Meaningful Work, the Sushi Chef, and the 80% You Don't Like

Duri did banking. Then management consulting. Then e-commerce. Then mom-and-baby DTC. Then a longevity supplement company in Switzerland. From the outside it looks like a planned ascent. From the inside, none of it was planned. Each step gave him a toolkit. When the next opportunity came up, he had enough of the toolkit to say yes. The same friends he came up with in investment banking are richer than he is now. They tell him they'd love to do what he does. He's spent enough time in the comfortable seat to know what he actually wants — and it's not comfortable. He calls himself a bit of a masochist. He likes the trench work. He likes the cracking-issues work. When he reached the top of bigger orgs and his job became 90% administration, he wanted to go back to the start of something. The advice he gives the juniors on his team is the part most people skip. You're going to be at work 8 or 9 hours either way. Find a way to be interested in the thing in front of you. The Japanese sushi chef cuts fish for ten years and still gets better because he's looking at it the right way. Accountants can do the same with reconciliations. The reframe is the only thing that makes the time bearable. Then he hands over the honest version. 80% of his CEO time is stuff he doesn't particularly like doing. The exciting part is the smaller share. The trick is doing the unsexy part so the cool part can happen.