Lead from the Core: Jay’s Growth Perspectives

The Third Growth Option with Benno Duenkelsbuehler and Guests

Jay Steinfeld, founder of blinds.com (which he grew from $0 to revenues of hundreds of millions of dollars before selling it to Home Depot) shares heartfelt insights from his entrepreneurial journey and personal development in my conversation with him. If you haven’t read his book Lead from the Core, you’ll want to read it. Whether or not you have, you’ll want to listen to this episode in which Jay talks about “autonomous excellence”, the 4 E’s (evolve, experiment, express yourself, and enjoy the ride), a definition of success based on “getting better”, and the importance of embracing ambiguity.

8:10 – “I was observant, curious, anxious to learn… I was willing to take chances with myself and to be experimental in how I would be able to evolve.”

10:37 – about generosity and grace… “when it comes to people, you give them as much as you can… give them the opportunity to be themselves… providing an environment and resources to flourish… then you have a business that becomes autonomous excellence.”

13:50 – in talking about the 4 E’s Jay made this insightful comment: “paradox is an important part of leadership, to understand there is no reconciliation of things, all these things exist together… for instance maintaining your long-term vision yet making sure you do everything that has to be done today.”

18:08 – “if you can get better, or I can help somebody else get better, that’s success.”

27:16 – Advice for start-ups or high-growth managers “the key thing is to be able to deal with ambiguity better. I didn’t need to know the right answer from the beginning… people believe you can research and use a spreadsheet and determine with facts exactly the way the path is going to be, but that’s so untrue… you don’t really know…until you go out into the wild.”

You can learn more about Jay and the 4 E’s on www.JaySteinfeld.com, and you can find him and easily connect with him on LinkedIn.