don kurzEntrepreneur | Championship Athlete | Dance Instructor

Two years ago, a major publishing company approached me about writing a career chronicle. They had researched my background and found my journey—from NCAA championships to taking companies public—compelling enough for a sizable audience.

Honestly, I was flattered. I spent two months working with them to develop a 30-page Book Plan, but when I finished, I felt underwhelmed. It had the requisite "do’s and don’ts," but it lacked soul. I realized I wasn't interested in a book purely for vanity or as a marketing brochure for my company, Omelet LLC.

That episode got my mind spinning. I knew my journey was unconventional, but the standard business formula didn't capture the "bruises and scars" that actually shaped me. Success isn't a straight line; it’s a catalog of lessons learned from breaking a few eggs.

I started a running Google Doc, capturing every unique, funny, or devastating memory without judgment. In two months, I had ten pages of bullet points—the "raw data" of my life. When I read them back, I saw a thread that I don’t believe anyone else has woven: the grit of elite athletics, the rhythm and swagger of the 1970s disco scene as an Arthur Murray instructor and Studio 54 regular, and the high-stakes adrenaline of entrepreneurship.

This path wasn't planned. It was dictated by circumstances—and often by failure. I realized that navigating these three disparate worlds taught me more about "decoding life's algorithm" than any boardroom meeting ever could.

Simultaneously, I began to think about legacy. As I have no children, I felt a new, profound obligation to pass on what I’ve learned. On the Johns Hopkins lacrosse team, we always talked about leaving the program in a better place than we found it. I believe that as humans, we have that same obligation to one another. Teaching is most effective through storytelling, and I wanted to provide real-world applications for the "gut algorithm" that eventually led me to inner peace.

I wrote Do the Hustle to share these lessons—the wins, the losses, and the pivots. I sincerely hope it helps you navigate your own journey with a little more resilience and a lot more joy.