In this episode of Founders Journal, Alex Lieberman, co‑founder of Morning Brew, reflects on his two‑week honeymoon in Rwanda and Kenya and extracts four concrete lessons for entrepreneurs. He describes a forced digital detox that cut his screen time from nine to three hours, attributing the habit change to the lack of connectivity and the immersive activities of the trip. He recounts meeting Methuselah, a hotel employee whose dedication and passion for hospitality reshaped Alex’s view on work ethic and the value of hard work. Drawing on a quote from Naval Ravikant, Alex parallels the lion’s hunting pattern—short, intense sprints followed by long rest—to the most efficient way to work, reinforcing the idea of “working like a lion, not a cow.” He highlights how the hotels they stayed at consistently surprised guests with small, unexpected gestures, illustrating the power of delighting customers. Finally, Alex explains how his two‑week absence forced his startup, StoryArc, to operate without him, revealing operational gaps, accelerating his co‑founder’s and first employee’s growth, and proving that a leader’s temporary removal can strengthen a company. Throughout, Alex weaves personal anecdotes, cultural observations, and actionable takeaways aimed at helping builders improve focus, work habits, customer experience, and team resilience.
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What's up, everyone? Welcome back to another episode of Founders Journal. I'm Alex Lieberman, co-founder and chairman of Morning Brew. Founders Journal is my personal audio diary made public for builders and entrepreneurs. And on today's episode, I reflect on my honeymoon to Africa and the lessons I bring back with me that I believe will make me and you a better entrepreneur. But first, one quick ask of you. If you find Founders Journal valuable, please tell any entrepreneurs or builders in your life about it. It's a way win-win. You help us grow the show and you help your friends increase the odds of their success. Thank you in advance, and let's hop into it. It is good to be back. My wife and I spent the last 2 weeks in Africa traveling around Rwanda and Kenya for our honeymoon. It was an amazing trip, and we feel incredibly thankful that we had the opportunity to experience this part of the world. We spent time in Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda, where we visited their highly trafficked local market called Kimirongo. And more importantly, we walked through the Kigali Genocide Memorial, which educates its visitors on the unthinkable events that happened in 1994, where a million Rwandans were killed in just 90 days. We then drove through rural villages, many of which lacked electricity or running water, on our way to Volcanoes National Park, an area in which 20 families of mountain gorillas live in the Virunga Mountains, a range that divides Rwanda and Uganda. We met the families of Titus and Nsimbi, 2 silverback gorillas. And after Rwanda, we flew to Nairobi, the bustling capital of Kenya, before heading out for 6 days of safari in the Maasai Mara. I haven't traveled all that much internationally in my life, so maybe this is obvious for people that travel more, but beyond it being such a nice way to spend time with my wife on our honeymoon, I found this trip to be incredibly impactful. By the end, I was filled with new perspectives, a good feel for completely different cultures, and a few lessons learned from meaningful experiences that I had along the way. I want to share a few of those lessons with you, specifically those that I believe can support you in your professional careers as you build your companies. Let's start with the first. I am not addicted to my phone right now, and this is the first time I've been able to say that in literally a decade. It sounds dramatic, but it's true. My screen time average was 9 hours for the weeks leading up to my honeymoon, and now it is closer to 3 hours, a small portion of which is social media. You have to understand, I have been trying to break my screen addiction for years and have had zero success. So what was it about this trip that changed my behavior? I have 2 theories. The first theory is the most obvious. I was forced to form a new, non-addictive habit. Between daily excursions like gorilla trekking, hot air ballooning, safari, and visiting local villages, as well as not turning on cell data while we were in Africa, I had no choice but to not use my phone. The only time we would use our phones was when we had Wi-Fi back at our hotel. And to be honest, I didn't feel an urge to check things then. I believe this forced 13-day digital detox replaced an old habit with a better new habit, and it now makes me want to study the chemical effects of addiction on the brain because I I have a hunch that there is just significantly less dopamine dripping in my brain after 2 weeks of being on a social media hiatus. The second theory is less obvious, but I think it's just as valid. I believe that if you are the type of person who travels or experiences new things with an open mind, you will end up finding lessons along the way. And for me, I was struck by how hard people in Rwanda and Kenya worked and the pride that they took in their work. There was one man named Methuselah who had a lasting impact on me. Methuselah worked at one of our hotels in Kenya, and he was such a good, hardworking guy who truly provided the best service I have ever seen from an employee. One example is he surprised us with a traditional Kenyan wedding ceremony and wedding cake at the end of our dinner the very last night that we were staying at his hotel. And to work at this hotel, he spent 6 weeks away from his family. At any given time, it made Methuselah sad to be away from his daughter and wife, but he did it because he wanted to do whatever humanly possible to give them a good life. He shared how working at the hotel didn't feel like work because he's wildly passionate about hospitality, and he has his own dream of opening his own restaurant in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. I am not exaggerating when I say that Methuselah had a larger impact on me than 99% of entrepreneurs or quote unquote successful people that I have met during my. Career. And now every time I am thinking about procrastinating, whether it's looking at social media or checking Slack, I have the same gut reaction. I say to myself, Methuselah would kill to be in my position. I owe it to him and to myself to work hard and not squander my time on things that do not add value to the world. So that's my first big takeaway from the trip. Before I get into the second, A quick word from our partners. The second takeaway is an obvious lesson, but with a pretty awesome reminder. There is a famous quote by Naval Ravikant, who is the co-founder of AngelList, that says, work like a lion, not a cow. Naval says the way that people tend to work most effectively, especially in knowledge work, is to sprint as hard as they can while they feel inspired to work. And then rest. They take long breaks. It's more like a lion hunting and less like a marathoner running. You sprint and then you rest. You reassess and then you try again. You end up building a marathon of sprints. And then he says, people who say they work 80-hour weeks or even 120-hour weeks often are just status signaling. It's showing off. Nobody really works 80 to 120 hours a week at high output with mental clarity. Your brain breaks down. You won't have good ideas. Now, Naval's advice to work efficiently and smart is somewhat tired at this point. We've all heard it. But I think like all lessons, they resonate most when they're experienced. And I experienced Naval's advice firsthand in Africa during our time on safari in the Maasai Mara Game Reserve in Kenya. We probably saw 5 to 6 different lion families, and almost all of them were wildly unexciting. We'd roll up to one lion family and they'd be sleeping. We'd roll up to another lion family, they'd walk for a minute, and then they'd lay down and fall asleep. Only once did we see a lion family awake, and basically the entire time they were feeding on a wildebeest that they had killed earlier. Our game driver, Ellie, told us that lions are all about efficiency. They sleep or rest for 21 hours per day and hunt or eat for 3 hours per day. Also, unlike leopards or other predators, lions do not go for an animal's head when they try to kill it. They go for the legs because it takes less effort to injure. And then once the animal can't run, they just relax nearby and wait for the animal to die of exhaustion. I'll spare you the exact details, but we did witness this during one of our game drives, and it was probably one of the most gruesome things I've ever seen. Seeing lions 5 feet away work in the way that I've always been told they work was a far more powerful reminder of the importance of working effectively and efficiently versus marathoning. The 3rd lesson from the trip is around surprising and delighting your customer. We as humans love unexpected things, no matter how irrational the context. We were very lucky to stay in nice accommodations when we were in Rwanda and Kenya, and we were blown away by our experiences at these hotels, less because of the quality of the accommodations and more because of the level of service that was provided by all of the hotel teams. And if I had to describe why the service was so good, I would say it's because there were more surprises and unexpected actions taken than any hotel I have ever been to. We as humans love surprises, and I think that's a fundamental truth that we can apply to our customers in any business context. Every night, literally every night, there was a gift left on our bed, which was a handcrafted good by a local artisan in Kenya or Rwanda. One night it was a stuffed animal gorilla. Another night it was a carved walking stick. Another night it was coffee from a nearby farm because they knew it was our honeymoon. One hotel held a traditional Kenyan wedding ceremony during our last night at dinner, as I mentioned, and another hotel fixed a bubble bath with rose petals in the bath and rose petals in the shape of a heart on the bathroom floor. One day, our driver Herbert stopped at a local flea market and bought my wife and I a pineapple and bananas that were grown at a local farm. just so we could experience more of the culture. Small, unexpected gestures go a very long way, and the hotels that we were lucky enough to stay at were masters at surprising us each and every day of our stay. Now, the 4th and final lesson is about the benefit to your company when you are gone. Traveling is one of the best ways to reveal holes in your company and force your teammates to step up and grow quickly. I was definitely nervous to be off the grid for 2 weeks, especially with StoryArc, my executive ghostwriting agency, being so early in its journey. I feared that quality would slip with our clients. I feared that my co-founder and our first employee would be overwhelmed with work and issues. But one of the coolest things about going on the trip was coming back and seeing things at StoryArc continue to run smoothly and develop significantly, even in my absence. It gave my partner an opportunity to dive into our client work more deeply, which will enable her to be a smarter, better CEO of this business. It forced our first employee to ramp up their onboarding faster than normal because they had no choice but to build relationships with our clients and service them well. All of this to say that, one, being away from a business is a humble reminder that we are all replaceable, no matter our position in a business. 2, absence is a great force function for coworkers to grow faster and identify holes in the business. And 3, I have returned from the trip with a sense of confidence that at some point in the not too distant future, the company will need me less and less, and the team in place has the ability to crush it for our clients. So those are just a few of the many lessons I've brought home with me from my amazing trip in Kenya and Rwanda. I am so grateful that my wife and I had the privilege to go on this trip, and I hope that some of these takeaways will be valuable to you as you build your businesses. As always, thank you so much for listening to Founders Journal. And if you have a friend, a coworker, or a family member that you think would get value from the show, Please, please, please let them know about it. And as always, feel free to shoot me an email to alex@morningbrew.com to let me know what you think of the show or if you have any ideas for future episode topics. Thanks so much, and I'll catch you all next episode.
