Arun Rajappa is the Country Manager for RIOT Games India & South Asia. He is also the author of "Failing Well - A Short Book on Product Management."

0:00 Introduction 3:09 Communicating as a leader 5:49 Being in the back vs. front of the room 9:11 Leadership unlocks great products for customers 13:39 Product failure unlocked Arun's true potential 20:14 Finding balance as a parent (or mentor) 23:34 Empathy is about recognizing differences 27:23 Coaching and understanding context 31:09 How Arun improved his listening skills 33:10 Meditation for beginners 40:35 "Four Thousand Weeks" by Oliver Burkeman 46:12 The ultimate meaning of it all 48:59 Why frame the book around "failing well"? 53:52 Process of writing and editing a book 58:12 Getting feedback on the book 1:02:31 On preserving one's legacy

Arun on LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/arun-rajappa-bb9a822/

Arun's book, "Failing Well - A Short Book on Product Management" → https://www.amazon.com/Failing-Well-short-product-management/dp/B0D2LFCQM8?ccs_id=579cebd0-b1c5-4f0e-aed9-c2c7bfd800e4

David Thomas Tao is the founder of BarBend, a strength sports content site. David started the company in 2016 and had a successful startup exit in 2023.

0:00 Intro

1:00 David’s background

5:25 The truth about pre- and post-entrepreneur life

6:29 James’s story, mindset on building wealth

9:07 Life after the startup exit

10:52 BarBend origin story

13:07 The hardest things to do as the CEO

15:18 Mistakes were made

21:40 Guilt

22:53 Support system

25:01 Selling the company, transition period, walking away

28:45 BarBend’s legacy

32:06 Today’s fitness content industry

37:37 Journalistic standards

40:06 Advice for younger entrepreneurs

42:38 David and James get real

44:33 David’s family heritage, post-911 feelings

Dan Campbell is the co-creator of the "Hobbies + Happiness" YouTube channel, which covers a wide range of tabletop and trading card games.

Noah Weil is a magistrate judge based in Seattle, Washington.

I've known Noah for a few years and first connected with him from a shared interest we have in a competitive card game called Magic: The Gathering.

I'm honored to have this conversation with Noah to explore his "why."

Josephine McAdam is an actor, performer, producer and streamer.

She recently produced and premiered a new film at Gen Con. If there's one overall theme to Josephine's creative output, it's that she's incredibly dynamic and intentional about her craft.

Here, Josephine talks candidly about the mental aspect of being an actor/performer, and shares some of her career aspirations. I had a great time chatting with her and I hope you enjoy this conversation.

Monica Macias is the daughter of Equatorial Guinea's first president, Francisco Macias. She was raised in North Korea by Kim Il Sung.

Monica's new book, "Black Girl from Pyongyang," chronicles her childhood in North Korea and subsequent attempts to understand her father's complicated legacy.

Monica and I had a deep, nuanced conversation. Enjoy.

Ivan Lee is the founder and CEO of Datasaur.ai, a data labeling and training data platform in the AI space.

Ivan previously co-founded Loki Studios and worked in various product management roles at Apple, GoButler and Yahoo.

Ivan offers MANY insights here for both startup founders and product managers. Enjoy.

Rui Ma is an angel investor, tech analyst and influencer. She is currently the COO of Alphawatch.AI.

Rui shares a number of insights about China tech -- where it was, and where it's headed. Enjoy.