Author Archives: David

Passion is Purpose

In 2014, I have asked many people to commit to being hunters. I realize the word is scary and some people have to mentally get over the hurdle of the traditional meaning and get to the idea that by hunting, I mean living; what you are doing every day to get to the place you most want to be.

When I look back on 2014, I am immediately overwhelmed by three images:

  • Holding my book, The Hunt, which became a New York Times best seller, in my hands for the first time, fresh off the presses
  • Establishing the new HealthRise headquarters, doubling our staff and making great strides in the world of healthcare and revenue cycle
  • Sharing my joy with my wife, Nadine, as we watch our boys, Hunter, River & Fisher growing bigger and stronger, becoming incredible people of their own.

And if those were the only things I could remember, I would consider myself a lucky, lucky man. But there are so many more amazing memories from just one year and yet, I know I have so much more to do. To live. To hunt.

So as we all say good-bye to 2014 and welcome a bright and shining 2015, I’ll ask you to consider the following questions and set some targets for the New Year:

  • What aren’t you doing?
  • What does living well mean to you?
  • How do you measure success?
  • Who do you want to be in 2015?

A few weeks ago, Nadine sat me down to watch a video that completely inspired me. When you watch The Journey of Purpose, you will see why.  Discovering your passion and following it is one thing.  Deciding to make your passion your purpose is something else entirely. And that is my number one target for 2015: Make passion my purpose and follow my heart.

Wishing you a new year full of passion, purpose and, as always, successful hunting in everything you do,

DFarbz

Happy Holidays on The Hunt

I love my kids. I love my work. And I truly enjoy spending time with my family and friends over the extended break between Chanukah and the start of the New Year. This year, I’m going all in: full submersion into family.   So I’ve come up with a plan, based on the pillars of The Hunt, to make this the best holiday break EVER.

Get Above & Clear: Set your target now: to enjoy and embrace this experience. That will be the mantra when times get tough, when the kids are up at 5am, when you just want to be alone, when someone suggests an outing and you just want to stay home.   Say “yes,” jump in. It’s about the experience.

Be Your Most Authentic Self: This will be tough. But remember that the people you are with love you as you are. So just be YOU. And repeat the mantra. Enjoy and embrace!

Leverage: You can’t buy the kind of leverage you will get on this one. The memories you will make, the bonds you will build will all add up to something entirely different that you cannot even imagine.   This is something that will come back tenfold because selflessness always pays off.

Real-Time Execution: Be in the moment. When you are awake and aware on this adventure, execution will follow seamlessly. Say “yes” to cake for breakfast, add marshmallows to that hot chocolate, if someone says “let’s have a drink,” start pouring! Execution is action; be a person of action.

Flow: When you are in it, go with it. As each day goes by and you are continually present and invested in the activities and relationships around you, things will start happening…connections will be made; events will occur that you could only ever hope to happen naturally. You and the people around you will begin an effortless dance, orchestrated by flow. And it will be awesome.

Happy Holidays, hunters! And know that every good word, every thought, every memory you share with another makes your hunt more successful and your life richer. Just like all of you make mine. So thank you for a great 2014 and I cannot wait to see what incredible moments we will share in 2015.

Much Love to my peeps! XO – DFarbz

Live the Stories You Want to Tell

There are only so many hours in every day and only so many days that add up to a lifetime. And while we will all set alarms for 5am to catch an early flight, how often do we set an alarm so we don’t miss an opportunity? How often do we choose sleep over being truly awake?

Sometimes it’s a sunrise. Sometimes it’s an early morning conversation with the one you love. And sometimes it’s a 17-story building being imploded right before your very eyes. Last Sunday, a building across from the HealthRise headquarters was scheduled to be imploded to make way for an expanded Oakland Community College campus.   This was an opportunity I had no intention of missing.

I sent out a message to my team and we hosted the first and likely, only, HealthRise Implosion Party. The catch: the building was going down at 8:30am, but the streets were closing at 7am. On a Sunday. In December. When everyone is out celebrating the holidays and 7am seems like a cruel punishment.

At the very least, I knew I would be there with my boys.   My team got invested, supplying bagels and coffee, finding beverages for the kids, playing music, creating a party at 7:30am so we could all experience something that it is unlikely we will have a front row seat for again in our lives.   Our office is full of life and spirit, but never this early! All told we probably had 40 people in the office, each and every one a hunter of experience, tracking down the moments that make our lives bigger, better and sometimes, just more FUN.

As a hunter, as a father, as an entrepreneur, as a man, I know that what I will leave behind is the stories, the experiences, the memories I make in the time that I have. So go out, hunters, and make some memories, collect some experiences, live the stories you want to tell. Life is the greatest hunt of all and we are in this one together.

And because it was awesome and I want to share it with you, here’s the video of the building implosion

Five Questions with David Farbman & Andrea Rosenfeld

Andrea Rosenfeld: www.andrea-resenfeld.com

I love sharing the hunt everywhere I go, with everyone I meet. I thought I would ask the hunters I admire to share what success means to them so we can all learn from the amazing people I am fortunate to know. In this space, you will hear from politicians, outdoors enthusiasts, and entrepreneurs – each of whom is hunting down what means the most to them.

This week, I’d like to introduce you to Andrea Rosenfeld. Andrea & I met at a NextGen event where we talked about her career in fashion with Isaac Mizrahi in New York and how she came back to Detroit to nourish, educate and nurture the art community in her hometown. Andrea is the bright light behind the Detroit Art & Business Institute and Mind Your Art Business and a hunter through-and-through. She just didn’t know it until she met me.

What does success mean to you? I have successes every single day but in terms of my larger business goals, my success takes on quite a few forms.  I’ll achieve my dream when I’m able to:

  • Steadily educate creative entrepreneurs in best business practices and relationship strategies, using a mindful approach, through private consulting, seminars at arts and culture non-profits and through my own DABI group courses in Detroit, Oakland County and beyond;
  • Increase the value of artists and entrepreneurs and change the dialog surrounding creativity into a healthy, value-based one, beginning with the artists themselves;
  • Moving creatives out of the “starving artist mindset” and treat them as vital parts of the community by revealing do-able pathways to a sustainable career, allowing for greater self- esteem and dignity;
  • Build a highly profitable education and advocacy business to be able to heavily invest in the local economy and businesses.

How do you set goals? Well, like most entrepreneurs I have my business strategies set up into phases. I’m currently in phase one and within that phase I’m breaking off bite-size pieces to chew on, daily.  As a one-person, small business searching for funding and partners, I work hard not to become overwhelmed with “the little things.”  Rather I prioritize goals based upon importance and due date. I delegate what I can to my part-time employee and because creatives can be distracted by multitudes of shiny opportunities, I am VERY realistic and strategic when asked to become involved in a project that would move my time and energy away from my business goals.

In addition, as a spiritual person, I know that everything happens when it’s supposed to happen.  I work my ass off, strategically, creating my vision and don’t let set-backs worry me too much.  Business building, like life building, ebbs and flows. I accept that and keep moving forward slowly.

What was your breakout moment? Ha!  What’s that?  I’m really a slow-and-steady-wins-the-race/be-grateful-for-all-opportunities kind of a gal.  However, I’ll say that my breakout moments were when I committed to both my move home to Detroit from the east coast (summer 2013) and to my mission of education and advocacy through Detroit Art & Business Institute and Mind Your Art Business programming (April 2014).

Who was your greatest influence? The energy of others rebuilding Metro Detroit. I feed off of their creativity and can-do attitude, primarily the on-the-ground artists & entrepreneurs who work with next to zero dollars, building grand events, retail spaces and fundraisers with sweat, with credible support from their community and a passion for their mission that you can actually FEEL when they speak about it.

How do you influence others? Influencing others is best achieved through “doing” and “being.”  I teach artists and entrepreneurs to value themselves so I continue to value myself!  I speak confidently and with passion, charge a fee for my services, connect people to opportunities, ideas and other experts, never assume (be transparent and create business contracts), offer many educational programs to support growing creative businesses, don’t take anything personally, and I’m having mega fun while doing it!

Farewell Music King

As a hunter, I am intimately familiar with death and the cycle of life.  I am usually able to find some peace and understanding when someone I know passes, realizing that a season isn’t a season if it never ends; a living thing isn’t living if it doesn’t die.  But a recent loss caught me off guard and took me for a spin.

A good pal of mine, Jeremy Haberman, passed last week of lung cancer.  He was 42 years old and a non-smoker.  Jeremy was a beautiful person with a pure love for music and his friends and his family.  He could have been a big time LA or NYC club agent, but Jeremy loved Detroit. He loved a Coney Island; he loved the Tigers and the Lions.

As the owner of the Magic Bag, Jeremy became known as the upcoming music aficionado in the D and everyone played the Bag!  Jeremy made it cool to play a small club in Ferndale. He had a timeless cool, loaded with focus, grit, and a certain prestige and pride that Haberman possessed.

His funeral was a tear-filled celebration of love and a life ended too soon.  The eulogy, delivered by his brother Dan, was one of the most moving speeches I’ve been fortunate to witness; his words described a relationship beyond brothers, they were best friends and shared an enviable connection.  Dan gave the crowd a glimpse behind the curtain, made us laugh and cry and shared his brother selflessly in those moments.

I grew up observing the Haberman family with a mixture of confusion and joy.   I have yet to meet another family so tightly knit, so closely bound, always there for one another, completely full of love and yet not suffocating.  His parents, Sam and Toby Haberman, set an example I can only hope to emulate. 

All of this serves as a reminder that life is precious and every moment is an opportunity to live it to the fullest.  We don’t have any control over when our lives will end, but we can spend every moment living a life of joy and service, of love and family; hunting down the experiences that give our lives meaning and value.  I vowed then and there to take my kids hunting more, say the things I don’t say to my wife, to my friends that matter, to my family, and be there for those who need me.

What can you take away from Jeremy Haberman?  How can you use this wonderful, all-too-short life and lesson to help you become the hunter you are meant to be?  I plan to start by cranking some old music, breaking out a glass of wine and toasting to my man. Then I will start calling the people I love. I have a lot of work to do, how about you?

Five Questions with David Farbman & Suzy Farbman

I love sharing the hunt everywhere I go, with everyone I meet. I thought I would ask the hunters I admire to share what success means to them so we can all learn from the amazing people I am fortunate to know.  In this space, you will hear from politicians, outdoors enthusiasts, and entrepreneurs – each of whom is hunting down what means the most to them.

Meet Suzy Farbman.  She is my mother, an inspiration and one of the foremost hunters in my life.  From birth, she taught me to respect nature, to love life and to be myself.  None of these were easily taught or learned, but I like to think we are both better for it.  I always remember her actively writing and observing the world around her, it was one of the reassurances I leaned on when I decided to author a book myself.  Suzy is strong in ways I will never be and I love her all the more for it.

1. What does success mean to you?  Success to me is being the best I can as often as I can.  And balancing family, career, friend and personal time:

As a parent: Knowing my children are leading productive, constructive and loving lives.

As a wife: Scheduling together time, communicating, compromising, acknowledging, listening, loving, and letting go. 

As a friend.  Checking in.  Not taking things personally. 

Emotionally: Being grateful for so many blessings.  Experiencing joy every day.  (And when I’m feeling anxious or less than joyful, trusting that the feeling will pass.)

As a creative person.  Expressing myself—whether writing a book or blog post, setting a table, designing a room or just cooking a pot of soup.

2. How do you set goals?  I try to do something productive every day.  Also, to limit my objectives, based on time and energy constraints.  At this point, I am trying to improve at golf and bridge.  When our children/grandchildren are around, I focus on them

3. What was your breakout moment?  I can’t name just one, each breakthrough in my career: my first job as an ad copywriter in Chicago; next as a journalist with Fairchild Publications; then with the Detroit News; Detroit Monthly, Better Homes & Gardens.  Then publishing 2 books.  Then starting a blog.  I think breakout moments keep happening. Cancer was also a breakout moment.  It helped teach me how loved I am.  And how, with the grace of God, good medical attention and a loving family and friends, to carry on. 

4. Who was your greatest influence?  My mother, Barbara Handel, for her creativity and wit.  (I was also deeply motivated by her regret in not pursuing a career earlier in her life.)   My grandmother, Deborah Wilkus, for her grace and elegance.

5. How do you influence others? I am convinced the best way to influence others is to look for the positive in them.  To sense their best traits, acknowledge them and show confidence in them and their abilities.