Therapy Made Him a Better Leader

A cofounder of The Black Tux shares how, to grow his company, he needed to understand himself first.

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I run a company of 400 people. It's only possible because of a decision I made soon after we launched-even though it had nothing to do with business: I decided to see a therapist.

I hadn't set out to be an entrepreneur; I was an English major in college, busy reading Dostoevsky and philosophy. Then I rented a tuxedo to get married, and it was an atrocious process. There must be a better way, I thought. My groomsman, Patrick Coyne (who had the same experience), agreed, and we cofounded The Black Tux in 2013 with the plan to rent well-fitting, high-quality suits and tuxes online-which turned out to be operationally complicated and immediately popular.