Life’s messy. People are difficult. Calm is rare.

Subscribe and get one short email each week on staying calm, decent, and human. Join 100,000+ readers and followers learning how to stay grounded, do good work, and be a decent human — even when life stings.

I’m Broden Johnson — entrepreneur, husband, dad, and serial failure. I’ve built companies, lost companies, made money, lost money, and written a book about the only lesson that ever stuck: Don’t Be a Dick. I write Tales from a Failed Beekeeper — short weekly stories about philosophy, family, work, and the strange art of not losing your mind. They’re part humour, part Stoicism, and part therapy I don’t have time for. If you like your life advice unpolished, funny, and slightly uncomfortable, you’ll probably like this.