It was no surprise that I started an online shoe design company. I had been obsessed with sneakers as a kid. I would always mark up my own white shoes with original designs. I started making them by hand and selling them one by one. Then I found companies to mass produce my designs.

In order to meet the demand I had to hire a team of designers to create new shoes. But I was so reticent to hand over any kind of control. These were people whose work I loved and yet I could not bring myself to let them design the shoes. I basically took their designs and re-created them.

I could see the writing on the wall… I was spending no time at home whatsoever, everyone was getting frustrated with me and I was getting angry right back at them. Half the team quit, and my hours seemed like they doubled. Why had I created such a terrible situation for everyone? Finally I threw my hands up and gave the designers the opportunity to work on their own. Each one seemed to find their own niche audience, so while I thought they would bomb, these designs actually brought us into new markets.

If you want to build a company, empower people to act and think for themselves.