Alexander Lyadov

Opening the Flow / January 27, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

When it comes to personality, there are no universal formulas. Even the most insightful theories and methods must be set aside so you can truly see the eyes in front of you.

It’s like an interviewer’s rule: you have to create a plan, but the moment the microphone turns on, you must forget it entirely.

Otherwise, all you’ll capture is a pawprint in the sand, an abandoned nest, or the shell of a shrimp. Not the person—just a stencil of who they are.

But if your goal is to help someone, make peace, or start a business together, you need to find the starting point—the source from which his or her life, willpower, and purpose flow.

This is both simple and difficult.

Simple because if you approach it this way, you’ll achieve more than you ever dreamed. When people feel heard, they’ll tell you themselves how to meet their needs, comfort them, or offer support.

The difficulty doesn’t lie in lacking skills or patience. To seek the source of life in the other person, you must first discover that source within yourself.

Some may be puzzled right now, wondering, “What? How come?”

This isn’t some cute metaphor borrowed from a myth, parable, or fairy tale. No, lived experience must convince you that within you flows a fountain of life’s elixir. It governs everything:

The sudden alignment of scattered elements into a pattern.
A sense of opportunity invisible to everyone else.
A persistent warning about approaching danger.
Certainty in “A” when the crowd chants “Not A.”
The strength to let go of a cherished past.
Openness to what’s new and yet to come.
A nudge when deciding, “Is it or isn’t it?”
Clarity about what’s really happening.
A clever way out of a dead end.
A sense of personal meaning, and so on.

When the origins of two or more people connect, harmony restores itself. All you need to do is observe this mysterious process with awe.

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander

About 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.

How can I help you?
If you've long been trying to understand what is limiting you and/or your business and how to finally give important changes a push, then The Catalyst Session is designed specifically for you. Book it here.

Sprout in the Dirt / January 26, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

Are you aware that people constantly lie—to themselves and others? They say one thing but do another. Even when people are sure of their motives and goals, they often admit years later that they truly wanted something else.

Does that mean their words, gestures, and actions are just illusions, appearances, maya?

On one hand, what happens to people is real because their behavior leaves tangible marks on the world. On the other hand, it’s a brilliant performance—actors living in a theater that runs 24/7, year-round.

There’s a clear mismatch between a noble function and a pitiful form.

Carl Jung, for example, believed the Animus and Anima represented the masculine and feminine aspects of a woman’s and a man’s psyche, respectively. When these archetypes of masculinity and femininity aren’t integrated, it leads to shallow relationships: for women, romanticizing partners; for men, addiction to porn.

Everyone meant well, but things turned out the usual way—poorly. It’s like trying to quench thirst with soda or satisfy hunger with fries.

But if you look closely, behind something insane, repulsive, or horrifying, you can often find a healthy sprout. Sadly, for one reason or another, that potential was squandered in a foolish way.

Most of us don’t have the time, skill, or desire to dig into this mess.

Fine, let others figure themselves out. But what about you? Are you ready to explore your oddities, eccentricities, and quirks? Perhaps your sprout is eagerly waiting for the water of life, that is your attention.

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander

About 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.

Digesting Your Past / January 25, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

Manly Palmer Hall alchemical manuscripts

Want to watch the Chaos Dragon devour its own tail in real life?

This video shows that ancient myths weren’t just made up—they were a distillation of knowledge about the living world.

This is how everything renews—societies, businesses, and individuals alike.

Here’s the wisdom this particular Serpent offers us:

1. You have to do the work yourself. Therapists, spouses, and friends can only offer guidance, support, and comfort.

2. You must chew, swallow, and digest your old self. It’s disgusting, painful, and a blow to your ego. But you can’t deny your past, no matter how ugly it is—it holds the essential amino acids for your growth.

3. Transformation is natural. It’s a process meant to happen again and again. Don’t fear it—study it, master it. Just look at the vibrant colors of the new skin!

Aren’t you feeling cramped in your beloved yet limiting form?

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander

About 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.

Harmony in Imperfection / January 24, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

I love potato chips, but I don’t eat them because they’re not exactly healthy.

For New Year’s, I decided to treat myself and... barely managed half a bag. It turned out, in my imagination, they were much more desired and delicious than in reality.

I wondered why that was. Then I remembered a family ritual.

In the evenings, my wife, daughter, and I would cozy up on the couch, watch a fun show, and crunch our hearts out on crisps. I wouldn't buy them more than once a week to avoid gaining weight.

Chips became entwined with a sense of peace, love, and harmony.

My wife and daughter have lived in England for the past few years while I’ve been in Ukraine. Paradoxically, this experience has brought us closer together, as if invisible threads have compensated for the distance, strengthening what miles tried to tear apart.

But the warm memories haven’t gone anywhere. It was never really about the chips; it was about the longing to reclaim my lost paradise. Back then, I took it all for granted and didn’t fully appreciate what I had.

So I probably don’t appreciate what I have right now.

It’s so easy to notice the flaws in the present. It is everywhere—in the air, in your hands, and beneath your feet. It crumbles, flows, and transforms right before our eyes.

The contrast is striking between what is and what could be.

But what if, here and now, your world suddenly became perfect? Life would stop because the longing, 'What for?' would disappear.

That’s why you need an ideal—to strive for but never reach.

Moreover, a sense of harmony isn’t about chasing perfection. In that imperfect past, life felt wonderful. I knew it with my body and soul, but my mind refused to accept it. The same is true now.

I hope reflections like these will help me change that. In essence, it’s a personal rediscovery of ancient wisdom:

“For behold, the Kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21).

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander

About 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.

Decoding Dreams / January 23, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

For years, I’ve been recording dreams that amazed me. I must have written down 200 or 300 by now. Carl Jung might have called some of them numinous—moments when you sense the presence of something 'utterly Other,' both terrifying and awe-inspiring.

Dreams, like encrypted messages, seemed to be trying to reveal some hidden meaning to me.

Sometimes, I could decode them right away, especially with the help of my psychotherapist. But most of the time, I felt like a detective, pinning clues to the wall, hoping to one day find the thread that ties them all together.

Only now, from this oversaturated solution of salt, a crystal begins to form. I reread dreams from 2020 and gasp: “So that’s what you were saying! How could I have missed it?”

I marvel at the patience, ingenuity, and care my subconscious has shown toward my mind, even when it was arrogant, clumsy, and dense. The only explanation is that my epiphany is worth the effort.

Not for humanity, but for me—the one I barely know.

My future self guides, protects, and teaches my present self, like a wise master guiding a careless apprentice. Knowledge flows each night in the form of strange dreams, and each day in vague sensations.

But sadly, the student skips classes as if there will be no final exam.

For more than 2,500 years, the Delphic maxim has been: “Know thyself.” Although 147 inscriptions are carved into the temple walls, this one remains central.

Why? Because everything we so deeply need has always been within us.

Let’s stop looking for keys to a lock that doesn’t even exist.

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander

About 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.

The Hunter’s Vision / January 22, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

Peña de Candamo cave, some 18,000 years ago

Sometimes, a task stands before you that takes your breath away.

It doesn’t matter how others see it. If the mere thought of tackling it overwhelms you, that’s all you feel. It’s like food poisoning, a malaria attack, or a nightmare—in that moment, all that matters is what you feel, not them.

So, what do you do with a problem like this? One option is to live through it symbolically.

Have you ever seen Paleolithic cave drawings? They show hunters chasing mammoths, deer, and bison. Often, the animals are shown wounded, with arrows sticking out of them.

The hunter-artist lived out his desired future while he painted.

If that sounds absurd, consider the advantages:

A foggy future took on a clear, tangible shape.
Anxiety decreased, and the hunter felt more in control.
Imagination spun out scenarios, letting reason choose the best one.

It’s as if the problem has found a solution that hasn’t yet materialized.

When you face a simple problem, there’s no need to draw on the cave wall. Your subconscious has templates ready to go, and you use them without even noticing.

But what if the problem feels unsolvable and impossible to ignore? That’s a sign of immense value hidden within — for you.

What matters most to you today—stability, creativity, growth, meaning, freedom, or perhaps all of the above?

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander

About 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.

Anomaly's Call / January 21, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

Something truly new never reveals itself right away.

It’s more like:

A hunch about big changes,
A glimmer at the edge of your vision,
The feeling you’re not alone,
A familiar voice in a crowd,
A guess in the last moments of a dream,
A knot in your stomach,
Unexplainable laughter,
Goosebumps on your skin, and so on.

Your senses catch it, but your mind refuses to accept it. And it makes sense—there’s no clear shape, no stable pattern.

Intuition screams, “I swear I saw it! What if it’s important?” The mind cuts her off: “Where? There’s nothing there! You imagined it. Stop bothering me!”

The mind is busy solving standard problems; it doesn’t want distractions from what might be nonsense. Anomalies have no place in the old framework, especially if they threaten to disrupt the usual order.

What if, like a child, you just close your eyes, and the anomaly disappears? Then there’d be no disappointments, no worries, no wasted energy.

The mind demands ironclad guarantees, but intuition can’t give those.

Why? Because novelty is like a woman who needs a partner to dance. She makes it clear she’s willing, but he has to invite her.

Inside a person, two voices argue: The mind: “Why her? Are you sure she’s interested? Can she even dance?” Intuition: “Fool! Go to her, pay attention, and you’ll see.”

A blank canvas needs a brush, and stacked firewood needs a spark. Inert matter will sleep until touched by a Creator. Or its awakening will stretch out for an extra hundred years.

The most productive people are those who constantly dance with novelty.

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander

About 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.

Invisible Treasure / January 20, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

Imagine someone loves you deeply and sees right through you. He knows exactly what you’re desperately missing—your craving for X. And he has an abundance of X, enough to overwhelm you with it.

Wanting to help you sincerely, what would your benefactor do?

Naturally, he’d scatter these treasures all around you. Wherever you go, you’d bump into them—they’d drop on your head, stick to your boots, and cling to your pants.

But true love isn’t about seeing a hungry baby or a tame pet in you. It’s about recognizing your potential as a person, your freedom to choose your way.

Besides, people don’t value what’s handed to them on a silver platter. We need to earn the right to say, “I did it!” and to hear reality affirm, “Yes, you did.”

So, how do you solve this puzzle cleverly? He’d make it seem like there are no treasures, yet they’re absolutely there.

To see the gift, you must change your worldview. And that’s the hardest work of all because it means rethinking the beliefs you hold dear. It’s easier to change your job, family, or country.

After all, who’s holding you back? Who’s standing in your way? Who’s depriving you?

That’s right—you are. So, who can change everything in an instant?

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander

About 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.

Creative Sabotage / January 18, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

If you have the chance, it’s worth running the business yourself. Bring on as many contractors as you need, form alliances, but don’t rush to hire a team—especially not for trivial tasks.

Why? Because every person has a spark of creativity and craves meaning.

Of course, this manifests in a broad spectrum. Some people may seem far removed from “higher matters.” But no, they just don’t use those words. Their behavior speaks volumes.

I remember a driver at our ad agency. In the middle of the day, he was often nowhere to be found. “Where’s Valera? Where did he disappear to?” The managers would scramble to find him so he could deliver important documents to clients.

He figured out that with a fixed salary, the best way to maximize his benefit was to avoid getting behind the wheel as much as possible. All his creative energy went into playing a game of hide-and-seek.

What did this mean for the business? Frustration, delays, and losses.

Now imagine half your staff acting exactly like that. Every day, they invent clever ways to meet their personal goals, which, unfortunately, are far removed from the company’s goals.

You’ll be exhausted fighting this endless entropy.

The more skilled, experienced, and mature a person is, the easier it is to align his motivation with the company’s vision. A true professional will even challenge the CEO and owners, asking, “What’s the purpose of all this?”

The best of them don’t need to be told “how.” Just give them:

A clear destination.
The reason it matters.
Authority to act.
Resources to execute.
A fair reward.

These people will unlock their potential for the greater good. You won’t need to micromanage them. They’ll work while the CEO sleeps. They’ll go the extra mile and pitch new ideas to the board.

Building a business with people like that is pure joy. If you don’t have that option, you’ll achieve more on your own.

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander

About 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.

Speed of the World / January 18, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

Everyone knows the experience of a long road trip in a car. On an empty highway at high speed, you almost fall into a trance. With each passing minute, you steadily get closer to your destination.

But what if the destination is moving closer to you?

When I was a kid, there was a driving simulator game. In it, you controlled a car on a circular track. The car stayed still while the winding road moved toward it, along with bridge beams you had to avoid.

It felt very realistic. At the highest speed, the danger level was off the charts. The winner was the one who could stay focused on the goal the longest.

Do you see the parallels with adult life?

When the world feels safe and predictable, you move smoothly from point A to point B. You might even pick up speed on the straightaways. The world seems static while you move through it with energy and joy.

Everything changes when a sudden storm hits, the road vanishes, and the GPS falters. Now you're driving through dark, unfamiliar mountains with your wife and small kids in the back, dreaming of reaching a cozy hotel instead of wandering in the night.

It feels like you’re standing still while the entire world rushes at you.

The solution? Shift your “game” into low gear. Sometimes, you must stop completely and root yourself in the ground. The more chaotic the world becomes, the faster it exhausts itself.

Your job, like a lighthouse in a storm, is to keep shining. And you can’t do that without staying focused on what truly matters.

In this case, it means marveling at the power of nature, cracking jokes, and encouraging the kids by imagining how you’ll laugh about this adventure later. Find harmony within yourself, and the outside world will eventually settle down.

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander

About 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.

Museum of Beliefs / January 17, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

Some beliefs are so dear to us that we can’t let them go. We patch them with tape, prop them up, and force everyone around us to tiptoe past them. Harmony? Forget about it.

This is a conflict between the past and the future, playing out in the present. The future races by with rebellious shouts, trying to knock over our fragile treasures. That youthful energy feels out of place in a space not meant for play.

And that’s exactly it: this part of our life is a museum, a storage room, a china shop.

But the point of a museum or a storage room isn’t to keep everything. Otherwise, it’s pathological hoarding. And here’s the thing: only 42% of people see their hoarding as a problem.

You can’t find an answer if you don’t even want to ask the question.

Change will only happen when a person wakes up. Sometimes, that takes a fire in the cluttered warehouse. Once all the “precious stuff” is gone, the surprised person might finally feel: "At last, I am free."

A wise person understands this dynamic and tries to avoid stress, burns, and ashes. How? By identifying beliefs that have long served their purpose but still cling to us out of sentimentality.

The key is to create a controlled environment—a kind of lab—where you can gently study yourself with someone who knows how and truly cares about your growth.

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander

About 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.

Motion in the Dark / January 16, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

This picture is completely still, but your brain insists, “It’s moving!”

The peripheral drift illusion comes from how we perceive light and shadow. Retinal cells process dark areas and shifts from light to dark more slowly.

This effect is more noticeable at the edges of your vision, where fewer cells handle details, and contrasts feel sharper. That’s when the brain “glitches” and fills in transitions with motion that isn’t really there.

Think about how you imagine something stirring in total darkness.

This asymmetry isn’t a flaw—it’s an evolutionary advantage. Movement on the edges of your vision meant survival: either you were hunting, or you were being hunted.

Peripheral vision is designed to catch the faintest motion, even if it’s blurry. Better to panic over nothing than miss a snake slithering in the grass. Scientists call this a threat-detection bias—your brain’s safety net against danger.

When there’s light, everything’s clear—you know at a glance if it’s friend, foe, or irrelevant. But darkness? That’s a whole different game.

Darkness can hide anything. That’s why we stare into it with a mix of fear and curiosity, thinking: “Is it really X? I hope not. But what if it is?”

No wonder darkness is often linked to evil, while light symbolizes good.

But there’s another perspective. Darkness can be the raw material. It invites the Creator to explore it and extract meaning and value.

When seen this way, the darkness of the earth, the cosmos, or the subconscious becomes desirable. It holds untapped potential, waiting for you to uncover it.

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander

About 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.

Trust the Unseen / January 15, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

We trust our eyes too much. The same goes for what we can smell, hear, or touch. If we can sense it, we think it’s real, reliable, solid. Everything else seems less important.

But this is a falsehood—we confuse physicality with reality.

The truly important things are often hidden from sight:

a gut feeling about a business opportunity,
an emerging trend taking shape,
a partner’s abnormal behavior,
the union of a sperm and egg,
imagining a desired future,
a brewing palace coup,
a virus breaking free,
a paradoxical idea,
a leap of faith, and so on.

Is it real if it’s not there?

Let’s clarify: is it real if it’s not there yet?

Or put another way: is it real if your eyes can’t see it yet?

Given the scale of future change, the unseen is a greater reality.

That’s why it’s crucial to notice the first faint signals in your life.

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander

About 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.

Frame for Weak Spots / January 14, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

A young grappler asked me today about my approach to training. I told him my principle is simple: sweat every day.

Twice a week, Brazilian jiu-jitsu takes care of that. It's strength training, endurance, mobility, plus a bonus: therapy and a social club all in one.

The other days, I train at home with kettlebells, a mace, and resistance bands.

While explaining my priorities to him, I surprised myself with an insight:

Because of my knee problems, one day is focused on them.
Because of my lower back issues, another day is dedicated to it.
Then, because of my knees again, "leg day" always follows.
Training the problem forearms and neck completes the cycle.

I realized that I have to work on strengthening my weak points.

For five decades, my body has been collecting the consequences of my mistakes. A reckless jump as a child, a bad throw in my youth, neglect later on—you name it.

Unfortunately, after an injury, your body never returns to how it was.

The choice is simple: either swallow pills all the time or strengthen the muscle and ligament system around your "bottleneck."

The idea is like the central frame of a skyscraper, the larch wood piles holding up Venice, or the sheathing of electrical cables.

You can’t completely fix an injury, but you can—and should—improve the framework’s durability. In the process, all the other healthy muscles and ligaments get involved. The body works as a whole.

That’s how a harmful factor starts to bring real benefits.

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander

About 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.

Cause #1 / January 13, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

An expert is someone who can identify the #1 cause behind a cluster of problems. Naturally, an expert has no trouble identifying solution #1.

Everyone else? They’ll argue themselves hoarse, tangled in problems and solutions #101, 256, or 500. They lack depth of experience to separate what’s crucial from what’s trivial.

A vivid example of this is the flood of wellness and longevity "gurus" on social media. They’ll pitch every possible method, diet, and supplement, claiming to turn you into a superhuman.

Social media itself fuels this fire, rewarding gurus for chasing attention rather than truth. The noise is deafening, and any real signal is drowned out.

But let’s be honest—the audience is at fault, too. People crave novelty. "Give me hope! Tell me the Water of Life is on sale (discount code courtesy of the guru)!" A true expert isn’t afraid to revisit an old, trusted piece of advice.

Take Dr. Peter Attia’s recent interview, for example:

"I think that the majority of the healthspan benefits that we speak of, both mind and body, are going to come from exercise. If someone said, 'Peter, just direct me to one thing,' I would direct them to read the cha on exercise and figure out a way to balance your exercise portfolio around the right amount of strength training, the right amount of cardio training, and the right amount of movement training. And I think that, on a singular level, that’s going to pay higher dividends."

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander

About 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.

The Strength of Weakness / January 12, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

"Don’t fight forces; use them," said philosopher, architect, and inventor Buckminster Fuller. But oh, how hard it is to live by this rule!

Why? Pride gets in the way. The ego craves an epic victory, imagining itself in a noble knight’s tournament, charging full speed, bone to bone.

The problem is, the ego challenges forces immeasurably stronger than itself—forces like nature, both within and around it.

Take the entrepreneur who works non-stop for years, neglecting food, sleep, and exercise, as if he has nine lives like a cat. He’s like a pilot refusing to land for refueling. Who will win—gravity or him?

You can’t stretch the day to defeat the night once and for all. And worse, every added imbalance costs you exponentially more.

In truth, our reserves of physical and mental strength are quite small. Even for top athletes and elite professionals, they are not infinite.

But weakness turns out to be a blessing because it humbles pride and activates the Creator mode:

"How do I find a clever way out of this dead end?"

What do you lean on when your own resources run dry? You make the destructive factor work for you and deliver immense benefits!

This pivot doesn’t require technology, experts, or investments. All it takes is a shift in how you see the situation. That’s it. Your mind does a flip, turns inside out, performs a dead loop.

And the best part is, you can make this move right now. Remember wise Bucky: "Don’t fight forces; use them."

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander

About 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.

Mind, Body, and Cosmos / January 11, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

A person believes he plans and directs his own life. In other words, he sees himself as the car's driver, not the passenger.

But here’s the hitch—he often ends up somewhere he never intended to go. When that happens, he blames bad roads, misleading signs, other drivers, or his own unpredictable car.

That last part is interesting. What does it mean for a car to be unpredictable? If the car won’t obey you, maybe it doesn’t belong to you. Or maybe this mechanical metaphor doesn’t fit, because what’s moving forward isn’t a machine—it’s a living organism. It has its own needs, goals, and life.

In other words, the one you think you are is riding on the back of a giant serpent. The serpent slithers along a path only it knows. And you? You’re just along for the ride. Hiding behind the illusion of control, the passenger imagines himself the driver.

It’s like a scuba diver declaring himself the Master of the Ocean.

Here, the swimmer is the mind, and the water is the body, nature, people, and the cosmos.

If you see yourself as only the mind, you’re trapped in a dilemma: surrender or conquer the non-mind—all the unpredictability of the world.

But what if, just for a second, you entertained the heretical thought that you’re far more than the mind? That you’re something completely different, and you just don’t know who you are yet?

What if you are the very force that’s been frightening you for so long? What if you are the serpent, confidently carrying the rider toward a destination he cannot see?

Unlike the mind, the serpent is deeply connected to the earth and everything around it. It knows without knowing. It sees truth without needing to reason. That’s why both of them—the serpent and the mind—are alive to this day.

Even more, they don’t have to fear or fight each other. The task is to overcome this split and restore wholeness. Your unpredictability can become a source of creativity as a result.

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander

About 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.

What Do You Really Want? / January 10, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

The central problem in business is this: people don’t know what they want.

Of course, they won’t admit it so easily. First, they’ll say something pretty but meaningless. Then they’ll act surprised. Finally, they’ll snap: “Isn’t it obvious?” At its core, it’s a popular game: “Guess what I mean.”

Everyone’s playing it: contractors and clients, employees and executives, owners and CEOs, the business community and the government.

It’s hard enough in a friendly game, where your family tries to guess the word you’re acting out. Imagine playing it with strangers who are stressed, tired, and in a hurry.

Business is the weaving of a shared pattern from threads of personal interests. And yet, each side sincerely believes it understands the other perfectly. That’s why they’re so outraged when accused of bad intentions.

It’s like a dance where both partners are moving to different music, constantly stepping on each other’s toes.

The result? Every person, company, and society pays a steep price: frequent mistakes, breakdowns, rising costs, lost opportunities, conflicts, and lawsuits.

This happens so often, it’s become part of business culture. People shrug and say, “It’s just the cost of doing business. What else can you do?”

But take any extreme activity where life and death draw a clear line between right and wrong. There, the expression and integration of personal interests into the common goal is the cornerstone of success.

And that’s the clue as to why true unity in business is so rare. Your business interests are the outward expression of your life’s purpose. In other words, they answer the question: “What am I living for?”

Few dare to ask themselves this because the answer might be terrifying. It’s easier to make up excuses. But as we’ve seen, that leads nowhere.

Build a space where people feel accepted and heard and the impossible can happen. Even more, the answer that once frightened you could become the energy source to live and create.

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander

About 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.

Business Tree of Life / January 9, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

Whose interests does the CEO protect? The obvious answer seems to be: “The company’s owners, of course!”

But what if there are several shareholders? What if they’re at odds? Whose side should the CEO take—A’s, B’s, or C’s?

And then come the voices from left and right: “Wait a second, what about customer satisfaction?” “Hey, don’t forget government expectations!” “What about the employees, society, the planet, and so on?”

It’s enough to leave anyone frozen in confusion—or losing their mind.

The way out is to see a business as a living organism. If it dies, would any of these groups actually benefit? No.

When a business goes bankrupt, everyone suffers:

Shareholders lose a valuable asset.
The government misses out on taxes.
Customers are forced to hunt for alternatives.
Employees have to rebuild a foundation of their lives.
The market takes a hit, especially if the product was impactful.
A poorer society cares less about its future or its surroundings.

The bottom line: The CEO's primary goal is to ensure the stable prosperity of the company.

Metaphorically, the CEO is a gardener, and the business is the tree of life. Storms, diseases, pests, and wild animals constantly threaten to destroy it. Whether there’s one beneficiary or dozens, there will be nothing left to divide if the tree dies.

But when the harvest is abundant, there’s more than enough for everyone.

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander

About 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.

Hidden in Plain Sight / January 8, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

The value of big, clear, and tangible things is obvious. We’ve long known how to use them for good. That’s why we eagerly buy them and take care of them.

Obvious things provide a foundation and peace to an anxious mind.

The anxious mind believes a disaster is just around the corner, so the hand jerks toward the emergency brake. Like someone falling from a tree, desperately grabbing for any branch. The sturdier and thicker the saving branch, the faster instinct commands to seize and hold onto it at any cost.

When time is short and the risk is great, something is always better than nothing.

But actual emergencies are rare, while the mind insists they lurk at every step. Modern society, like a paranoid individual, has elevated its hyper-valuable idea to the status of absolute truth:

The intangible is nothing. Only the obvious exists.

You just want to hug society, calm it down, and give it hope. Because the truth lies on the opposite end of the child’s seesaw.

Watch a video of a seed planted in the soil. After watering, what happens first? Does a ripe orange suddenly appear? No.

For 11 days, the seed grows long roots deep into the ground. Without a clever camera, all we’d see is a green sprout breaking through the soil on day 18. But even then, the fruit won’t appear for another 5 years.

Something valuable already exists, even if it feels like there’s nothing there.

A juicy fruit is hidden inside a dry seed buried in dirty soil. Who believes in this enough to “pointlessly” water the ground? A farmer or gardener who has witnessed the miracle many times.

Does this not feel like a miracle to you? Then imagine the orange is you.

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander

About 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.