When I look back on my career so far, I must face a strange truth:
Every few years, I made one decision that created it all.
Like a man lost in a thick forest, he pours effort into walking, building camp, hunting, cooking. But all that hustle means nothing unless he checks his compass—moss, river, stars—to set or shift his path.
That’s how it went when I:
left chemistry for advertising,
cracked a new agency pay model (it saved us in crisis),
helped the market see the huge potential of local clients,
chased answers at Chicago GSB (no one around me did that),
leapt from advertising to wealth management,
fell in love with venture investing and co-founded a $50M fund,
and later created business therapy — a synthesis of many disciplines.
Each time, I froze first before deciding. A new opportunity pulled me hard. Yet it looked dumb, vague, unprofitable, crazy, or flat-out scary.
When I stepped into the “abyss,” a whole new phase kicked in. Like ice turns to water, then steam. The molecule stays the same — H₂O — but the degrees of freedom can’t be compared.
It’s tempting, in hindsight, to see the path as linear and to rationalize each turn. Also, the years spent realizing each stage make it hard to forget.
But key is to mark where you reinvented yourself.
Yours sincerely,
-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.
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