Focus, Focus and Focus Some More
Nov 26, 2025
"Can we please stop calling our kids’ boss?
Nearly half of parents with kids aged 18-28 do it.
A survey of 831 Gen Z professionals found:
You can’t build resilience when every tough moment gets intercepted. Strength doesn’t come from watching someone else lift.
American Psychological Association data shows that Gen Z has the weakest mental health of any living generation.
Not because they’re fragile ... because we never let them struggle.
We worry coffee stunts physical growth, but ignore how our “help” stunts mental growth.
Loved but not trusted. Supported but not strengthened. Smart and motivated ... but unpracticed in the friction and failure adulthood requires.
The atrophy of the very muscles that help companies reach the future faster has real consequences for our businesses.
Teams that avoid feedback. Leaders waiting for instructions.
Employees addicted to validation. Customers scared to decide.
Parents solved kids’ problems… and created a bigger one … a generation unpracticed in struggle, which is the one skill life guarantees you’ll need.
The fix is simple, but not easy:
Teach people to speak for themselves.
Expect them to.
Give them the space to actually do it.
And let them succeed, fail and learn on their own.
It’s not just the right thing to do. It’s actually good business.
Independent humans build resilient companies, and your future as a business owner depends on them.
Love,
INSIGHT
📊Understand Marketing — You need to know how you're selling what you're selling.
💥Break Through The Noise — Differentiating your company somehow is absolutely crucial.
💪Healthy Life, Healthy Business — Take time for yourself to avoid burnout.
CHEAT CODE: FOCUS, FOCUS AND FOCUS SOME MORE
Most entrepreneurs don’t fail because they run out of ideas. They fail because they won’t stop chasing new ones.
Founders love to juggle. New markets. New partners. New features. New shiny distractions that feel like momentum but behave like sugar.
Every extra idea is a tax on execution. If everything matters, nothing does.
Hyperfocus is the cheat code. Noise → progress. Chaos → clarity.
And the way in is simple: your financial model.
Not the pretty spreadsheet you update twice a year. The map that tells you exactly what must happen first.
Fund your priorities. Write them down. Circle them. Name them. If they're not written, they’re not real.
And let’s be honest about perfectionism. Too many founders are stuck polishing the apple instead of planting the orchard.
They tweak. They refine. They wait for the “final version” while scrappier teams ship, learn, and sprint past them focused on only what matters.
Perfection kills momentum. Focus feeds it.
Real focus is progress over polish. Shipping instead of stalling. Customer data over internal fantasy.
Hope doesn’t clear obstacles. Focusing on core priorities does.
Focus is not intensity. It’s intention.
It’s putting your time, money, and energy behind the work that actually moves the needle and makes you money.
The founders who win aren’t the ones with the craziest ideas.
They’re the ones who can ignore almost everything… and go all-in on what matters.
What’s the 1% you’re willing to bet the year on?
Want more of our cheat codes? Follow along on Instagram.
🆘 Access the 49 other cheat codes every entrepreneur needs to know from Shoveling $H!T: A Love Story.
🚜 Have you dived into building a business? Jump into the Founders Farm and share some stories.
FOUR FAVORITE FINDS
💭 A Bank of America survey found that fund managers think companies are overinvesting in AI. What does this mean for the artificial intelligence boom?
💾 A number of tech companies have recently announced progress in quantum computing.
🧑💻 How OpenAI's other CEO, Fidji Simo, plans to integrate ChatGPT further into our lives.
📡 These 20-something former drone racers built a company that has raised $121 million and now they're supplying the U.S. government.
AROUND THE FARM
🤩 We're honored that the Goody Business Book Awards rewarded our book Shoveling $h!t: A Love Story as a winner in the Entrepreneurism and Small Business categories!
🎙️ Listen to Mike's takeaways on the difference between being a founder and an investor on the We Live to Build podcast.
👏 Mike sat down with Swagger to discuss how he makes life meaningful.
🤔 We were interviewed by Forbes on how we use the V2MOM framework to make investment decisions.
💸 CNBC shared our story of how we dealt with our company going bankrupt.
💑 Secrets of Happily Ever After interviewed us on the ins and outs of our romance and partnership.
📚 Shoveling $h!t: A Love Story debuted on the New York Times & USA Today bestseller lists! We couldn't have done it without the support of this community—the purchases, the shares, showing up to events, writing reviews and more!
FINALLY, WANNA GET INVOLVED?
📖Get bulk copies for your team.
⏰Invite us to speak at your event.
🤯 Share your thoughts on social: #FoundersFarm
⏩ Forward this dispatch to 3 entrepreneurs who should be getting it!"
Nearly half of parents with kids aged 18-28 do it.
A survey of 831 Gen Z professionals found:
- 45% say a parent talks to their manager.
- 77% brought a parent to an interview.
- 53% had a parent speak to a hiring manager.
You can’t build resilience when every tough moment gets intercepted. Strength doesn’t come from watching someone else lift.
American Psychological Association data shows that Gen Z has the weakest mental health of any living generation.
Not because they’re fragile ... because we never let them struggle.
We worry coffee stunts physical growth, but ignore how our “help” stunts mental growth.
Loved but not trusted. Supported but not strengthened. Smart and motivated ... but unpracticed in the friction and failure adulthood requires.
The atrophy of the very muscles that help companies reach the future faster has real consequences for our businesses.
Teams that avoid feedback. Leaders waiting for instructions.
Employees addicted to validation. Customers scared to decide.
Parents solved kids’ problems… and created a bigger one … a generation unpracticed in struggle, which is the one skill life guarantees you’ll need.
The fix is simple, but not easy:
Teach people to speak for themselves.
Expect them to.
Give them the space to actually do it.
And let them succeed, fail and learn on their own.
It’s not just the right thing to do. It’s actually good business.
Independent humans build resilient companies, and your future as a business owner depends on them.
Love,
INSIGHT
📊Understand Marketing — You need to know how you're selling what you're selling.
💥Break Through The Noise — Differentiating your company somehow is absolutely crucial.
💪Healthy Life, Healthy Business — Take time for yourself to avoid burnout.
CHEAT CODE: FOCUS, FOCUS AND FOCUS SOME MORE
Most entrepreneurs don’t fail because they run out of ideas. They fail because they won’t stop chasing new ones.
Founders love to juggle. New markets. New partners. New features. New shiny distractions that feel like momentum but behave like sugar.
Every extra idea is a tax on execution. If everything matters, nothing does.
Hyperfocus is the cheat code. Noise → progress. Chaos → clarity.
And the way in is simple: your financial model.
Not the pretty spreadsheet you update twice a year. The map that tells you exactly what must happen first.
Fund your priorities. Write them down. Circle them. Name them. If they're not written, they’re not real.
And let’s be honest about perfectionism. Too many founders are stuck polishing the apple instead of planting the orchard.
They tweak. They refine. They wait for the “final version” while scrappier teams ship, learn, and sprint past them focused on only what matters.
Perfection kills momentum. Focus feeds it.
Real focus is progress over polish. Shipping instead of stalling. Customer data over internal fantasy.
Hope doesn’t clear obstacles. Focusing on core priorities does.
Focus is not intensity. It’s intention.
It’s putting your time, money, and energy behind the work that actually moves the needle and makes you money.
The founders who win aren’t the ones with the craziest ideas.
They’re the ones who can ignore almost everything… and go all-in on what matters.
What’s the 1% you’re willing to bet the year on?
Want more of our cheat codes? Follow along on Instagram.
🆘 Access the 49 other cheat codes every entrepreneur needs to know from Shoveling $H!T: A Love Story.
🚜 Have you dived into building a business? Jump into the Founders Farm and share some stories.
FOUR FAVORITE FINDS
💭 A Bank of America survey found that fund managers think companies are overinvesting in AI. What does this mean for the artificial intelligence boom?
💾 A number of tech companies have recently announced progress in quantum computing.
🧑💻 How OpenAI's other CEO, Fidji Simo, plans to integrate ChatGPT further into our lives.
📡 These 20-something former drone racers built a company that has raised $121 million and now they're supplying the U.S. government.
AROUND THE FARM
🤩 We're honored that the Goody Business Book Awards rewarded our book Shoveling $h!t: A Love Story as a winner in the Entrepreneurism and Small Business categories!
🎙️ Listen to Mike's takeaways on the difference between being a founder and an investor on the We Live to Build podcast.
👏 Mike sat down with Swagger to discuss how he makes life meaningful.
🤔 We were interviewed by Forbes on how we use the V2MOM framework to make investment decisions.
💸 CNBC shared our story of how we dealt with our company going bankrupt.
💑 Secrets of Happily Ever After interviewed us on the ins and outs of our romance and partnership.
📚 Shoveling $h!t: A Love Story debuted on the New York Times & USA Today bestseller lists! We couldn't have done it without the support of this community—the purchases, the shares, showing up to events, writing reviews and more!
FINALLY, WANNA GET INVOLVED?
📖Get bulk copies for your team.
⏰Invite us to speak at your event.
🤯 Share your thoughts on social: #FoundersFarm
⏩ Forward this dispatch to 3 entrepreneurs who should be getting it!"
Connect with Kass & Mike
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info@kassandmike.com
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© Kass & Mike Lazerow 2026