Founder & CEO @ Close
Steli Efti One of the emotions I still haven’t found a good way to relate to is my anger. For most of my adult life, my way of handling anger was simply to suppress it and pretend it didn’t exist at all. Getting angry meant that someone else had power over me, someone else was able to …
Read moreOk, now I’m punching pillows (Anger-management Adventures)
I don’t know how to explain this to people who’ve never felt it, but I’ve been suffering from jaw tension for quite a while now. It comes and goes, and I never really know what triggered it until I did some deep introspection. I believe it’s forcing me to confront truths I’d rather not face. …
Read moreHow my jaw pain forces me to face unpleasant truths
I was out on the balcony on a sunny day in Austin. It was a nice day. Everything was fine. Beautiful music playing. My day’s work was done. And that’s when it hit me: I’m good at many things—but relaxing isn’t one of them. Even when you see me chilling, inside of me, there’s so …
Today I’m talking with my good friend Ryan Robinson, one of the most disciplined people I know, and also one of the most prolific content creators. But that’s not what this conversation is about. 2020 has been an intense year for Ryan, a lot of personal transformation, and I saw many parallels to changes and …
Read moreA year of intense self-discovery with Ryan Robinson
In this episode, I talk about our podcast, and why it’s so different from the content we’ve created in the past. Most of these episodes are unstructured conversations and explorations of random themes of my life—there are no actionable takeaways, no bitesized nuggets of wisdom, and oftentimes no answers to the questions we pose. And …
Most of the episodes of this podcast are me talking about a topic that’s currently on my mind—oftentimes meanderings that don’t lead to a clear conclusion, or challenges I’m facing that yet lack a satisfying solution. It’s inner work in progress. Today is a little bit different: I’m sharing an heuristic of my inner work …
Read moreYou can’t be upset with others, and at peace with yourself
I’m the CEO of a very successful software startup. 8-figure revenue, thousands of customers all around the world, employees spread out all across the globe. I know what email stress feels like. There’s a lot of professional advice out there on how to overcome and manage email stress. The University of Michigan recommends to adherence …
Read more1 simple hack that helped me achieve less email stress
I’m excited to release our first ever interview on the Inner Work podcast. I spoke with Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu. He’s the husband of Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu, and together they run one of my favorite podcasts of all time, the Muay Thai Bones podcast, and the 8 LIMBS US blog. We talk about Muay Thai, Sylvie’s …
Read moreWhat it’s like to love a fighter with Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu
There’s a reason why I grew a multi-million dollar company through content marketing. I’m good at content because I’ve consumed a ton of content in my life—starting out as a child where I spent all day every day in front of a TV. I was basically raised by a TV. From the moment I came …
Read moreMy 30 day media fast: What happened to my mind when I stopped consuming content for 1 month
I’ve been very out of touch with my own emotions, wants and needs for a long time. And much of the past year has been about getting to know myself better: What do I want? What do I really like? For myself, not for my company, my family, for my team, for my career, but …
A while back I was driving my sons back home with the car, and they got excited about a dope looking sports car they saw. And it led to something I almost never do: I shared advice on how to be successful in life with them. In this episode, I’ll share it with you too, …
Read moreFatherhood odyssey: 5 success rules for 5-year olds
In today’s episode, I talk about the power of full commitment. It started with a tweet by Paul Graham, who’s had a huge impact in my life during my time at Y Combinator: I met a guy who spent several years jumping dirt bikes. I asked him, as I often do when I meet people …
Read moreThe half-assed life: Be one of the few who fully commit
It took me a long time to get rich. It still feels weird to say this about myself. But financially, I’m definitely rich. What’s funny is, I’ve been rich long before I even realized that I was rich. It was actually through conversations with friends that I eventually realized: Fuck yes, I AM rich. I …
Read moreI got rich slowly, but here’s how you can get rich quick
I was surprised to see McGregor get knocked out by Poirier this fast. But one thing that’s been bothering me about McGregor is that I don’t think he’s been picking the right sparring partners to prepare for this fight. None of his sparring partners really had the chops to seriously challenge him as much as …
Read moreMcGregor vs. Poirier 2 – Looking foolish in the name of progress
In this episode, I talk about a breakthrough I’ve had in my martial arts after a training session on LSD. In my training of martial arts, there are periods where I’m on a very intense schedule, practicing five, six, or even seven days a week. And then there are periods where I train only once …
Here’s a conversation where I talk about the importance of pacing myself and managing my energy throughout the course of a day. I have a tendency to go full speed whenever I feel energized—until my tank runs out of fuel and I crash hard. Today, I practiced breaking that pattern. When I felt excited or …
Read morePacing myself: Full speed until the fuel runs out isn’t a good strategy
A few weeks ago, I ordered a guitar. I spent most of my teenage years chasing the dream of becoming the world’s best guitarist, practicing all day, every day… until one day when I realized I’d never become the greatest. And from that day on, I’ve—with a few rare exceptions—never touched a guitar again. Until …
Read moreIntimate art, loving playfulness, and my secret guitar
Here’s another very personal episode. If you’re looking for sales, startup, and business advice, skip this episode, it’s not going to be a good use of your time. If you want to get to know me better as a human being, particularly some of my private struggles and the inner work I do, then maybe …
Here’s a personal conversation I’ve had with a friend back in September. I’ve been feeling tense and tired for a very long time, and I wanted to allow myself to just feel this feeling of tiredness more, rather than do what I usually do: trying to overcome my tiredness, and just push it away. And …
One of my favorite reads of this year was Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis. I love Zorba’s practical wisdom and zest for life. He manages to see the everything and everybody as a miracle worth celebrating, while also recognizing that we’re all just sacks of bones and flesh and flaws, and that everything we …
Here’s another Way of the Warrior episode, where I share lessons I learn while practicing martial arts. There’s a certain technique I’ve practiced many times and understood well—or so I thought. Let’s just say it was a very humbling session, where the idea I carried in my head wasn’t fully aligned with the reality that …
I recently read Herman Hesse’s book Siddhartha, which tells the story of a man seeking enlightenment. From a young age on, together with his best friend, he sought spiritual teachers and mentors to learn and guide him. Because he was a very dedicated disciple of these different teachers, he excelled in many practices, but soon …
What’s the driving force that keeps you excited, motivated, and makes you come alive? This is not always an easy question to answer, but in this episode I share a simple way of uncovering your purpose at work. Think about the last 3 months. What were some of the best moments you’ve had at work? …
Read moreWhat makes you come alive at work? A purpose-finding exercise
This might just be the most uncomfortable piece of content I’ve ever published. I recently had a lousy day, and captured my mood and thoughts in a rare, ad hoc voice memo. I want to share this with you, because I believe there’s value in realizing that we all have down days. But rather than …