Spartan Leadership with Josh Kosnick
Sep 1, 2026 · 57 min · 13 segments
Send us Fan Mail Trey Roth spent ten years being called a failure before the world called him a success. He founded YayStack in September 2014. Raised money. Failed. Raised again. Failed again…
Josh KosnickHostWhat kind of pressure? It's funny because I just instantly think of Kobe Bryant saying, you know, pressure's in the mind.
You know, pressure is like, you know, if you perceive it to be pressure, it is, right? And of course, when I hear the word pressure, I also think pressure is a privilege.
Like, I also think of Elon, you know, saying that, you know, we're paid in proportion to the difficulty of the problem that we solve.
And so it's like, well, what is Josh designed for? What is trade? Like, what are we made for? What are we called to? And is it easier? Is it hard? And, you know, what's the size of the problem? And what's the ease or difficulty of solving that problem? And why Josh? Why him being the solution to that problem? Why Trey? Why him being the solution to that problem? Or any listener? Why you? Why you, listener? Why are you called to solve the problem that you're solving? Is it big? Is it small? What do you want? Why? Why do you want it to be big or small? My assumption here is that every listener is like, give me the big one.
Give that problem to me, that solution to me, that calling to me, that purpose to me, give it to me, I can handle it.
And so my encouragement is for you to maybe wipe off the lens of your filter of how you're looking at your privileged problems, your chosen challenges, and your pressure, the pressure that comes with it to say like, man, this is for me.
And you may have just answered this, but most founders would have quit or at least emotionally quit over those, you know, course of 10 years and failures.
What kept you or what did you tell yourself in those darkest moments to keep you from folding?
What kind of pressure? It's funny because I just instantly think of Kobe Bryant saying, you know, pressure's in the mind.
You know, pressure is like, you know, if you perceive it to be pressure, it is, right? And of course, when I hear the word pressure, I also think pressure is a privilege.
Like, I also think of Elon, you know, saying that, you know, we're paid in proportion to the difficulty of the problem that we solve.
And so it's like, well, what is Josh designed for? What is trade? Like, what are we made for? What are we called to? And is it easier? Is it hard? And, you know, what's the size of the problem? And what's the ease or difficulty of solving that problem? And why Josh? Why him being the solution to that problem? Why Trey? Why him being the solution to that problem? Or any listener? Why you? Why you, listener? Why are you called to solve the problem that you're solving? Is it big? Is it small? What do you want? Why? Why do you want it to be big or small? My assumption here is that every listener is like, give me the big one.
Give that problem to me, that solution to me, that calling to me, that purpose to me, give it to me, I can handle it.
And so my encouragement is for you to maybe wipe off the lens of your filter of how you're looking at your privileged problems, your chosen challenges, and your pressure, the pressure that comes with it to say like, man, this is for me.
And you may have just answered this, but most founders would have quit or at least emotionally quit over those, you know, course of 10 years and failures.
What kept you or what did you tell yourself in those darkest moments to keep you from folding?
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.