Why my favorite speaker at the Launch Festival was not on the main stage

Hint: It was not Peter Thiel, Gary Vaynerchuk, Fred Wilson, or Chris Sacca

The Launch Festival is one of my favorite annual tech events, Jason Calacanis does an outstanding job. The list of amazing speakers above is just the tip of the iceberg. With that said you may be surprised to hear that my favorite speaker at Launch was Tucker Max.

You may know Tucker Max from his short stories about his debaucherous adventures in his twenties, which he turned into the #1 NY Times Bestseller I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell. Tucker is an entrepreneur and fucking smart guy. It sounds patronizing to say that, because if you mention that someone is a #1 NY Times bestseller it usually goes without saying that they have some level of intelligence and entrepreneurial prowess. I think Tucker gets unfairly categorized as someone who found success because of some dumb luck, this is all due to the content of his books. The reality could not be further from the truth.

This chat between Tucker and Erik Torenberg (ProductHunt), was my favorite because of one main point. I don’t remember the quote word for word, but essentially Tucker said that he combined two things that really fueled his success. He took something he was interested in and combined it with something he was good at, then made a business out of it. He enjoyed reliving his ridiculous booze filled adventures from his twenties, and he took that and combined it with his excellent story telling abilities. With that strong starting point he was able to learn along the way how to build an audience around his blog and then eventually leveraged his blog’s success into book and movie deals.

While the other speakers at Launch were amazing, and I got a lot out of their talks, Tucker’s story and his path to success really resonated with my current situation. In the past few months, I have really shifted the way I select projects I work on. I have been a builder/maker for a number of years, in that time I’ve tried to solve many different problems that I see in the world. But what I have found is that when I try to solve problems that I don’t find really interesting, it is hard to stay inspired and motivated when those projects don’t receive immediate traction. This may seem like a pretty logical conclusion. However, I have many friends who love working on projects that solve problems, regardless of how much the problem relates to them, or how much fun the solution is to build.

For a long time I felt that solving problems was the sole thing that drove my passion for my own projects. Though this is still definitely true, I have since realized that the path to a solution and the day to day process is massively important too. It is much easier to build and stick with a project for the long hall when it is something I really have fun with. The thing I loved about Tucker is that was exactly his gospel (yes I said the Tucker Max gospel). He did something he enjoyed and had fun with, then used his strengths to turn it into something other people found value in. It is comforting to know my new approach can lead to success, and it may even be the factor that has been missing from my previous endeavors.

Check out my latest project, which I am having a ton of fun with: WYR Game

Check out Tucker’s latest project: Book in a Box