--- title: Dont Smile | daily.dev description: A motivational story about a CEO presenting a slide deck with just four words — 'Remember, to not smile' — used to illustrate the mindset of relentless effort.... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/dont-smile-lex6jn6tn twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Dont Smile | daily.dev og:description: A motivational story about a CEO presenting a slide deck with just four words — 'Remember, to not smile' — used to illustrate the mindset of relentless effort.... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/dont-smile-lex6jn6tn og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/LeX6JN6Tn.png og:image:alt: Dont Smile og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Dont Smile **[ThePrimeTime](https://daily.dev/sources/primeagen)** · 1 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A motivational story about a CEO presenting a slide deck with just four words — 'Remember, to not smile' — used to illustrate the mindset of relentless effort. Drawing on a Travis Kalanick podcast anecdote comparing founders to marathon runners at mile 21, the piece argues that real dedication means embracing pain and discomfort rather than projecting ease. The author shares personal experience of staying up until 4am shipping features to win customers. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Relentless Forward Progress](https://daily.dev/posts/relentless-forward-progress-gitxerkq3) · Fish Food for Thought · 5 upvotes · 1 comments --- Tags: [#leadership](https://daily.dev/tags/leadership) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/dont-smile-lex6jn6tn) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Dont Smile","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/dont-smile-lex6jn6tn","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/dont-smile-lex6jn6tn"},"datePublished":"2026-07-28T18:13:00.089Z","dateModified":"2026-07-28T18:13:14.208Z","description":"A motivational story about a CEO presenting a slide deck with just four words — 'Remember, to not smile' — used to illustrate the mindset of relentless effort....","image":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/t35PdzVcoz8/sddefault.jpg","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/t35PdzVcoz8/sddefault.jpg","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"ThePrimeTime","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"ThePrimeTime","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--J5-GjDeo--/f_auto/v1704628081/logos/primeagen.jpg","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/primeagen"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/dont-smile-lex6jn6tn","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"leadership","timeRequired":"PT1M","video":{"@type":"VideoObject","name":"Dont Smile","description":"A motivational story about a CEO presenting a slide deck with just four words — 'Remember, to not smile' — used to illustrate the mindset of relentless effort....","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/t35PdzVcoz8/sddefault.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-07-28T18:13:00.089Z","duration":"PT1M","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/LeX6JN6Tn","embedUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/embed/t35PdzVcoz8"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"ThePrimeTime","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/primeagen"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Dont Smile"}]} ```