Igniting The Changemaker: A Conversation with Dax Dasilva
Photo: Benoit Paille
Featuring Dax Dasilva Words by Nastasia Khmelnitski
Dax Dasilva is a Montréal-based entrepreneur and a visionary thought leader, whose passion is to build inclusive and diverse communities of positive impact around the world. Dax is a Founder and CEO of Lightspeed, a point of sale software solution for small and medium businesses, with 14 offices around the world. Last year in parallel with announcing the IPO, Dax decided to release his first book Age of Union. Dax explains that the manifesto he wrote for Never Apart, a non-profit organization he founded in 2015, served as a precursor to writing the book.
We met Dax during the release of Age of Union and panel discussion in Tel Aviv, attending the event as an invitation of our dear friend Ronen Tanchum, who has developed the creative physical presentation for the book. Dax cordially agreed for a call interview to discuss the concepts of the book and his perspective on the change that each of us can decide to become a part of. We used this opportunity to talk about the spiritual acts of union listed in the book, discovering some additional mitzvahs Dax practices. We review the 10-year burnout resulting in leading and developing a successful constantly growing company and the decision to open Never Apart creative space to unite the local community of artists. We discuss in length spirituality as a lost pillar in the tech industry today, the LGBTQ community, Studio Baillat, and the possibility to create social change through art.
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‘As individuals, we are each uniquely gifted and driven to fulfill our personal life goals. We all want to feel successful in bringing forth our talents, making good on opportunities to enhance ourselves, and contributing positively to this world. To these personal goals, we must add an attentive focus upon the greater good.’
⎯ Dax Dasilva
I would like to thank you for making this happen. We’re so happy to have you on WÜL MAGAZINE. We attended your book release in Tel-Aviv, it was an incredible discussion panel, and we enjoyed it so much. I’ve recently finished reading Age of Union - a very inspiring book.
Awesome!
By the way, congratulations on opening the new offices in Toronto!
Thank you!
It’s an incredible possibility for a lot of professionals to join Lightspeed and take a part in your vision.
Yeah.
The book motivates you and pushes you to action, so you start thinking about where you can make a change. It puts you on the map and makes you want to try things. It makes you think ‘those things are possible’. There is a connection in the book to the Jewish idea of Mitzvah.
Yes. Yes.
Do you have some additional spiritual acts that you incorporated into your routine? You speak about the 40 different types of acts each person can do, and you already engage with those yourself. Are there any additional acts that enable you to incorporate mitzvah in your daily life?
I find the idea of mitzvah such an inspiration for how you bring in an action, it’s the light of intention. It's your day today, it's your hour by hour, and it gives meaning and purpose to you all day long. This is such a beautiful idea that's at the very heart of Judaism. It's such an appropriate idea for the moment we live in. I think a lot of us see big challenges in the world. When we experience hour by hour acts and actions that we can take, it reminds us that we are empowered. In the core of the idea of the mitzvah, we take an action that is very physical, and you elevate the action, and what elevates the action is the fact that you bring intention to the action. And I talk about it in the book - intention, thought, speech, and action - this comes from the Jewish mystical thought (from the book of Tanya). When we feel overwhelmed, I look for meaning... it's a supply for a purpose and meaning.
Your question was, do I add anything additional that's a mitzvah. The 40 acts of union, that idea is inspired by mitzvot, and I practice all those things. Whether it's plant-based eating or cooking meals at home or doing things for the community, engaging with artists (which I do through Never Apart), but there are also other rituals, other mitzvot that I do. I have my way of practicing Shabbat. There's always a prayer candle lighting. I satisfy this part of the week, Friday evening and Saturday day, to make it feel distinct from my work week. It starts usually with candle lighting, then it's changed by dinner. Saturday during the day, I have Never Apart Gallery, we have open house talks. This week I am going to be speaking about spirituality pillar in Age of Union, so it’s the day of discussion, the day of inspiration. I'm trying to make 24 hours of Shabbat something reflective and elevating. It's something I started in 2016 when I started to get really busy at Lightspeed. It’s one of the mitzvot that became very meaningful to me.
There’s this idea of trying to reduce the screen time and connect to people around you...
Dax: Once you're conscious of something, once you’re thoughtful, then everything changes. We do so many things without reflecting or thinking about why we are doing them. Once you start thinking about them, once you start being intentional about them... you think this much screen time is not good for me, it's not good for my relationships, it's not good for my state of mind, for my mental health… and once you’re intentional about reducing it when you're socializing, then the outcome is something that I think elevates your life.
Definitely! At the beginning of the book, you’re speaking about your father, and you mention that he’s a graphic designer.
Dax: Yeah.
There’s an interesting connection, graphic design is a creative field, designers touch something beautiful and change things. I was wondering if your parents had other influences that affected your mindset and affected what you're doing today apart from the creative sphere.
From my father’s side of the family, there are many artists, many people who work in the world of art and design. I started as a designer and programmer, and I brought those two things together.
My mother and father are the two most spiritual people I know. It's spirituality in the most beautiful sense. They're not people who are out there praising themselves for how much they do. It's a very genuine spirituality. I converted to Judaism, and my father is Christian, but at this point, he's practically Jewish, his favorite thing to read is "Songs", he loves "David". So I can have these deep conversations about spirituality with both of them, and witness how they are leading the life that is deeply spiritual, and very genuine and authentic, that is not restricted by creed or specific dogma or a specific religion. That's a huge influence. I think that for somebody to have one spiritual parent is everything but to have two... I’m very blessed and feel supported.
‘Spirituality teaches that you are a steward of the particular project, and not everything is under your control. Spiritually you must be the best instrument you could be and bring as much light and positivity to your project’
— Dax Dasilva
I also feel that it doesn't matter which type of religion a person is because there is some kind of connection between all of us and all the religions eventually speak about striving to be a good person.
Absolutely.
In the book, you speak about leadership and about the urge to make decisions which sometimes can be difficult and sometimes involve risk-taking. What's one of the biggest risks you decided to take with Lightspeed or perhaps Never Apart? What inspired you to take this step, to take the risk?
There is a good example that actually is in the book that brings together Lightspeed and Never Apart. It's the start of Never Apart. I started Never Apart at the 10 year anniversary of Lightspeed. The first 10 years of Lightspeed… it's always intense, we're always at a new stage of growth. And at the 10-year mark, it was 3 years after having investors putting hundreds of millions of dollars, it was a moment of near burnout. We moved into a larger space, a larger office at the 10-year mark, which left the previous space unoccupied. And I had this decision to open Never Apart Center, which was something I had in my heart, but I thought, do I have the energy to start this new project in the middle of burnout at Lightspeed.
I had to balance whether to do this because if I didn't do that it wouldn’t probably ever happen, I would sell the building and lose the moment, lose the challenge, lose that unique opportunity. It was really a leap of faith. This was something that I felt spiritually had to happen. The outcome of that risk was based on faith. Never Apart re-energize me. It brought so many parts of my authentic self, the creative side, brought those things forward and gave me so much more energy for Lightspeed, which I did not expect. It actually helped me out of the burnout. So that was a risk. If you sat down and did an analysis, no one would ever open that center in the middle of this 10-year-old burnout, but for me, it was something that seems in hindsight like something that of course you would do.
Do you think this risk you took changed you as a businessman? Did the spiritual road change your approach to the way you do business at Lightspeed?
Yes, I think so. First of all, it does influence the way you look at solving problems, taking risks, looking at the big picture, looking at how it impacts people, having greater compassion, a greater empathy. It helps to understand your customers, understand your investors, and your employees. I think that what can come from a spiritual place can be very active and positive in the way you conduct business. The reason why I included a spiritual pillar in Age of Union is that a lot of younger tech founders starting companies would come to me for mentoring, and I felt when I was giving them Lightspeed business tips, that I was only giving them half the story. At the same time, when I was starting the business, Lightspeed, I was also embarking on a spiritual journey. In my case, it was converting to Judaism. For other people, it would be something else. But those two journeys went hand-in-hand. I feel I can’t tell the business story without the other story. Those things supported each other, and they helped each other. It's how the business became what it is, and it helped me become who I am.
In the dark moments, when you're starting any kind of a project... there are going to be ups and lows, even on a daily basis. Having that spiritual journey, having that foundation is what can sustain you and help you through all of those moments, help take some of the things off of your shoulders. That's what spirituality does, it aligns you with something that can release some of the tension, it's not all on you, you’re an instrument for your project. Spirituality teaches that you are a steward of the particular project, and not everything is under your control. Spiritually you must be the best instrument you could be and bring as much light and positivity to your project. When I meet young tech founders for mentoring, I feel like they have a lot on their shoulders, and they don't have any spirituality to fall back on. That was the story I wanted to tell in Age of Union.
‘My biggest influence spiritually is Judaism, but my environmental side of spirituality would be some of the indigenous spiritual teachings. For me, the blend of those two ways of looking at the world influences Age of Union perspective’
— Dax Dasilva
I agree, there's an aspect that perhaps has been lost for the past several decades. Spirituality is something that people don't usually mentor about when they speak about creating a successful business or a startup. This adds a new angle to look at things.
An interesting thing is, when I did my book tour, for the last eight or nine months, I didn't speak about every topic in the book on a book tour date, at a talk. At the end, when I do book signings, all people want to talk about is spirituality, for the most part. I never heard anybody talk about this on stage, I never heard a tech leader talk about this. People are hungry for that. So when people are talking about this in a modern way, like I try to do in Age of Union, people want to hear that and they want to know how they can incorporate that in their way into their life and business.
There is so much stress today, and if people realize they can have strength and they can build on what they do, that they can have an additional source of energy and hope and something to strive for for a better good, this will create a huge change. I believe in that as well.
Those are great words. I think strength, hope, keeping optimistic, these all come from investing in yourself spiritually and building yourself that foundation.
Trying to become a better human eventually. In the book, you refer to two very interesting characters, Chief Seattle and Chief Dan George. I felt I wanted to hear more about the story behind it because it’s genuinely so interesting and inspiring. I was wondering whether you have met them, and if so, what was the thing that most influenced your thoughts or actions?
They're not people that I've met. Indigenous spirituality is something that I find a real connection to. We have many indigenous artists exhibit at Never Apart. The term, I mentioned in the book, two-spirit is the LGBTQ equivalent in the indigenous community, it's 5 to 7 genders depending on the tribe.
Spiritual ideas in a lot of indigenous cultures in North America are very tied to nature. You know the two-spirit LGBTQ people are… it's not just about sexuality, they have a responsibility to the lands, to the water, to the ceremony. I love how indigenous spirituality encompasses nature and encompasses the earth, the waters, and the mountains.
My biggest influence spiritually is Judaism, but my environmental side of spirituality would be some of the indigenous spiritual teachings. For me, the blend of those two ways of looking at the world influences Age of Union perspective. As humans, we have to come in harmony with nature, we need to start caring about everything holistically. That comes a lot with the words of the Chiefs and also from indigenous people and indigenous two-spirit people.
Photo: Nik Mirus
I didn't know that before I read about it in the book that indigenous people refer to and believe that rivers are their predecessors, and this is one of the reasons they are fighting to preserve nature.
I didn't think about it until you just mentioned it. This is where there’s a really beautiful link between Judaism and indigenous teachings. In Jewish mystical thought, a river has a soul, and a mountain and a rock have a soul. It's not the same design of the soul as an animal or a human, but they all have souls. This is very similar to how you hear indigenous people speak of the river, how they speak of the mountain, how they speak of a forest. It's a beautiful link that you find between Jewish mystical teachings and indigenous teachings.
That is a beautiful link and a beautiful connection. One of the topics you cannot leave aside is the beautiful design of the book. So much thought and possibilities for creative people, photographers, designers to express themselves and then your words that have been merged with the design into one beautiful creation. What were some of the ideas for this visual experience?
Studio Baillat was the partner for the book's design, and Jean-Sébastien Baillat, Art Director and Curator of Age of Union, he helped to curate artists that work with Never Apart and some new artists we booked to work with.
The idea behind the imagery in the book is natural landscapes that have a surreal quality to them. It's almost like a human filter on natural landscapes. That's really what the book is about, the way humanity ultimately comes in harmony with nature. The altered landscapes that have some artificiality, or some realness to them, this was the aesthetic we wanted to create. We wanted to have a connection to nature, but we wanted to have a human impact on the imagery. What you find is a common thread behind all of the photography and all of the paintings throughout the book.
The connection is between real natural color and technological colors that unite.
Exactly.
Lastly, if you could give a tip to young creators, as we also interview so many photographers around the world, and everybody has their own story, perhaps you can give one tip to inspire them?
What I’ve learned through the project of building Never Apart Gallery, what I’ve learned through this social change, is that artists and creatives are true change-makers. I spoke to a group of art students in Tel Aviv, 13-14-year-old art students... I was there with an artist, whom I quote in the book, and her quote is ”art is a silent activist”... we illustrated to students the teaching about animal welfare through paintings.
My message to artists would be, your art gives people a window into a new perspective, and you have an opportunity to create social change and be the leader, the voice, the changemaker through your art. I think sometimes the view of what artists do is limited to a creative exercise. If artists understand, and everybody should understand, that art is a spiritual exercise, and it's an act of change-making... That's something inspiring that artists can know as they are creating.
That is beautiful! I like the idea that you speak a lot about in the book, how much artists and creative people are already changing the world today. Do you think, Never Apart will ever come to Israel, are you planning to open a community in Tel-Aviv?
To be honest with you, I'm really inspired to open Never Apart in Israel. There are a few cities where I'd like to open the center. We're celebrating our 5 years here in Montreal, it's just like Lightspeed, Lightspeed’s now in 14 locations. The future for Never Apart is to open new locations and Israel is at the top of the list.
That would be just fantastic. I would like to thank you so much! We really appreciate the opportunity to speak with you. We enjoyed the book release in Tel Aviv and hopefully will see you again soon. Thank you for your time!
