In this rapid‑fire interview, author and entrepreneur Donald Miller shares candid reflections on business and personal life. He prefers dealing with a nightmare vendor over a nightmare client, emphasizing the need to love clients. He rejects the idea of a "do‑over" in business, saying every mistake has been a valuable teacher. Miller is most excited by the chance to tackle large‑scale problems that affect millions, noting a humbling shift from being the smartest in the room to collaborating with equally brilliant peers. He reveals whimsical daydreams about being a top NBA player or a Seattle Seahawks star. The core lesson he imparts is that failure, especially embarrassing failure, is the greatest teacher when approached with a growth mindset, as defined by Carol Dweck. He expresses pride in his family life, highlighting his routine of being home by 4 p.m., disconnecting from his phone, and engaging deeply with his daughter. To combat burnout, Miller schedules strict non‑working time, never works weekends, and respects his team's personal time. He boosts morale by clarifying vision through a daily ritual of reading his own eulogy‑style vision statement. When asked about legacy, he admits he cares more about specific memories his daughter holds than any broader legacy. Finally, he affirms the philosophy that "nice guys don't win; nice guys make other people win," summarizing his personal ethos.
Chapters
Okay, Rapid fires. Would you rather have a nightmare vendor or a nightmare client?
Nightmare vendor.
Okay.
Yeah. Clients, I think you have to love them. Nightmare client. It's hard to, gonna, gonna be hard to produce your best results for that.
You get one do over in business. What's the do over?
That is a great question. However, I just think every mistake I've ever made has been so informative that I wouldn't want to do it over. Does that make sense? Yeah, it totally makes sense. So no do overs there.
What gets you most excited today?
What gets me most excited today is the opportunity to play a significant role in critical problems. You know, you get older and people start inviting you into conversations that affect millions and millions and millions of people. To me it's like, you know, you've been playing with a shovel for so long and now you get to play with an excavator. And I hope I don't sound arrogant. I remember for years and years, decades, always being the smartest guy in the room. I haven't been the smartest guy in the room in the last 10 years. And that is incredibly humbling. But it's also just a great opportunity to say you need to level up here if you're going to run with these guys.
So you've said that 40% of the time people are daydreaming. So what's your daydreams?
That's really funny. That's a very vulnerable question to ask. I mean, what I mean by that is the answer is very embarrassing. But if I'm daydreaming about something, it's still at 53 years old, a 10 year old as the best player in the NBA or scoring touchdowns for the Seattle Seahawks, whatever. I mean, I still that guy. I'm like laying in bed going, oh, wouldn't it be great if I was Marshawn Lynch? And I was totally right. I don't think that ever ends in life.
And this is a big open ended question, but what's the biggest lesson you've learned?
The biggest lesson I learned is if you can take any failure, no matter how embarrassing it is, and figure out one lesson that you can learn from that failure, it literally redefines the failure in your mind. In fact, the bigger and the more embarrassing it is, the more of a sponge that you can become. As long as you have what Carol Dweck calls a growth mindset instead of a fixed mindset. Fixed mindset says, I'm not good at math. A growth mindset says I haven't applied myself at math, but I could probably be very good at it if I did. That's the big lesson that you want to teach everybody is failure is your biggest teacher.
It's your biggest ally.
Forgive yourself and move on.
And what are you most proud of?
I'm most proud of the fact that I'm home almost every day by 4 o'. Clock. My phone sits on the credenza in the foyer and I don't pick it up again till 9:30. And my daughter knows who I am and gets eye contact and conversations for hours every day. That's the most important thing to me.
How do you handle burnout?
Take a break. I don't work on the weekends. I never work on the weekends. I don't work. I really don't work. After 4 or 5 o', clock, actively deciding and scheduling your rest is what a pro figures out how to do because they want to go long the long haul. And if you don't have some fun scheduled in, then you are going to burn out. Like, I don't call any of my team members after five. I don't, I don't think I've ever called anybody on a weekend to talk business. I mean, they're with their families and that, like, why would I do that? You know, that's disrupting their rest. Because Monday morning we're going to hit it really hard.
Morale booster. What do you do to get yours back up and your team's back up?
I don't struggle a whole lot with low morale. I hope my team doesn't either. But I think the biggest booster of morale for yourself and for your team is clarifying your vision. So I've written my eulogy as a vision statement, which is different than writing it like a eulogy. You're saying, here's what Donald Miller did over his lifetime. I read it this morning and I'm north of 500 in terms of how many times I've opened my eulogy, read it and clicked. I read it and it's part of a morning ritual that I do every morning.
Interesting. They say two generations from now, you and I were forgotten. We're all wiped off the face of the planet. How's that make you feel?
Fine.
Me too.
Yeah, I can't think of any good reason to remember me. I think I want my daughter to remember me really well, like specific memories. And so we, we try to take every at bat you can to create a memory. They're not all going to be there in her mind, but, you know, to me that's more important than leaving a legacy.
There's a quote. Nice guys don't win. And I affirm that. Nice guys don't win. Nice guys make other people win. And that's the definition of who you are.
