Growth and resilience in entrepreneurship: Lenny Kessler learnt to respect his own rhythm with pauses

“We often focus too much on revenue growth, and not enough on resilience. Start by building your ecosystem. The more partners you have, the more people want you to survive and the more resilient you become. And that's really an idea that comes from biology.”

Having thrived in cosmopolitan cities, from Tokyo, Mumbai, Berlin to Paris – one wonders if our latest podcast guest and global citizen, Lenny Kessler, ever stops. Yet, his intentional pauses have been pivotal for the fund manager and investor turned impact entrepreneur. From navigating the financial crisis to exploring photography, and now co-founding CHAPOGET, a sustainable luxury luggage brand, Lenny's story is a testament to the power of deliberate breaks.

The Hardest Pause: Lenny recounts the forced pause during the 2002 financial crisis as one of his toughest challenges. Returning from Japan, he faced months of uncertainty, which eventually led him to embrace photography – a craft inspired by the days he spent with his father who was an amateur photographer in the dark room. While this unexpected detour reignited his passion, it also reinforced his priority to go back to finance as he was building a young family then.

However, something changed in him transitioning back to finance – he began to know himself better and found his rhythm. Albeit methodical, his mathematics was revealing: “When you manage a fund, your performance is published every day or every week. So, we get very quick feedback on our work. And I started doing a lot of statistics on my decisions and realized that decisions taken in the morning are usually better than decisions I took in the afternoons. So, I started adapting my time and realising that sometimes taking a couple hours off really helped me solve a problem.”

While Lenny's world view broadened, so has his environmental impact with his constant travel. This realization sparked a shift towards sustainability.

Entrepreneurship as a Catalyst for Change: Lenny believes that true change comes from entrepreneurs willing to challenge the status quo. While large corporations struggle with legacy systems, startups have the agility to innovate. His current venture applying circular economy principles to the luggage industry aims to prove that sustainable practices are not only feasible but necessary. However, it was tough. 

“I was a bit naive to be honest. Moving into impact and sustainability was way harder. Like many people who work in this field, we have gone through serious depressions. You start thinking, I'll do something. And then you realize that it's just too big and you have the whole world against you. So, then there's this depression phase and then, either you abandon and go back to normal work because you make less money to work a little harder for something that basically you never see the results. Or you decide, it doesn't matter. I'll just focus on the process and grind it, day by day, be happy with whatever I find and not focus too much on the result of your work because that's really hard.”

Beyond business, Lenny is interested in communities as they are a source of happiness and resilience as the world faces loneliness in striking statistics. For example, half of Americans are suffering from loneliness. His future projects aim to bridge these gaps, creating spaces where people can thrive together. 

“I'm very optimistic about human creativity. So, I'm not really worried for the economy. I'm worried for the people. Today, people need a sense of community, your family, your friends. This is what we lack a lot.”

Lenny's journey underscores the importance of pauses – he believes with pauses, he can do his best work and be his best self. To him, the real work is about thinking and finding solutions to problems – not meetings or doing a report. With that, his approach is to block days off his calendar. 

His advice for all who want to do their best - “As soon as you are a bit lost, you don't know what to do, how to choose, take a pause. Many of us grew up in a culture where we think pause is wasting time.”

His ways to restore, refresh and recharge during his pauses:

Restore… Heal and regulate body and mind again

• Sleep: I need a lot of sleep and simply cannot function properly without sleep. So this is my go to "solution" to restore.

Refresh: Gain new perspectives

• Read, read, read: I read a lot, and I read about many different topics, from scientific vulgarisation, to historic biographies, novels or spirituality books. Reading helps me reflect and regain clarity when needed. Highly recommend "Thinking in systems" by Donella Meadows.

Recharge! Bring new energy

• Meditation: Beyond reading, that can also be a meditation, I love to explore various meditative practices, from tango to walking in nature to zen. 

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