Originally shared in our April 2026 Top of Mind Newsletter.
Daniel Lubetzky didn’t set out to build a snack empire. He set out to build peace in the Middle East through commerce. What he discovered was that mission, no matter how meaningful, isn’t what moves people to act. Customers don’t buy your values. They buy what works for them.
That hard-won insight, and the willingness to pivot without abandoning what he cared about, is what eventually became KIND bars, sold to Mars in 2020 for $5 billion. Guy Raz’s conversation with Lubetzky is a vivid illustration of entrepreneurial thinking in practice: the ability to recognize when your current approach isn’t working, reframe the problem, and take action, not in spite of uncertainty, but because of it.
The mindset that built KIND wasn’t simply passion. It was adaptability, clarity under pressure, and the willingness to keep going when quitting seemed like the best option.