Shoveling $h!t: A Love Story About the Entrepreneur’s Messy Path to Success

Entrepreneurship is often painted in glossy magazine spreads and LinkedIn posts as a glamorous, freedom-filled adventure. In Shoveling $h!t, Kass and Mike Lazerow peel back that illusion and offer a refreshingly candid look at what it actually takes to build, break, and rebuild businesses, all while raising a family and preserving their marriage. It’s less about shiny exits and more about the grit required to survive the mess along the way.

What struck me most is how much heart sits beneath the humor and honesty. As they write early on, “We consider this book—about shoveling entrepreneurial crap—an epic love story.” That love extends not only to each other but to the craft of building something from nothing. Their relationship becomes both a business case study and a human story of two people choosing to walk through the fire together.

The Lazerows don’t spare readers from the setbacks. The collapse of their first big sale of their company to Chipshot.com is relayed with brutal honesty: “A dump truck full of unexpected crap arrived in the form of a phone call, and there was nothing we could do but grab our shovels and start digging our way out.” It’s in these moments, facing lawsuits from family investors, running out of payroll, sleeping on couches while trying to raise funds, that their core themes of resilience, transparency, and trust shine brightest.

Equally compelling is their exploration of the personal toll. Kass recounts childbirth complications, moves across states, and the constant push-pull of work-life imbalance in “The Imbalanced Life.” It’s a theme many readers, especially women, will resonate with—the reality that professional ambition often collides with the demands of parenting and personal health. Her candor lends the book an emotional depth rarely found in business memoirs.

The book weaves through perseverance, partnership, and the paradox of failure as fertilizer. Just as they point out that “good farmers spread [manure] on their crops,” the Lazerows argue that entrepreneurs must learn to transform setbacks into growth. It’s a message that feels both practical and strangely hopeful: the mess is not just unavoidable, it’s useful.

What I also appreciated was the dual voice. At times, Mike takes the lead, visionary and impulsive, while Kass grounds the narrative with operational pragmatism and emotional intelligence. Together, their perspectives create a balanced account that feels more authentic than the typical single-voiced business book. It’s not just about strategy; it’s about partnership and choosing the right people to shovel alongside you.

For all its straight talk, the book remains uplifting. By the end, when the authors describe selling Golf.com and later Buddy Media for hundreds of millions, the triumph feels earned precisely because the reader has trudged with them through the early muck. The lesson is clear: success isn’t about skipping the hard parts but embracing them with resilience and, perhaps, a little humor.

In the end, Shoveling $h!t is not only a manual for entrepreneurs but a heartfelt reminder that love, honesty, and grit are as vital as capital and strategy. For anyone considering a startup, or anyone simply trying to balance ambition with family life, this book offers both a reality check and a strangely comforting embrace.