vision and look for others to join them.

After I married Annette, it was only a matter of time before the passion for venturing out rubbed off on her. I will let her share her story about finally drinking the cool-aid.

Here’s Annette’s story:

My parents came from communist Cuba; my dad was in a concentration camp for 3 years under Castro’s regime, persecuted for what he believed. When they arrived in America, they had me and loved me beyond my wildest dreams.

But they raised me to be safe as so many good parents do. Go to college, get a good job, work for 40 years, and retire. After a few years around Jared, I began to see that trying your own venture was fun. Jared’s not lying about ideas being the spice of life - he’s got more ideas than you could imagine. It led me to begin to ideate and consider what I wanted to do. After a decade working as an ICU Charge Nurse, I began designing wedding dresses. I went to New York Fashion week, had my dresses modeled down the runway and had such a wonderful time. But I found my greatest joy in recent years helping brands and people find their joy in the simple things.

In his book The Innovator’s DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators, Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen presents his research on successful innovators in large organizations. He studied serial innovators and identified the following five consistent behaviors:

1. Serial innovators observe. Their eyes are always open, noticing things other people don’t notice.

2. Serial innovators question. They ask a lot of questions about what they observe. Why are things this way? Why aren’t they different?

3. Serial innovators associate. They take disparate ideas from a wide array of sources and combine them together.

4. Serial innovators are highly experimental. They don’t assume they know much. They start with a good question and a hypothesis, then go out and experiment to gather real-world data.

5. Serial innovators network. They devote time and energy to finding and testing ideas through a diverse network of individuals, so they can get different perspectives on their ideas.

These 5 tenets deeply resonate with us.