We recently connected with Joseph Smolack and have shared our conversation below.

Joseph, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

I think takes the ability to learn from your mistakes while being open to new information and feedback.

Success comes at a cost, every genuine success story is filled with previous failures. It is how we respond to these failures that determines the outcome of any objective.

I have learned that success requires a level of maturity, patience and humility. In previous times, my failure for any given ambition would decrease my motivation and create feelings of doubt and frustration. I would view the whole endeavour as a waste of time and energy and move onto an entirely different project. I ended up spreading myself too thin and I could not achieve long term success in any field I entered. As time went on I discovered my problem. The issue was not my ideas, it was my perspective. I realized I was trying to go from 0-100 overnight and skip over the necessary obstacles that are needed to create the foundation of long term success. I was avoiding the lessons I had to learn in order to move forward.

Upon noticing the lack of productivity this process has created. I decided it was time to take educated risks, run into obstacles and learn from them. After I made this shift in mindset, I did fail often. However, every time I failed I would revisit the project, analyze my steps and see where I went wrong. I would internalize the lessons from my failures and try again with a new and more informed approach.

This shift in process has allowed me to grow both in business and as a person. Whether it be achieving a high grade in university or brainstorming a new approach to increase my sales of streetwear and footwear, failing and learning guides me in the direction of accomplishment. The mental system I built has provided me with endless opportunity. I have met many special, genuine and inspirational individuals who I can proudly call my friends. Their knowledge and feedback has helped me tremendously throughout various situations. And I also have frequent breakthroughs and have passed many milestones thanks to my new system of thought.

Adapting my feelings and response towards failure was the best decision I ever made. And I am excited to see where my new system and work ethic take me.

What does it take to be successful? It takes the humility to admit you are not above failure, the maturity to receive feedback openly and analyze it authentically and the patience to learn from and build off of your failures, knowing success is waiting you in the long term.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?

My name is Joseph Smolack,

I was born in New York, a city with a thriving and diverse fashion scene. I moved to Canada at a young age. However, I have close family in New York, so I visit the city often. I have always cared about the way I dress. As early as I can remember, I wanted to look my best and present myself in a way that expressed my character. I believe the fashion community in New York influenced me to think this way.

My great grandparents owned a clothing business in Germany, they built the company after surviving the Holocaust. They are both inspirations to me. When all was lost, they decided to rebuild, and create a bright future for themselves and their future generations.

I believe my city of origin, my family history of fashion enthusiasm, and the meaning and intentions behind my great grand parents clothing business is what motivated my interest and connection to fashion.

I started flipping limited sneakers in the 9th grade. I would sell 1-2 sneakers a month, which substituted for a part time job. I did this for about a year, until I moved to Toronto at age 16. Shortly after moving there, I visited a sneaker store named Kenshi Toronto. This was a pivotal moment of my career. As I visited Kenshi, I aquatinted myself with the store’s team, and I was a customer of the store for several months. I eventually applied for a job at the store, although the store owners told me I was too young. The following Black Friday, I went to check out the store. I saw the store was very busy, I noticed there were only two employees in the shop, Kenshi was understaffed that day. Without being asked I took initiative, I began selling products to customers on the sales floor. I sold tens of thousands worth of inventory within my half day at Kenshi. I was immediately hired at the end of the workday. I continued to work with the store, and I met lots of influential and well connected people throughout my time there.

This was a primary event that initiated my career in the fashion industry.

I currently sell limited and exclusive streetwear and footwear to a larger audience; including bulk and personal orders. Over the past several years, I have been building a network and community on social media. Today, my Instagram page has nearly 40,000 followers.

I sell to my community, private clientele, businesses and I occasionally sell inventory via pop up events. My most recent pop up event was in winter of 2021. I sold limited streetwear and sneakers at the Outlet Collection Winnipeg, in a section hosted by a Canadian streetwear brand named Orbit Collective.

I am most proud of the community and network I built. My community and network are the foundation of everything I pursue and accomplish. I am grateful to have connected with many genuine, wise, optimistic and inspirational people. And the lessons I learn from those around me are eye opening and life changing.

I have been able to use these lessons to establish strong meaningful relationships with my customers and clients. A wise piece of advice I was given has helped me strengthen my relationships with those work with and I sell to. “Take money out of the equation and do the right thing”. An essential concept that people often lose sight of.

I plan to continue building my community and expand my network. In the coming months I intend to diversify my projects and revenues. I am planning on launching my own clothing line and website. Further information and updates are always available on my Instagram page, @jjsmolack.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I used to put too much emphasis on the opinions of others. I would live with the fear that those around me are judging me or thinking about me in a negative context. This was primarily due to my social media use.

My social media use was far more frequent during this time. So I would see everyone I know living “perfect” lives online and compare myself to these people on various platforms. What I later came to realize is that these are not authentic people, these are merely online personas. Often sad and broken people putting on a smile for the camera.

Then the day came, I decided to significantly reduce my time on social media across all platforms. I deleted TikTok entirely and limited my overall social media use to a maximum of 3o minutes a day. (I still do this today.) When I post content on Instagram, I simply post and exit the app, no mindless scrolling and no comparing my life to those I follow online. I rarely view other people’s content on social media, unless there is a specific and justified reason as to why.

This change of habit and routine altered my life for the better. I started prioritizing internal fulfillment over external validation. And I adopted many productive habits that I currently practice, such as daily reading, meditation, writing/journaling and daily exercise. The lack of distraction from social media along with its behavioural cues of external comparison and obsession over reputation changed the way I view myself, my life, those around me and my ambitions.

The lesson I unlearned was prioritizing external validation over internal fulfilment. This is not an easy task in todays increasingly virtual world. But once I made the decision to alter my perspective and pursue internal fulfilment, the direction of my life changed for the better.

I now have a productive and mentally strengthening daily routine and am far more productive than I was throughout my social media days. In regard to my work, networking, routine and personal organization.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

As previously mentioned, my reduced time on social media has opened time for productive daily habits, one them being reading.

I prefer to read hardcover books as oppose to virtual literature, in order to reduce my overall screen time.

The first book I read after taking up my habit of reading was “12 Rules For Life” by Jordan Peterson. This book enhanced my perspective of the world around me. The chapters introduced new concepts and strategies to help me maintain my productivity and practice humility and gratitude. This book also taught me about what to watch out for and how to avoid many of the mental traps people frequently fall into. This was a philosophically layered and complex book, every section taught me a valuable lesson that I can apply to the directed situation.

I then read some books published by the Harvard Business Review. These books touched on the subjects of influence, persuasion and confidence. Then I read the book “No Rules Rules” by Reed Hastings and Erin Myer. This book took me through an in depth journey of the innovative Netflix cooperate structure and taught me the difference between a system of freedom and responsibility versus a system of rules and process. And when each system should be applied to a given process or situation.

I still read every day. Business and psychology are my favourite genres of literature. The previously mentioned books gave me a foundation of knowledge that I can build off of to better understand the concepts and lessons of my current and future readings. The new knowledge builds off of the old knowledge.

I would highly recommend reading the books mentioned above.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jjsmolack/

Image Credits
Pat, Conrad, Kashfi, Edward, Mario, George, TJ