Transcript
Introduction
Patrick
My guest today is Harley Finkelstein. Harley is the president of Shopify and has been with the company since its early years. He's a lawyer by training, but an entrepreneur by calling, and that is the focus of our discussion. We discussed the different dimensions of entrepreneurship and Shopify's role in promoting it, as well as exploring the company's transition to public markets, and what the last few years have been like. Please enjoy my discussion with Harley Finkelstein.
Finding Your Life's Work
Patrick
So Harley, maybe the place to begin is with a term that I and my team have spent a lot of time thinking about and trying to define, which is this notion of life's work amongst entrepreneurs. Obviously, you can be doing your life's work outside of a business, and there's lots of people that do with great outcomes, but our specific interest is what does it mean for an entrepreneur to be doing their life's work? Is it something that's there at the beginning? Is it something that's developed after the fact when they come to realize that they're enjoying their work? Trying to really define this concept, which I think can be an unbelievable fuel for a durable enduring business franchise is of great interest to me. Given that you've been doing what you've been doing at Shopify with Tobi for so long and I think are doing your life's work or would say you are, I'd love to hear your interpretation of this term, whether or not you think it's as powerful as I do, and if so, what the definition or dimensions of it are to you.