Most business books suck.

Like someone gave LinkedIn a laxative and a book deal.

They’re either preaching, rambling, or repackaging cliches like it’s the Dead Sea Scrolls.

That’s why talking to Mike and Kass Lazerow on my podcast felt like a deep breath of fresh air through a straw in a sewer tunnel.

Their book Shoveling Sh*t: A Love Story About the Entrepreneur’s Messy Path to Success is exactly what the title promises—raw, funny, painful, inspiring, and, above all, real.

They don’t dress it up.

They hand you the shovel and say, “You’re gonna need this.”

I’ve known Mike and Kass for almost 20 years.

I invested in their company Buddy Media before it sold to Salesforce for roughly $700 million.

But until this conversation, I never realized how close they were—multiple times—to losing it all.

Like, family-member-threatening-to-kill-you close. Like, ramen-for-dinner-while-your-cofounder-spouse-spirals-into-optimism-denial close.

That’s not hyperbole. That’s entrepreneurship.

Why You Should Never Give Up

What struck me most wasn’t the chaos—it was how they kept going. They built golf.com, lost everything in the dot-com crash (and then some), and still turned it into a $24 million exit.

Then, they did it all over again with Buddy Media, pivoting from a failed Facebook game to building the first major software platform for Fortune 500 companies on social media.

They didn’t do it with some grand plan or an MBA strategy spreadsheet. They did it by staying close to customers, learning fast, pivoting harder, and repeating until something clicked.

Cass said something in the podcast that stuck with me:

“Entrepreneurship is a whole life of its own.”

It's a marriage, a mental illness, a spiritual test, and sometimes, a lottery ticket.

And if you’re doing it with your actual spouse? Godspeed.

I asked them how they didn’t implode as a couple. The answer? Therapy, honesty, and shared suffering. They didn’t get to $700 million by being superhuman.

They got there by failing together—over and over—without giving up on each other.

That alone makes this book worth reading.

What Stuck With Me

But if you're thinking, “Okay, great, James, but what can I take from this?” here’s what I walked away with:

• Trends matter. Mike put it perfectly: “Trends are your friends.” They rode the wave of social media before anyone knew it was a wave. Liquid Death, which they invested in, rode the wellness trend while wearing a metal band t-shirt. And it worked.

• You don’t need venture capital to build something great. In fact, venture capital might be the worst path for 99% of businesses today. Their biggest wins? Simple businesses solving real problems—pizza, pets, par-three golf. That’s the gold.

• Forget perfect. Start. They made a great point: If you talk about your idea too much, your brain gives you the dopamine as if you’ve already done Just start. Get punched in the face. Learn. Repeat.

If you’re an entrepreneur, aspiring or seasoned, this book is a reminder of what it really takes.

Not just grit, but relationships. Not just ideas, but relentless reps. Not just big dreams, but an even bigger tolerance for pain.

Mike and Kass have been through hell. And they turned it into a playbook.

Read the book. Listen to the episode.

And if you’re thinking about starting a business—just know what you’re signing up for: Shoveling sh*t. But sometimes, underneath the pile, there’s a $700 million exit.

And sometimes—if you’re really lucky—you find someone willing to shovel with you.

Listen to the full conversation here.