“Is it a crash or luck?” — most of the time you can’t tell in the moment. Try recalling how your view of a big event in your life shifted—on that day, then a year later, and after a couple of decades.
Take my case. I remember interviewing in 2007 at the top venture fund in Eastern Europe. I was deep into tech startups then and was eager to work with the best.
A partner there asked: “What interests you more — technology or people?” I answered honestly: “People, of course. It’s the founder and the team who make the impossible possible.”
Later I saw the fund's bosses thought differently. Naturally, I was upset: “Hey, was it so hard to lie? I missed a rare chance to enter an industry that a) fascinated me and b) was on the rise.”
No one—not that interviewer, not me—could guess I'd land as partner and co-founder of a fund six months later. One with fifty million dollars under its wing.
Woody Allen put it well: “If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.” People usually interpret this line negatively, yet the future can be a cornucopia, not a black hole.
Even after, my take on those turns flipped from plus to minus and back. In the end, I felt grateful for what that experience gave me.
The same happens in psychotherapy: our feelings about childhood’s defining moments change. Sweet memories hide bitterness, even poison. And terrible events may hold buried gold.
Takeaway? Don’t rush to grieve what’s happening now. Time will tell.
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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