I think at the very beginning of the process of figuring out what you want you have to say do I want the whole tradeoff that other people have made?

Do I really want all of the downsides that go with those particular upsides?

I think that's such a liberating place to begin.

You really immediately push past that totally false and unhelpful

thinking and instead say what is it I was built to do, born to do, what did I come

here to do? What's the right set of work that I maybe even uniquely

can bring to the world? To me that's the essential path. That's what it means ultimately to be an

essentialist.

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Greg, welcome to the Un Mistakable Creative.

Thanks so much for taking the time to join us.

It's great to be with you.

It is my pleasure to have you here. So I have been, as I was saying before we

officially hit record here, a huge fan of your book, Essentialism, The Discipline Pursuit of Less. It's one of those books that I return

to over and over again. I think it's in the same vein as Cal Newport's

work deep deep work but I think it really sets us up to focus on the most

important things in our lives but before we get into your work around

essentialism I want to start by asking you what did your parents do for work and how did that end up shaping it and influence the choices you made throughout your life and career?

My father was an entrepreneur. He ran his own small carpet and upholstery business.

That was for the majority of the time I was growing up and before that was in sales. My mother was a full-time stay-at-home mom and then later did restite care. I think that one way that shaped what I've chosen to do is that very early on I wanted to be entrepreneurial myself and my first business was 10 years old

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