Create from Tension /  by Alexander Lyadov

Suppose you want to paint a picture. Or better yet — a road sign.

You have a canvas, a white sheet, or a piece of painted metal.

If you could use only one color, what would it be?

Probably not white, right? It’s beautiful on its own, but it adds nothing.

Maybe gray? It might work for a painting, but not for a sign.

Good candidates are red, blue, or brown. But each has its flaw — too narrow in meaning, blends with the sky or the ground, and so on.

In the end, you will choose one color — black.

Maximum contrast. And full freedom to express what you want.

See? The opposite does not scare you — it is actually the most desirable.

At the beginning, we need polarity (plus-minus, yin-yang, light-dark).

Only then can we start to create.

If, of course, we can endure that tension inside ourselves.

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

As a business therapist, I help tech founders quickly solve dilemmas at the intersection of business and personality, and boost company value as a result.

Stuck? Your business grows when you do. I’m your business therapist to guide your shift. See testimonials ​here​. Ready? ​Book your Catalyst session​.

Who Holds All /  by Alexander Lyadov

What holds this world together, anyway?

Common sense? Funny. Just listen to world leaders speak.

Advanced culture? It vanishes in a moment, like pollen in a breath.

New technology? Hmm… More like fuel for the fire.

Maybe values? Even within countries, people argue over them.

I once came across a thought that struck me deeply:

The world still stands because certain special people constantly pray for it.

At any moment in history, there are only a few such luminous souls.

They must have a rare gift—if their prayers truly work.

You can’t prove any of this. But it’s easy to dismiss.

Still, this idea inspires me, gives me hope, keeps me warm.

Perhaps because it points to a profound truth:

In what truly matters, effort and effect are not linear.

A small effort, applied at the right point, can save—or change—the entire system.

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

As a business therapist, I help tech founders quickly solve dilemmas at the intersection of business and personality, and boost company value as a result.

Stuck? Your business grows when you do. I’m your business therapist to guide your shift. See testimonials ​here​. Ready? ​Book your Catalyst session​.

The Non-Obvious Source of Growth /  by Alexander Lyadov

You try to execute a move, but your opponent sees it coming.

What now? You push harder. You want to finish what you started. Victory feels close. He defends as if his life depends on it.

Teeth clenched, no breathing, arms locked up — in a couple of minutes you’re already done. And you still have four more fights ahead, each six to eight minutes long.

Super-effort is understandable and familiar, but it’s short-sighted once you’re no longer sixteen. With experience, you start to value ROI. You want a high return on your effort.

The ideal is simple: the result happens by itself, without strain.

The million-dollar question is—how?

One answer: don’t be obvious.

In grappling, this means "breaking the opponent’s brain” so that inside he screams: “What’s going on? I don’t understand anything. I’m scared.”

Bravo! For him, your order has become chaos. Mentally, he has already lost.

This didn’t happen because you drilled more, had a smarter coach, or trained in a better gym.

The key is this: inside yourself, you found Chaos, endured it, and accepted it. That’s hard. That’s why your competitors all start to look the same.

Unbeatable is the one who turns his Uncertainty into a partner.

In the course “Ritual of Transformation,” you meet unknown—or forgotten—parts of yourself. That’s where your growth lives.

To receive an invitation to the next cohort, here’s the ​l.

Below is a review from one of the participants of the February course:

"My biggest concern was that I wouldn’t give the course enough time. I think I could have prioritized my time differently and given it more attention. So I plan to go through it again and have already blocked off a few time slots in my calendar.

I came away with a fairly clear vision—something that can pull me out of the fog of not understanding and show me what to grab onto, like a path with light at the end of the tunnel. And a lot of enjoyment—both in discovering this and, I hope, in the journey ahead.

The shift from abstract reflection to concrete steps happened quite unexpectedly for me. There was no fluff at all. I see the free-flowing format of the course as a big plus. And I couldn’t have asked for a better group—everyone was mature, self-aware, and experienced.

Would I recommend this course? Absolutely. For two reasons: it helps entrepreneurs realize they are not alone in their problems and challenges. And that by looking a bit inward—and a bit beyond the “edge”—you can build a clear path forward."

​Andrii Ryz, CEO at ​Ard, Software Development

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

As a business therapist, I help tech founders quickly solve dilemmas at the intersection of business and personality, and boost company value as a result.

Stuck? Your business grows when you do. I’m your business therapist to guide your shift. See testimonials ​here​. Ready? ​Book your Catalyst session​.

Wow Reversal /  by Alexander Lyadov

Unknown photographer

At any moment, uncertainty lies before us—shifting, unsteady.

No matter how much you defend yourself, plan ahead, or lay down straw, reality will find a way to stun you or knock you down.

Wars break out. Accidents happen. Cells in the body fail. In an instant, a man discovers himself to be fragile, helpless, exposed.

And then a Hole opens wide—the one we carefully covered with whatever we could: busyness, entertainment, culture, science, and so on.

The mind suddenly sees: “Oh, Anything At All Can Happen.”

The first reaction is, of course, fear. Shock. Horror. Negative scenarios begin to fall like spring snow—so bold and excessive, as if winter only stepped out for a smoke and now has returned for good.

So fearing a dark future is natural and normal.

But if that is true, then follow the logic all the way to the end.

If Absolutely Anything Can Happen, then a set of unknown but beneficial scenarios must exist too.

Yes, it is hard to even think about them. Harder still to believe they might come to us. But it does not matter to the scenarios. They simply exist.

Every phenomenon is ambivalent. Uncertainty contains both sides.

We know this from experience. Many times we have felt joyful surprise at a new event—sometimes right away, sometimes years later.

More than that, we remember how often a Wow-reversal has happened: from fear and despair at first, to gratitude and growth later.

Each time you do not believe it—and yet you want to experience it again. There is something thrilling in not only witnessing transformation, but becoming its co-author.

Flipping the sign of unpredictability makes our existence truly alive.

Fearing what might be Vs loving what is possible.

The dilemma vanishes when we manage to dissolve fear in love.

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

As a business therapist, I help tech founders quickly solve dilemmas at the intersection of business and personality, and boost company value as a result.

Stuck? Your business grows when you do. I’m your business therapist to guide your shift. See testimonials ​here​. Ready? ​Book your Catalyst session​.

Free Act /  by Alexander Lyadov

Creativity does not tolerate violence. This is something everyone knows who has ever tried:

  • to congratulate sincerely,

  • to create a new product,

  • to hunt for Wow-ideas,

  • to compose music,

  • to draw,

  • to sculpt, and so on.

All the usual methods of “stimulation” fail here:

  • tighten the will,

  • triple the effort,

  • tempt yourself,

  • mock yourself,

  • shame the conscience,

  • threaten with consequences,

  • remind yourself of responsibility,

  • scratch at feelings of guilt.

In this way creativity shares much with play. In play, as we know, one wants to join freely, spontaneously, and of one’s own will.

When a game interests us, we engage. When it becomes boring—goodbye.

Violence is the gesture of despair when there is no personal answer to the question: “Why?”

The issue is not whether creativity demands effort, will, or discipline. Of course it does. But not to chain the personality to a labor camp.

The purpose of extra effort is different:

to find interest—meaning, pull, desire—at any cost.

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

As a business therapist, I help tech founders quickly solve dilemmas at the intersection of business and personality, and boost company value as a result.

Stuck? Your business grows when you do. I’m your business therapist to guide your shift. See testimonials ​here​. Ready? ​Book your Catalyst session​.

(Un)noticed Kindness /  by Alexander Lyadov

Unknown photographer

I often meet kind people along my path. Their gentle and generous attitude toward me is something I have not earned.

They appear out of nowhere, like an old sage, a wolf, or a raven in a fairy tale. All that is asked of me is to accept their gift.

But “just” is not simple, because a person can irritate or even frighten. It feels like a test. Can I step past the form to recognize the essence?

And in moments of despair, I become more open, flexible, and receptive. Maybe the kind person was walking beside me all along, but I did not notice him.

When you are drowning, there is no time to reflect on whether it is a rope or the tail of a python. In the film 127 Hours, the man who survives drinks dirty water from a puddle with desperation. Germs, bacteria, parasites—none of that matters when the body has no H2O.

By the way, this is a great test of how mature your request really is. If I nitpick the color of a life ring, ask for a certificate of authenticity, and demand alternatives, it means I am not yet sinking.

But when I am gasping for air and my vision is fading, only one thing matters. Do I allow even the smallest chance that a stranger wants to help me?

Carl R. Rogers said, “People who do not believe in human goodness rarely encounter it.” You cannot convince yourself of this with arguments. You either believe, or you don’t. And you will always be right.

Faith, like a tree, needs to be watered with attention. Surprised by unexpected help? Notice it. Acknowledge it. Give thanks. Even if only in your heart.

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

As a business therapist, I help tech founders quickly solve dilemmas at the intersection of business and personality, and boost company value as a result.

Stuck? Your business grows when you do. I’m your business therapist to guide your shift. See testimonials ​here​. Ready? ​Book your Catalyst session​.

The Sweetness of Love /  by Alexander Lyadov

This is a delicate topic, so read at your own risk ;-)).

Why are so many people drawn to sweets?

One night an insight came to me (don’t ask why):

Dessert is a simple, gentle, almost naive form of loving yourself… …when the bigger, fuller love self-love is somehow forbidden.

A person avoids sweets in two cases:

  1. when he no longer loves himself at all and has turned into a dry stone.

  2. or when he truly loves himself completely, and no longer needs to caress himself in symbolic ways.

Most people live between these two poles. A substitute for love becomes cake, liqueur, or, in my case, figs and dates. The product does not matter. What matters is the desire to soothe yourself after a bad day.

Sweetness softens the bitterness of a disappointing piece of life.

If that is true, scolding yourself or arguing with the craving is pointless. The subconscious will find a way to fill the lack. And it will do so so cleverly that the conscious mind can only gasp.

In the short term, you can replace one thing with another—just as pleasant, but less harmful. Instead of alcohol, fruit. Instead of a slice of Napoleon cake, a Thai massage.

But in the long run, the goal is different:

To open a source of self-love inside—so fully that there is plenty left over for everyone around you.

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

P.S. Suddenly I really feel like having some tea…

As a business therapist, I help tech founders quickly solve dilemmas at the intersection of business and personality, and boost company value as a result.

Stuck? Your business grows when you do. I’m your business therapist to guide your shift. See testimonials ​here​. Ready? ​Book your Catalyst session​.

The Nature of Dirt /  by Alexander Lyadov

Even wandering through a botanical garden, I don’t want to get dirty.

There is plenty of dirt there. Especially now, when spring is replacing winter.

Then I remember the anthropologist Mary Douglas:

“Dirt is matter out of place.”

In that sense, what complaint do I have against melting snow, last year’s leaves, twigs, and the mineral mix of soil?

On fifty hectares of garden, all of it is surely in its proper place.

The same cannot be said for my clean boots. Rubber, plastic, Gore-Tex membrane—they are the foreign elements in the waking forest.

Mary explains that the very idea of dirt assumes order. By that logic, nature has order. Man is the one who disturbs it.

For example, by getting irritated when he gets smeared with the forest’s order. As if to say, I came here perfectly clean and beautiful, and now this mess!

Clearly the problem is the wrong clothes for a walk. Or, more precisely, the wrong worldview: “My personal order comes first. Anything that doesn’t fit is dirt.”

The same disappointment happens when we meet novelty. Something unexpected appears—strange, unsettling, even frightening. We want to brush it off, dismiss it, get rid of it at any cost.

In the unknown phenomenon, we see only dirt, threat, and chaos. It takes time to uncover the hidden meaning of what is happening—perhaps even a benefit that is completely invisible to us right now.

How many times has life already shown me this, yet I still cannot get used to it.

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

As a business therapist, I help tech founders quickly solve dilemmas at the intersection of business and personality, and boost company value as a result.

Stuck? Your business grows when you do. I’m your business therapist to guide your shift. See testimonials ​here​. Ready? ​Book your Catalyst session​.

Partnership Mechanics /  by Alexander Lyadov

The key moment in any transformation is answering one question:

“What do I truly want from my business — and from life?”

For many reasons, this is not easy. But suppose you’ve done it. Ideas start knocking, your hands itch to act, energy is rising.

You even have a rough idea of how to reach that desired future. It seems simple: build the team, slice up the tasks, and go.

There’s just one catch — your partner. Or partners.

It might be a majority investor who stays passive. An equal co-founder. Or a COO with a minority stake.

Sometimes there are many partners — five or six. Fifteen years ago everyone was looking in the same direction. Now everything is different: where people live, how they see the business, how involved they are, their priorities, their interests.

A special case is when key managers don’t yet have equity, but the business has no future without them. Revenue share, options, phantom or real shares — that’s just a technical detail.

The point is: as an entrepreneur, you vitally need these partners.

That means they must clearly and passionately share your desired future. Silence or a polite nod won’t do. In this difficult but magnificent adventure, you’re either going alone or moving forward together.

Otherwise, friction, arguments, and corporate conflict await. Even worse, they’ll make you the villain: “Yes, the business was not growing, but it was not falling either. And now you broke the old without building anything new.”

Change is ambivalent — it can multiply the business tenfold or destroy it.

So after answering those fundamental questions for yourself, the next step is to understand what your partner truly wants from the business and from life.

This turns out to be difficult because of several unresolved issues:

  • Why and how to train the skill of truly listening to another person

  • How to avoid turning adults into angry, capricious children

  • When to be selfish—and when to forget about yourself

  • How trust between people is born, maintained, and lost

  • What creates stable business growth and development

  • How to reliably return to a state of alignment and peace

  • Why otherness is a value, not a flaw.

I plan to explore these and other topics in my new course:

“Partnership Mechanics.”

It logically continues the “Ritual of Transformation” course, but it also stands on its own.

Who is it for?

For those who are tired of surviving and want to co-create.

If you want to hear about the course first, you can join the waitlist ​here.

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

As a business therapist, I help tech founders quickly solve dilemmas at the intersection of business and personality, and boost company value as a result.

Stuck? Your business grows when you do. I’m your business therapist to guide your shift. See testimonials ​here​. Ready? ​Book your Catalyst session​.

Three Minus Two /  by Alexander Lyadov

 

Truly big changes rarely happen all at once.

Look at how reluctantly winter leaves. The sun is already shining with confidence, the grass is bursting green, the birds are singing cheerfully.

And yet winter does not go quietly. Before the curtain falls, it throws in a couple of tricks. So sharp that we begin to doubt: “What if winter is here forever?”

The same thing happens with an opponent in a fight. You’ve broken him mentally, you’re pressing hard, you’re winning on points. But be ready for his sudden explosions. Yes, it’s agony — but that agony can still catch you off guard.

The most desired changes in therapy happen in bursts:

3 steps forward, 2 steps back. It looks like Δ+1, yet it feels like a dead end.

In artificial systems, you can just flip a switch. Living systems change reluctantly, in a constant push-and-pull.

It makes sense. Life knows that not every change is for the better. Winter and spring pull on the same rope: “Prove it.”

Remember this the next time despair hits you: “It’s all pointless. Nothing is changing.”

The change is there — it’s just timid.

Be patient. Give it time.

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

As a business therapist, I help tech founders quickly solve dilemmas at the intersection of business and personality, and boost company value as a result.

Stuck? Your business grows when you do. I’m your business therapist to guide your shift. See testimonials ​here​. Ready? ​Book your Catalyst session​.

Wisdom Looks Crazy /  by Alexander Lyadov

The mind struggles to accept a stubborn fact—everything happens in its own time.

Not when the mind decides: “It must be done!”, “It’s time!” or "After E2 comes E4.”

But when the mind did not expect it and now blinks in shock.

Did you know the eyes are not a separate organ, but a bulging part of the brain?

Nature literally pushed the eyes outward so the brain could see things as they are.

And what does the brain do? It closes its eyes to reality and hides in a cage.

A man can roll his eyes sixteen hours a day and still miss the main thing.

This is a rare skill—to see not what is already there, but what is not yet.

Everything around is not static. It transforms, smoothly or in sudden jerks.

The more complex the system, the harder it is to catch the moment: “Aha!”

What you need is pure attention, free of expectations, ideas, concepts.

True understanding of Life happens without the mind.

Abundance of the Void. Gold in the mud. Creativity of conflict.

That is why wisdom often looks like madness.

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

As a business therapist, I help tech founders quickly solve dilemmas at the intersection of business and personality, and boost company value as a result.

Stuck? Your business grows when you do. I’m your business therapist to guide your shift. See testimonials ​here​. Ready? ​Book your Catalyst session​.

Pattern In The Milk /  by Alexander Lyadov

Only the simplest things can be planned and obtained.

Raise the level of complexity just a little, and now you no longer have guarantees. Only guesses.

Anything nontrivial arrives only after a step into the Void.

But the most precious gifts usually come years later.

Until then, a man must endure confusion, longing, and sometimes suffering.

Something inside pushes him to walk a hidden path, with no signs and no map.

It is no surprise that many people drift away from their true course.

You must trust yourself deeply and learn to endure uncertainty.

Fortunately, misses form a pattern too—even if it is a negative one.

Gradually it becomes clearer that life is somehow moving in the wrong direction.

Once you see the destructive pattern, you can turn it inside out.

How do you find the bull’s-eye on the target?

Everything that lands in the white points toward it.

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

As a business therapist, I help tech founders quickly solve dilemmas at the intersection of business and personality, and boost company value as a result.

Stuck? Your business grows when you do. I’m your business therapist to guide your shift. See testimonials ​here​. Ready? ​Book your Catalyst session​.

Lost Desire /  by Alexander Lyadov

Some entrepreneurs wonder why their energy has left them.

They seem to work the same way they did ten years ago, yet something broke.

Discipline? Plenty. Willpower? Excessive. Opportunities? Sky-high.

If only not for one tiny detail.

The Desire is gone.

It was there once. Now it has left. You want nothing. Absolutely nothing.

What will you do, entrepreneur?

Convince yourself with arguments? Laughable. Appeal to conscience? Enough for a week.

“I sit on the board of directors, I speak the words, but I am not there,” admits the founder of a company worth half a billion dollars.

You can distract yourself with new startups, climbing mountains, or safaris. The body stubbornly shakes its head: “None of this is it.”

Not always, but often the reason is this:

The person has lost touch with his sacred center.

He forgot it—or worse—he trampled the source of living water himself.

Lungs without air. Child without mother's milk. Bonfire without logs.

Should it surprise you that you feel so bad now?

The good news is that the situation can often be reversed quickly.

Start with a list of “small things” that, for some reason, personally for you:

  • give pleasure,

  • bring quiet joy,

  • light up beauty,

  • bring back peace,

  • fill life with meaning,

  • open a portal to new ideas.

Write everything exactly as it is—honestly, immodestly, selfishly, shamelessly.

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

As a business therapist, I help tech founders quickly solve dilemmas at the intersection of business and personality, and boost company value as a result.

Stuck? Your business grows when you do. I’m your business therapist to guide your shift. See testimonials ​here​. Ready? ​Book your Catalyst session​.

Creating Together /  by Alexander Lyadov

When you do something truly new for yourself, you cannot understand it in advance. Even the most refined concepts will inevitably disappoint you.

The answer is to walk into the Unknown with a beginner’s mind. Of course, while keeping all the knowledge, skills, and experience you have already gathered.

Then your advisor #1 becomes the person who walked this stretch of the road with you. The one who voted with his attention, his time, and his money.

Because a new product is always co-creation. An alliance. A synergy.

Synergy means that the whole behaves in ways that cannot be predicted from its parts (Buckminster Fuller). Meaning reveals itself during the act of creation.

Below is a review from one of the participants in the course “​Ritual of Transformation.​”

“During the course, I found an answer to the question: How do you change anything? There is no magic pill. But there is a method you can rely on to increase your chances of success.

Throughout the course Sasha did everything he could to explain the method clearly. He encouraged us to run it through ourselves right away, invited us into shared work, and made sure the knowledge would take root in action.

In fact, I received a platform where I could plant all my ideas about change, goal-building, and working with problems. Everything came into harmony.

Paradoxically, before the course began I worried that the lectures might be too abstract. In the end I realized something important: the better you think in these “abstractions,” the clearer you see what to do right now.

I am sincerely grateful for the incredible shared adventure.”

​Vitalii Shkil​
Co-founder and CEO of the online school ​Mathema.me​

As a business therapist, I help tech founders quickly solve dilemmas at the intersection of business and personality, and boost company value as a result.

Stuck? Your business grows when you do. I’m your business therapist to guide your shift. See testimonials ​here​. Ready? ​Book your Catalyst session​.

Back to the Body /  by Alexander Lyadov

At first glance, the task seems simple: five minutes of attack only. Use the techniques you just practiced.

Nothing to fear. Everything is under control. Just keep working.

But then why, after a couple of minutes, is your breathing already off and your strength gone?

Simple. There was not a single second of rest. The whole resource is spent.

Even in a competitive match, there is usually a chance to catch your breath. Sometimes a single second is enough to refill your strength.

“One second? What nonsense! Don’t make me laugh,” the mind says. It refuses to believe such numbers. This experience must be felt in the body.

Someone has to lose first. Nothing convinces a proud mind like a painful defeat.

An experienced grappler uses every chance for a pit stop. You pin your opponent to the mat? Lie on him. Let him struggle and tire while you rest. One second here, two seconds there—and suddenly you have the victory.

In business, unfortunately, people work too much with the head. The body becomes nothing more than a poor vehicle for a brilliant brain. Is it any wonder that one day the body presses Pause?

The organism is begging: “Wake up. Come down from the clouds. Return to the Earth.”

Luckily, nature built enormous reserves into the body. When an exhausted entrepreneur begins to take care of himself (or herself) again, he often discovers something surprising:

You can achieve much more with almost no effort at all.

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

As a business therapist, I help tech founders quickly solve dilemmas at the intersection of business and personality, and boost company value as a result.

Stuck? Your business grows when you do. I’m your business therapist to guide your shift. See testimonials ​here​. Ready? ​Book your Catalyst session​.

Feedback Indicator /  by Alexander Lyadov

Try holding a plank or swinging a club for about ten minutes. But hide the clock. Leave only the final alarm.

Even if you love training and feel full of energy, you will be surprised.

Soon the exercise begins to feel like torture. Your head fills with gloomy thoughts: “How long has it been? Surely half the time? What if not? I am already tired. And that old injury aches.”

Then doubt, irritation, and anxiety grow exponentially: “Why hasn’t the alarm gone off? Ten minutes must have passed by now. It should ring any second. No, something’s wrong! What if I forgot to turn it on?”

The feeling is impossible to compare—watching progress versus blindly waiting for the end.

Remember this when you describe the future you want in your business. Yes, setting the vision is an important step. But without an indicator that shows you are moving closer to the goal, you create uncertainty that serves no purpose.

Even if the indicator measures progress roughly and indirectly, it still helps.

Any feedback from the market, meaning from Life, is better than a ​stone face​.

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

As a business therapist, I help tech founders quickly solve dilemmas at the intersection of business and personality, and boost company value as a result.

Stuck? Your business grows when you do. I’m your business therapist to guide your shift. See testimonials ​here​. Ready? ​Book your Catalyst session​.

When There Is No Choice /  by Alexander Lyadov

Grappling and business are alike in many ways. Take throws, for example.

You can drop an opponent with a foot sweep (ashi-waza). It costs little effort, like a call option. Once he falls, he may never get up.

Losses are limited. Gains can be unlimited.

Then there are sacrifice techniques (sutemi-waza). Say your opponent charges hard. Instead of resisting, you fall backward, plant your foot in his stomach, and throw him over you.

That move is exactly like capital expenditures (CAPEX).

You cannot build one-third of a factory or buy five percent of a machine. You take the loan, pay the full price up front, plus a pile of extra costs. I am simplifying, but the point is clear:

You make a big sacrifice with no guarantee of return.

Given the choice, a founder would pick the call option over CAPEX every time. Uncertainty lies ahead—why tie your hands? The best strategy is to gain every possible upside without risking anything at all.

Unfortunately, in grappling, business, and life, that choice is not always there. Sometimes you give everything you have and then wait for the verdict—sometimes for years.

Deciding to do it is already an achievement. Enduring to the end is even more so.

So what does an entrepreneur think with, if the mind cannot predict the future?

He does not need to think. The potential is so vast it redeems everything. Besides, he does not wait for the Wow-future—he shapes it himself.

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

As a business therapist, I help tech founders quickly solve dilemmas at the intersection of business and personality, and boost company value as a result.

Stuck? Your business grows when you do. I’m your business therapist to guide your shift. See testimonials ​here​. Ready? ​Book your Catalyst session​.

Unexpected Advice /  by Alexander Lyadov

Life can surprise any of us at any moment. The surprise can go bright or dark with equal chance.

We rarely talk about the bright ones—joy sweeps us away, no time for words. But a dark turn gives the mind full permission to torment us: “Why me? Will it get worse? How could I let this happen?”

In the thick of it, answering those questions is useless, even harmful. Debrief comes later, once you reach the other shore. (Sadly, almost no one does it then.)

While you thrash in the waves of the Unknown, follow the advice a veteran once gave a raw recruit about the army’s endless bureaucracy:

“Listen. Remember. And don’t be a smartass.”

How much wisdom fits in those words. When you meet raw Unknown, every concept in your head only blocks you—they are already old or simply out of place.

You need only Attention: the readiness to receive openly whatever arrives.

More than that, a man can shift any situation. Exactly like Life itself—toward darkness or toward light. Let gloom, irritation, or anger swallow you whole and everything gets worse for everyone.

Hold on to even small drops of calm and kindness, though, and the darkness stays harsh but bearable for all. By the way, that same veteran gave the recruit one more gem:

“Treat people humanely and they will treat you humanely.”

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

As a business therapist, I help tech founders quickly solve dilemmas at the intersection of business and personality, and boost company value as a result.

Stuck? Your business grows when you do. I’m your business therapist to guide your shift. See testimonials ​here​. Ready? ​Book your Catalyst session​.

Breathing in Chaos /  by Alexander Lyadov

Unknown artist

It is very hard to endure Her Majesty Uncertainty.

If there is no tension, she has already stopped being uncertainty.

Like in the joke: now it is simply “Horror!”, not “Horror! Horror! Horror!”

Just when everything has settled, bang—the floor drops out from under you.

Welcome back. You are training once more the most valuable skill in life.

The point is: you must endure the terrifying Unknown, yet you cannot.

The value lies exactly on the edge: everything is lost, yet I… hmm… still exist.

Something curious happens.

You can never get used to Chaos itself.

But you can discover something about yourself:

“Oh. Against all odds, I still breathe and pulse.”

Even when your former world has shrunk to nothing but a single black dot.

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

As a business therapist, I help tech founders quickly solve dilemmas at the intersection of business and personality, and boost company value as a result.

Stuck? Your business grows when you do. I’m your business therapist to guide your shift. See testimonials ​here​. Ready? ​Book your Catalyst session​.

Beyond Words /  by Alexander Lyadov

Reader Nimish Jalan asked an interesting question (shared here with his permission):

Hi Alexander, I've been a long time subscriber of your emails. I also follow you on LinkedIn. Something that has always intrigued me is the way you come up with your images. Is there a way for your readers to learn more about them? I would love to know your process and the thinking that goes behind each one of them because they are just so in sync with your content and so relevant and pleasant to look at. Best, Nimish

Images are extremely valuable to me because they allow me to convey what words simply cannot.

Like music, symbolically rich images can slip past the mind’s defenses. One glance at a picture and your mind is already on the other side of the Portal.

The trouble is that the text writes itself, but the needed image I only sense vaguely—I have to hunt it down somewhere. Finding a ready-made form is often harder than creating one.

Luckily, the world is full of talented artists, designers, and photographers. My task is simply to optimize the selection process.

Through trial and error I found a few ways that work:

  1. I created an Illustrations board on Pinterest and placed the app button on my browser. Whenever I come across a photo, collage, or painting that surprises me, I save it without hesitation “for the future,” even if I have no idea whether it will ever be useful.

  2. Most often I choose an illustration for an article that is already written. Then I simply type the essence of what I want to express into Pinterest. Sometimes I scroll through my folder and let a stream of images pass before my eyes.

  3. Less often, but it happens—a single image melts a block in the text, as though the picture already holds the meaning I need to put into words.

  4. Ideally, the chosen image does not literally illustrate the article’s idea. Instead, it expands and deepens it through associations.

  5. I want the illustration to have value on its own. As if the image and the text are equal but independent partners. Their union creates something new that neither could produce alone.

  6. No matter how carefully I choose my words, the text will always remain somewhat clumsy, sharp, or imprecise. A work of art acts like lubricant. It softens the friction between consciousness and meaning.

  7. Perhaps this is how both hemispheres of the brain become engaged. The left finds it easier to grasp meaning that is materialized in words. The right takes everything else that the image quietly carries within it.

The topic of images deserves a deeper dive.

The method of symbol drama taught me that you do not need to be an artist to gain huge value from putting a lived feeling onto paper.

Not to mention images in dreams and meditations—they push me forward in understanding myself, other people, and the world more than almost anything else.

But I will talk about that next time, if you are interested.

And by the way, be like Nimish. Ask questions. That matters to me.

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

As a business therapist, I help tech founders quickly solve dilemmas at the intersection of business and personality, and boost company value as a result.

Stuck? Your business grows when you do. I’m your business therapist to guide your shift. See testimonials ​here​. Ready? ​Book your Catalyst session​.