Delve into the vibrant world of Craig Dubitsky, a serial entrepreneur and professional optimist known for beautiful brands that make people smile. With a distinctive ‘Fear Of Not Trying' (FONT) mindset, Craig underscores the idea that daring to try and being open to failure are the roots of invention and innovation. Always the perpetual rookie, he shares insights from his varied career path, including the launch of his most recent venture happy™ coffee, a brand co-founded with Robert Downey Jr. Don’t miss this masterclass on engineering a joyful career by brewing up and executing on new ideas that solve real problems for real people.

Highlights From Today’s Episode:

* 03:33 The Path of The Professional Optimist

* 18:09 Invention, Innovation, Follies and Boondoggles

* 20:56 Embracing the Fear of Not Trying (FONT)

* 25:46 When Expertise Drags You Down

* 29:25 Trying on Coffee and Improv

* 40:38 Reflections & Observations

* 48:43 Getting Over Our FONT

About Our Guests:

Craig Dubitsky: professional optimist, obsessed with making everyday things better and more beautiful.

About happy™’s partnership with NAMI:

Beyond delivering thoughtfully and responsibly sourced coffee, our vision is to help create a world where mental health is valued and understood, and where help is accessible to everyone — free from stigma or fear.

That's why we're proud to partner with NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization.

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Reference Materials:

Learn how we use the Acorn to Oak Tree exercise in our research on our tools page.

We want to hear from you!

We'd love to hear what you observed in this episode. What did this episode leave you wondering about? What did you observe and what was said or left unsaid? Leave us a voice memo, DM us on Instagram, or send us an email, smartrookie[at]thenucleusgroup.com.

Credits:

* Chelsea Carlson, Podcast Art Designer

* Ashley Bradford, Theme Music Artist

* Sam Nash, Audio Engineer

* Gabriela Acosta, Executive Producer

* Smart Rookie is brought to you by brand and strategy collaborative, The Nucleus Group.

Please note that our show transcript is AI generated and may not be 100% accurate.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit smartrookie.substack.com