There are many people in the world who've said "I wish I could compete in a triathlon." Some of these people proclaim it from a life they consider a personal prison. A notable amount of them are addicts. Kyle isn't an addict, but he seeks to empathize with those who are fighting their connection to smoking. "Every environment you go in, you go in to seek understanding," Kyle told me he's learned. As the founder of Nicotrax, a startup that creates smoking cessation solutions, he's built a company on a foundation of empathy. Nicotrax carries the understanding that you can't simply ask someone, "Why don't you quit smoking?" Kyle focuses his efforts on contextualizing issues, studying behavioral patterns and, most importantly, being a human. The secret Kyle and I have both learned about successful business is that it's not solely based on creating an exceptional product. The secret is being an authentic experience. Businesses try their best to deliver the experience in their occasional, sometimes daily, output. Where they fail is that many do not know what their internal culture is about. Where they fail is not being honest about their failures. "I think of building a company like building a ship. You keep it from sinking," Kyle chuckled. Sometimes one of the best moves a brand, or just a person, can make is to be honest about some of the holes they harbor and how they mended them. When we do that, it attracts authentic people and inspires customers to be honest about their deep needs. That data is essential for a company to be exceptional at solving problems. That information is imperative for molding an enriching community.