Business As A Force For Good — Nick Green, CEO of Thrive Market
New Happy Hero Nick Green is the co-founder and CEO of Thrive Market, a company on a mission to make healthy eating accessible and affordable for every family in America.
Today, we’re talking about why focusing on your self will never make you happy, the pitfalls of perfectionism, why staying open is essential to effective leadership, and what it means to build a purpose-oriented business from the ground up.
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Key Takeaways
Nick beautifully described the challenges of perfectionism and fear of failure. Many of us have internalized the idea that our worthiness as humans is based upon our performance. Perfectionism is linked to many mental health issues like depression, anxiety, and eating disorders -- and ironically, perfectionists achieve less than those people who have healthier attitudes. Like Nick did, we can overcome these fears by putting ourselves out there and taking small risks where we might fail -- and when we do, focusing on what we learned from it! We can also reframe it as a video game, with unlimited lives, where we simply dust ourselves up and get back into it. Both of these will help you to cultivate a growth mindset.
Second, a lot of this conversation was focused on the core concept behind the New Happy: building a life focused on helping others is the path to true happiness. But this can be hard when we’ve grown up in an Old Happy world that tells us over and over again to pursue our self-advancement first and foremost. Nick was able to see this truth when he started his first company and experienced the joy of teaching. You, too, can go out and find this feeling for yourself. One great way to do this is to ask yourself, “If I could wave a magic wand, what problem of the world would I solve?” That will help you to notice what you’re passionate about. Then, go out and take some small action related to that problem. Notice how it feels and how it differs from focusing on your personal achievement. If you feel more energized and fulfilled, keep doing it! If not, keep trying different routes. As long as you continue to stay focused on serving others, you’ll find your purpose before you know it.
Finally, we can integrate our purpose into everything we do, using it to inspire and motivate ourselves, our team, and our community. Whether you’re building a business, working on a project, or kicking off a big initiative at work, ground yourself in the purpose of what you’re building. As Nick described, start with the end in mind: what will the positive benefit to others be of what you have built? As you continue to work on it, bring yourself back again and again to that greater why. It will help to sustain your motivation through the hard times and empower you to keep pushing the edge of possibility.
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