Envy of trees /  by Alexander Lyadov

 

Sometimes I envy trees. Especially those that have been observing life for several hundred years. One could accuse them of apathy, lack of willpower, or lack of ambition to move and achieve. If a dialogue were to take place, such words would seem strange to the trees. They would wiggle their crowns in surprise: “Why would someone who has everything run somewhere?

For example, the process of photosynthesis is simple and ascetic - it requires only carbon dioxide, water, and sunlight. All of this is available around you - you don’t need to produce anything. The risk of lack of mobility is debatable, because in a clear field in the rain you will be wet, regardless of whether you stop or run. As for the desire for new experiences and content, the trees settle in as if they were in a movie theater — life flows past and through them. If one observes a certain phenomenon for a very long time, the threads of numerous patterns will weave themselves into a carpet of wisdom. The realization that literally everything has happened many, many times before calms all emotion, leaving only a cool interest: “Ah, now it’s like this, well, well….”

After such reflection, the belief of the indigenous peoples of the Amazon basin that plants are wiser than we are doesn’t seem so naive. That’s what the Indians say: Master Plant. So they enter with deep reverence and gratitude into the ritual of “knowledge transfer,” whether it be Ayahuasca, San Pedro, or magic mushrooms. When for more than a thousand years a person after meeting with a Master comes out renewed, focused and energized, only a fearful and shortsighted mind could decide that some plants are so dangerous that they should fall under prohibition. Fortunately, a few decades have passed, historically a blink, and today there is a growing wave of serious scientific research confirming the exceptional benefits of cannabis, psilocybin, DMT and other substances found in wildlife.

Knowing everything up front, taking it as it comes, not rushing into anything. Generously passing on photosynthesized insights to those people who are willing to take them. I think I’ve described my nirvana. Wouldn’t you like to look at this crazy world through the eyes of a tree?

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander

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The Master /  by Alexander Lyadov

What is the difference between a Master and a specialist? The former are few and the latter are the majority. Even if you were able to weed out the pseudo-experts, which with the development of their marketing skills, is becoming increasingly difficult. The master gives you just one, but very focused advice and the chronic problem disappears.

Case in point - about a year ago, I developed lower back pain on my right side. Since I spend 6-12 hours a day at the computer, sometimes my favorite business therapy and creativity turned into torture. Getting my spine corrected by an orthopedist brought peace, but only for a couple of weeks. Traditional back pumping exercises brought no relief.

My versions were a sedentary lifestyle, kettlebells, wrestling, and even youthful injuries. I remember the first time I severely injured my lower back when, about 30 years ago, I was stretching fighting dogs while in a stupid bend. I listened to advice from doctors and fitness professionals offline and online that looked convincing… but didn’t help.

After stumbling across the channel of Jeff Cavaliere, a former physical therapist for the New York Mets team, I listened skeptically to him say that often lower back pain is not related to a herniated spine or weak back muscles. The problem is the medial gluteal muscle. When the body rests on one leg, this muscle tilts the pelvis to its side, in short, its function is to stabilize the pelvis. Jeff showed a very odd exercise — walking with a kettlebell suspended between your legs. It looked ridiculous from the outside, but the middle gluteal muscle was “killed” instantly. The result — my lower back pain was gone in a few days.

Health, education or business - in any area, the main thing is to find someone who knows how to highlight the non-obvious essence behind a jumble of minor details.

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander

You can help Ukraine defend itself and the World from Russian aggression here.

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The Shortest Way /  by Alexander Lyadov

 

Reading Murakami at bedtime continues to provide insights. Here’s an example: “- As you know, water always flows along the shortest path provided to it. However, in some cases, the shortest path is created by the water itself. A person’s thoughts — they are like water.”

The metaphor visualizes ambivalence-the simultaneous presence of two opposite properties. There is no contradiction here, for the appropriateness of water’s particular “behavior” is determined by the balance of power and context. It is as if water is testing any obstacle for strength, so that, taking into account the consumption of energy, it can choose the best of the alternatives - to destroy or bypass.

Is the obstacle amenable to pressure? Good! All the power of the accumulated water in the dam rushes into a microscopic crack. A boulder in the path of the stream is irresistible? No problem! Water eagerly rushes around. Or it evaporates to condense elsewhere. Even if the rock turns out to be a boundless monolith, water will grind the rock for a thousand years. And what’s its hurry?

So a new facet emerges in the Buddha’s words, “Your suffering is caused by your resistance to what is. You have to make sure that what is in front of you is not the imaginary, but reality. Often an impregnable pile of circumstances tells us, “Don’t even think!” Sometimes this is true, and then it’s time to activate plasticity. But first it makes sense to examine the problem carefully to find its vulnerable point. Poke at it, and the problem is gone. How much time and effort is saved!

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander

You can help Ukraine defend itself and the World from Russian aggression here.

”Who are you and what do you do?"
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Free yourself once and for all? /  by Alexander Lyadov

For years I’d been resting my head painfully against the mysterious glass ceiling, preventing me from rising up and breathing fully. If there was a hatch, the intricate lock required either a secret code or a picklock. I was convinced that once this puzzle was solved, the world would open toward me once and for all. It took a lot of trying and extra effort, but in the end, it seemed, I overcame this obstacle. And indeed, living, working, and creating became much easier for me. Similarly, a beginner’s motorcycle engine overheats and roars until he has mastered the throttle, brake and clutch knobs enough to switch to the next speed in time.

To my surprise, I didn’t instantly go into Earth orbit. I’m not complaining, though. So many new possibilities opened up that you only have time to mark promising areas to methodically develop them later. But I can’t help but notice friction and discomfort, now in other places, which is a harbinger of more problems to come.

Anyone familiar with the Theory of Constraints should presumably not be surprised by the displacement of the bottleneck. After one bottleneck has been successfully overcome, another bottleneck is sure to appear. Fortunately, the bottle itself increases in size. But one thing is production or business, and another thing is personality. How strong is the illusion of getting rid of all the problems in one fell swoop? In reality, each of us in our profession, creativity and personal development is doomed to open one lock after another. I think when this thought can be accepted, then it becomes even interesting what awaits us next.

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

You can help Ukraine defend itself and the World from Russian aggression here.

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The value of joroganism /  by Alexander Lyadov

Did you know that Spotify podcasts are finally available in Ukraine? I downloaded a bunch of episodes of the Joe Rogan Experience out of joy. I hadn’t listened to the show for two years because of the mega-deal that Joe got $200M in exchange for a Spotify exclusive. Now I’m enjoying an episode with Gavin De Becker, a security specialist for governments, large corporations, and celebrities. Also, Gavin is the author of my favorite book, The Gift of Fear, which I’ve been quoting in my articles for years.

During the interview, Gavin and Joe argued heatedly about the usefulness of self-defense courses for ordinary people. Joe was concerned about the short courses, after which people have the illusion of security. But then, as often happens in arguments, it turned out that they were, first, talking about different aspects, and second, Gavin explained important nuances. For example, there are two types of predators that attack women, the persuasion predator and the power predator. There are disproportionately more cases of the former (98%). That’s why it’s so important to teach women, teenagers, children and everyone else to pay attention and trust their intuition signals as early as possible. Courses like Model Mugging that Gavin talked about introduce real-world scenarios and actions that are important to take at different stages of a dangerous encounter to save yourself.

And then Gavin said: “You just did something, Joe, that is something interesting example of “joeroganism”, which is you went from your opinion, which is very well informed because you have a lot of experience and then you heard some new information and then you said: “You know, maybe I don’t know enough about of those classes.” Very few people do what you just did. And I see you do that all the time. And this is a kind of hallmark of this show.” Gavin is right. It is for the thrust of truth that I have always appreciated the Joe Rogan Experience more than any other show.

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander

You can help Ukraine defend itself and the World from Russian aggression here.

”Who are you and what do you do?"
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Self-training /  by Alexander Lyadov

Today I trained my dog, and once again I was amazed at how readily he does what I want, if the exercise has an element of play. No, he won’t refuse a treat, of course. But other things being equal, the play instinct takes over. It is impossible not to draw a parallel with the motivation of himself or others.

Someone has a strong “food instinct” and will do anything for a “treat,” such as a big bounty from the sale of a business. And for another, like me, there is nothing better than just a fascinating task to solve. Once my curiosity has been activated, nothing — neither fear, nor discomfort, nor mistakes — can stop me. The reward is important to me, but it is secondary. Whenever I’ve tried to seduce myself with money, regalia, or recognition, it’s either ended badly, or nothing. It was like that joke about the “defective” balloons: “Yes, they are bright and beautiful, but they don’t make me happy.”

On the contrary, if I followed my curiosity, even into frightening uncertainty, I always ended up gaining knowledge, experience, and a bonus on top. Sometimes, however, I had to move in complete darkness until I found the Ariadne’s thread that led me out of the labyrinth and into the light.

It’s important to know what it is that truly drives you. It’s the suprarational pull that both navigates you through the chaos of life as a GPS and helps you overcome all difficulties, giving them meaning. After all, without long-term effort against all odds, it is impossible to become a Master. Investor and entrepreneur Naval Ravikant astutely wrote, “If you’re not interested, you’ll never be good at it. And what turns you on - a game, a treat, or something else?

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander

You can help Ukraine defend itself and the World from Russian aggression here.

”Who are you and what do you do?"
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"I have an extremely important business decision to make. Can you help me?
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How to learn faster? /  by Alexander Lyadov

If you explain to a person in detail how to breathe when swimming a crawl, he will, of course, immediately understand everything, if he is not stupid. However, after starting to swim, it is enough to inhale the water once and all this understanding disappears. Fear of drowning instantly turns on the “antediluvian” amygdala instead of the “advanced” neocortex. This phenomenon is called “The Knowing-Doing Gap.” By the way, there is a book with this title in which Stanford professors Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton explore why so many companies fail to implement the insights they’ve worked so hard to acquire.

There is too great a difference between understanding something with the mind and with the whole body, both physical and corporate. The advantage of the mind is freedom from any restrictions or norms. One can enter or change any parameter to obtain an ideal. The disadvantage of reflection, however, is that the mind does not interact with reality itself, but only with its model. And no matter how sophisticated the terrain map, it will always be inferior to the literal terrain in relevance, detail, and nuance.

Knowing all this, an experienced coach will certainly try to impart treasures of knowledge to a novice, but will never chase him over the buoys, much less in a storm. Instead, in the student’s mind, the coach will build a bridge between the way things are and the way things should be. This is achieved with the help of leading exercises, for example, when holding on to the float with one hand and wearing flippers, you just have to turn your head to one side to take a breath. It’s like a prototype technological product-it’s primitive, awkward, and strange, but it contains deep meaning. Something imperfect, like a mock-up, a draft or a blanks, turns out to be the perfect means to make the transition from zero to one.

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander

You can help Ukraine defend itself and the World from Russian aggression here.

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Cleansing in the mud /  by Alexander Lyadov

Alexander Lyadov's gym since 1972

Yesterday I celebrated my 50th birthday with friends. Although we only had a few glasses of wine, I had a hard time waking up, because instead of going straight to bed, as neuroscientist Andrew Huberman recommended, I stayed up late reading greetings from kind people. Worse, the day before I had thoughtlessly suggested meeting at the tatami at 9 a.m., which I now regretted. I don’t know about you, but for me sleep deprivation is worse than a hangover. The feeling in my body is like jet lag, as if I had just arrived in Hong Kong.

Whenever in this situation, I remember the advice of podcaster Joe Rogan, who, no matter how awful he feels after a long flight, the first thing he does is look for the hotel gym or go on a savage trail run in the hills. This sounds like torture to the body, because instead of lifting heavy weights it wants to curl up in a dark hole and wall up the entrance. But, as is often the case in life, the best solutions are paradoxical.

So it is here - a voluntary step into discomfort brings relief. Jet lag causes a person’s circadian rhythm to become out of sync with the natural circadian rhythm, resulting in fatigue, insomnia, headaches, loss of appetite, etc. And a strong physical load, figuratively speaking, reloads the body and integrates it into the local spatial and temporal context.

Walking out of the gym today, I also felt more awake and refreshed. Remembering all the cases when I had doubts about going or not going to the workout, in 9 out of 10 cases the “after” feeling was much better than the “before” feeling. The medieval alchemists were right when they said, “In sterquiliniis invenitur”, which means, “You will find everything in the dirt.” It is where one absolutely does not want to look that one should look for all the answers.

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander

You can help Ukraine defend itself and the World from Russian aggression here.

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”Who are you and what do you do?"
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.

"I have an extremely important business decision to make. Can you help me?
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Tokyo solution to dilemmas /  by Alexander Lyadov

“If I don’t know what to do next, I try to always follow one rule. - A rule? - If given a choice: a formless object or an object with form, choose the formless one. That is my rule. When I ran into a wall, I always followed it, and if I took my time, it always led to good results. Even if it was hard at the time.” I was absent-mindedly reading Haruki Murakami’s “Tokyo Legends” at bedtime last night, when suddenly this fragment surprised me, rousing my mind and chasing away sleep. Outlandish advice, eh? There is a desire to reveal it carefully and unhurriedly, like a fragile birthday present, wrapped in many layers by people dear to you.

As a business therapist, I deal with a variety of dilemmas all the time. Therefore, I can easily imagine a “fork” or, as some say, “horns of a dilemma”, which was insidiously thrown by fate or a person created it for himself. The peculiarity of such a choice is that essentially there is no choice. If at least one of the alternatives met expectations, the decision would be obvious. But as it is, on each side there is only, “Yes, but…”. So the man agonizes, crucified on the horns of a dilemma — it is impossible to choose, and impossible not to choose.

The advice of the hero of the story is curious in that it asks you to assess the degree of formation of options X and Y. Each of them, by definition, is far from ideal. Therefore, it makes sense to choose the variant whose optionality is high. After all, the formed object X does not promise anything new — it is defective and will remain so. A shapeless object Y is quite another matter. It has room for maneuver, degrees of freedom, and secret potential. Of course, all indeterminacy is ambivalent, that is, it promises both “minus” and “plus. But with Y at least there is a chance to jump into another orbit, while X is knowingly unacceptable and boring. Also, the finality of X makes you passive, whereas Y invites you to become a creator of your own volition.

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander

You can help Ukraine defend itself and the World from Russian aggression here.

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”Who are you and what do you do?"
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.

"I have an extremely important business decision to make. Can you help me?
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Synthesis is the way /  by Alexander Lyadov

 

“When I first wrote to Alexander, there were no expectations-it was a step of desperation. I’m glad I chose a long-term collaboration. It’s akin to building a business with a partner. What I liked most is that he doesn’t try to teach me anything. Alexander’s approach is both flexible and firm. Firmness is evident in the focus on selected hypotheses, and flexibility — in the options for testing these hypotheses.” — wrote Sasha Bondar, founder of Reintech, a service that helps U.S. CTOs find mature Ruby and JavaScript developers, in a testimonial.

Feedback from clients helps crystallize meanings I’ve vaguely felt for a long time. At one time, PromoRepublic co-founder Valery Grabko gave me a gift after the session when he said I help at the intersection of business and personality. Here Sasha Bondar points to another important aspect of productive business therapy: maintaining a balance of flexibility and firmness.

An entrepreneur would not be himself if his mind were not open to new ideas. The flip side is that the laser beam of attention tends to turn into a scattered beam of nightlight. The founder’s resources are extremely limited, and tempting opportunities loom under every bush. But business success, like compound interest, is shaped by methodical effort over a long period of time.

The dilemma of Systemicity vs. Optionality must be creatively solved by every entrepreneur. A clue is given by the scientific method of cognition, the basis of which is observation and experimentation. According to Popper’s criterion, every scientific theory is falsifiable, that is, it cannot be fundamentally irrefutable. But until then, we can confidently rely on a valid theory or hypothesis, while maintaining openness to novelty. The synthesis of firmness and flexibility. Dynamic stability. Another paradox.

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander

You can help Ukraine defend itself and the World from Russian aggression here.

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”Who are you and what do you do?"
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.

"I have an extremely important business decision to make. Can you help me?
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When to sell? /  by Alexander Lyadov

In 2005, Rory Fatt founded Royalty Rewards, a marketing platform for small businesses, and in 2022 successfully sold his business, which generated $85 million in sales. Reflecting today on the question of what he would have done differently in the process of selling the business, Rory said: “I’d say not starting (this process) early enough. When you start the business you should be thinking of exiting” When you start a business, you have to think about getting out of it.” This thought is not obvious to everyone.

Often entrepreneurs are so mesmerized by a market opportunity that they rush to develop it and ignore the “little things” like a partnership agreement or shape the entire operating process for years to suit themselves. If they are focused, hard-working and, of course, lucky, they become owners of a large fortune. The nuance is that the vast majority of it is on paper, because the liquidity of assets is close to zero. If the unexpected happens — a serious illness of the founder, shareholder conflict, competitors’ intrigues, a security raid, a revolution, a pandemic or a war - the solid business will collapse like a house of cards.

Even if there is no force majeure, but the founder decides to sell the business, tired of ploughing 24/7/365 for decades. But it turns out there are no willing buyers in its current form. Or the “sell as is” option means a tangible discount to the value. Why? Confusing legal structure, unresolved disputes with former partners, handling the company’s money as if it were a personal wallet, a strange system of financial accounting that is far from international, etc. Buying such a business, you can not just “turn on and go." At first, you have to clean up the Avgiye stables, for which you either have to be a hero or pay Hercules to clean it up.

Being able to sell your company quickly for a high price at any appropriate moment is an additional degree of freedom. That’s why a wise founder starts thinking about the selling process even when the company isn’t there yet.

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander

You can help Ukraine defend itself and the World from Russian aggression here.

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”Who are you and what do you do?"
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.

"I have an extremely important business decision to make. Can you help me?
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Heir and bastard /  by Alexander Lyadov

 

If something in reality stubbornly exists, it must be there for something. Without knowledge of the history of its appearance and the specific context in which it is organic, it can seem strange and alien. And, therefore, cause embarrassment, irritation, fear, or squeamishness. After reading these words, which person first comes to your mind?

But this is also true of our rich inner world. And there really is a lot to be found. For a person’s personality is not much like a statue from a single piece of marble. A better analogy is an oriental carpet, the ornament of which is woven from threads of different colors. But if in a carpet every thread has value, it is often not so with regard to our personality.

Some aspects of our personality are very attractive to us, we are proud of them, we recognize and love them, like a king loves his heir. But there are other aspects that hide in the corners, trying not to come to our attention. As history shows, every ruler has always had children who were begotten out of wedlock. It did not matter which of them was actually more talented and more like the mind and courage of the ruler-father. According to the conventions of society, the legitimate son received all the benefits of the throne, wealth, and universal respect. What was left for the bastard? That’s right, overthrow the legitimate authority to avenge perceived injustices and assert his right to be.

Almost everyone finds themselves either caught off guard by a “palace coup” or forced to suppress one “rebellion” after another on a regular basis. Such a struggle, in essence, with oneself, takes a lot of strength and makes us weaker against real enemies and dangers from outside.

The way out? We need to make friends with the negative self. Or, more precisely, with someone who only appears as such because of conventional norms we once internalized that are actually alien to us.

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander

You can help Ukraine defend itself and the World from Russian aggression here.

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”Who are you and what do you do?"
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.

"I have an extremely important business decision to make. Can you help me?
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Tumbleweed /  by Alexander Lyadov

 

Our world has changed rapidly and most of your, as well as my business meetings, probably now take place online through various apps. Curiously, in WhatsApp, for example, the conversation starts with excellent sound quality, but after 30 minutes there is often such a nasty echo that you have to interrupt the conversation and call again.

Whatever process you take in life, you see the same phenomenon everywhere. Over time, even the most beautiful “system,” be it a mobile app, the bottom of a ship, a skyscraper, a state, an organization, or an individual, tends to accumulate noise, garbage, seaweed, barnacles, dirt, dust, waste, lies, and mistakes. All this crap can be called the beautiful word entropy. We know from the second law of thermodynamics that entropy will steadily increase in a closed, nonequilibrium system. I see it now on the example of my apartment, which in just a week without cleaning turns into the Kazakh steppe with a tumbleweed of dog hair in every corner.

The conclusion? The system cannot simply be left unattended. Returning later, we risk finding non-functional junk, a nibbled backbone or dēlīrium, i.e. nonsense. Renewal, restart, renaissance, transformation is not a whim, but a hygienic norm. Not only survival, but also prosperity depends on it. With respect to a software product, this statement is self-evident. But how often does the founder of an IT company apply this thought to the assumptions underlying his business, his relationship with his partner, much less himself?

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander

You can help Ukraine defend itself and the World from Russian aggression here.

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”Who are you and what do you do?"
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"I have an extremely important business decision to make. Can you help me?
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Breathe in and out /  by Alexander Lyadov

I learned to swim all styles on my own by watching more experienced swimmers. It was enough to stay in the water, but my technique was not right. So 40 years later I finally decided to take a lesson from a coach. It was immediately clear that he was a master. First, he clarified my goals and limitations. Secondly, he carefully watched my trial swim. Thirdly, he gave me only a few pieces of advice, but very simple and, most importantly, specific to me, and not to some ideal Alexander. Also, the coach confirmed my hunch that breathing is the cornerstone in swimming, as I had previously seen in jiu-jitsu and kettlebells. No technique can compensate for errors in the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide between the body and the environment.

In the swimming pool, this fundamental thought comes very quickly. After all, despite its ordinariness, water is completely alien to our being in it. If you hesitate a bit and inhale water instead of air, that’s it — panic in your head and adrenaline in your blood, because the environment became hostile in a moment. According to WHO statistics, drowning is the 3rd leading cause of unintentional injury death worldwide.

You can swim slowly or quickly, technically or clumsily, beautifully or terribly — it’s all secondary. But it is impossible to swim with impaired breathing, especially if the distance is X kilometers and not one pool. The brain is very sensitive to lack of oxygen, which every wrestler was convinced of when, after 30-40 seconds, he switched off from a chokehold or when he forced his opponent to sleep.

Unlike swimming, kettlebells, or yoga, in other aspects of life we tend not to pay much attention to breathing. But extrapolating this idea, I can only imagine the underappreciated potential, especially for intellectual workers, hidden in such an unremarkable activity as breathing in and out. Now I want to listen to the Huberman Lab podcast episode, “Master your breathing.”

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander

You can help Ukraine defend itself and the World from Russian aggression here.

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”Who are you and what do you do?"
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.

"I have an extremely important business decision to make. Can you help me?
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Lucky? /  by Alexander Lyadov

 

It seems as if the biggest problem is when you don’t have something you need, or when you are in danger of losing something you care about. In reality, this problem is simply more conspicuous because its contours are clear and its essence is as acute as thirst in the Sahara. But no less difficult is the condition when, as everyone else thinks, you are doing well in business (or life), but for some reason you feel sad, desperate and lost. This condition is exacerbated by the fact that you can’t tell anyone about your feelings. After all, others react with a mixture of surprise, envy, and annoyance: “How dare you not be happy, ungrateful!".

For example, the founder spent a long time building and finally sold his business for a handsome sum with a premium multiplier to EBITDA. Or the owner has a project in his portfolio that yields a more than generous stream of regular dividends, but requires him to get involved cumulatively only one month a year. In theory, both “lucky” owners should now be enjoying full freedom — financially, operationally and existentially.

But the attentive observer will read the confusion in the depths of their eyes, as evidenced by their chaotic rushes from one investment idea to another, be it a promising startup, a cryptocurrency, or the stock market. Things look promising at first, as the investor is extremely busy and involved in the process. But I remember several entrepreneurs (myself included) who buried a significant portion of their fortune in project 1, 2 and 3 this way, only to actually get nothing. What’s wrong?

Warren Buffett said: “It’s insane to risk what you have for something you don’t need.” The problem is that often we, on the one hand, do not know what we really need and, on the other hand, easily devalue what we already have. We rush to fill the vacuum that arises inside us with whatever we can. And only losses sober us up, forcing us to ask ourselves fundamental questions: "Where am I? Where am I going? And for what?". This is where the long-awaited journey home begins.

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander

You can help Ukraine defend itself and the World from Russian aggression here.

Alexander Lyadov portrait

”Who are you and what do you do?"
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.

"I have an extremely important business decision to make. Can you help me?
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Willpower? /  by Alexander Lyadov

Willpower is often put on a pedestal, but isn’t it overrated? Of course, it’s great to be able to concentrate all your abilities and do things that are difficult, scary or just lazy. Willpower is like nitrous oxide in street-racing cars - you push a button and immediately get ahead. Days, weeks, well, months can still be pushed by willpower. But if the “race” stretches for years or decades, you need a more stable system for moving yourself forward.

Overexertion of nerves and emotions in the spirit of ancient Greek myths is certainly fascinating, but it is better when there is none at all. This resource is limited and unpredictable - today the will is enough, and tomorrow the “tank” is empty. In addition, if you need the effort of a group of people, for example, in business, it is naive to think that at any moment all employees are ready to make a “quantum leap”.

So what is there to lean on? First, it is a skill-an action that has been repeated so often that “the sword has become an extension of the hand.” A true professional, even when drunk, tired or sleep-deprived, may not create a masterpiece, but he won’t ruin a furrow. Secondly, it is technology - the application of scientific knowledge to solve practical problems. This involves reproducibility of the result, no matter who is operating the “machine”. The professional multiplies the power of his skills with technologies of all kinds, from tools and robots to paradigms and ideas.

Still, the perfect pusher is when you don’t need to be pushed. Or rather, something inside pulls you in the right direction without stopping. This pull is in everyone, but not everyone has understood and mastered it. When it does, one becomes unstoppable. Following his pulling, armored with skills and forced by technology, he consistently achieves more than he expected, without overexerting his will and at his own pace.

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

You can help Ukraine defend itself and the World from Russian aggression here.

Alexander Lyadov portrait

”Who are you and what do you do?"
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.

"I have an extremely important business decision to make. Can you help me?
Reserve a time on my calendar that is convenient for you to meet with me. We'll clarify your request and discuss options for how you can help.

From minus to plus /  by Alexander Lyadov

What kind of superpower would you like to have? I dream of being able to turn absolutely any situation from minus to plus. So far, I can’t boast about the skill. Sometimes such μεταμόρφωσις happens, but unpredictably and by itself. Where the “transformer” switch is inside me I do not know. But the facts of the spontaneous flip are reassuring. It’s like the mustang - wild power is there, it only needs to be tamed. The value lies in the hidden potential, which suddenly becomes available to you and significantly changes your life for the better.

It’s not just about extreme situations where the risks are high and such a superpower would help save assets, health, or even life. For everyday situations, it would also come in handy. Let’s say you’re stuck in an elevator with a stranger and it’s not clear when someone is going to get you out. A perfectly planned schedule for a series of important meetings goes down the drain. You get hot, can’t breathe, and have back pain. Irritation, anxiety, and anger grow. And then there’s this suspicious stranger, squeezing in with a trespass on your usual boundaries, as if in the streets of Bombay. Many wouldn’t hold back and vent their emotions on the other, especially if you have very important people waiting for you, your cellmate is nervous, and the ordeal has dragged on for several hours.

But with superpower, you don’t look for a “container” for your emotions on the outside, you miraculously process them on the inside. Despite the unfortunate uncertainty, you are calm, friendly, and humorous. Most importantly, your “system” appears to be open rather than isolated. Infected by your mood, the stranger relaxes and warms up. And so he, in response to your sincere interest, tells what he may not have revealed to anyone. When the elevator doors finally open, you even feel sorry for interrupting such a fascinating conversation.

By the way, seven years ago I had a similar experience after a motorcycle accident and even turned it into a podcast episode.

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

You can help Ukraine defend itself and the World from Russian aggression here.

Alexander Lyadov portrait

”Who are you and what do you do?"
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.

"I have an extremely important business decision to make. Can you help me?
Reserve a time on my calendar that is convenient for you to meet with me. We'll clarify your request and discuss options for how you can help.

Will you stick to it? /  by Alexander Lyadov

In a recent interview with world-class physical therapist Jeff Cavaliere, Andrew Hubeman suggested that whatever workout program you choose, the big question is sustainability - will you stick with the plan if the enjoyment is low and the duration and intensity are high?

How often does a person get inspired by another “system” for gaining muscle mass, increasing stamina or losing extra pounds, only to abandon the sport altogether in a month or two because of subconscious excuses: “I caught a cold,” “I was busy at work,” or “Now is not the time. When X is over, then…”. X changes regularly and the only thing that is stable is the accumulation of dust by the sports uniform in the corner. So the goal is to find your training plan in particular and the type of physical activity in general. The criterion should not be advancement, not popularity, and not the promised mega-usefulness, but a guarantee of no absences for a long period of time.

MMA coach Firas Zahabi points out the priority of consistency over intensity. What’s the point of putting yourself out there every time until you have a gag reflex if you end up losing a quarter to recover from an injury? Just as you should get up from the table slightly hungry, it makes sense to leave your workout awake rather than crawling away like a zombie.

And how often in business do owners get caught up in the trending fad in their industry and try to artificially instil it? But if the prerequisites are not naturally ripe for revolution, another false start is inevitable, plunging the team into depression. It is quite another matter when the solution is the answer to a long-winded business question, and its implementation is smooth, consistent and feasible. Is your business or sports plan sustainable?

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

You can help Ukraine defend itself and the World from Russian aggression here.

”Who are you and what do you do?"
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.

"I have an extremely important business decision to make. Can you help me?
Reserve a time on my calendar that is convenient for you to meet with me. We'll clarify your request and discuss options for how you can help.

Personal R&D process /  by Alexander Lyadov

27 years ago out of curiosity, I responded to the offer of an acquaintance from an English course: “A new international advertising agency has opened in Ukraine. They are forming a client service department. You should go”. After the interview, I remember standing in the street, as if struck by lightning, and thought: “God, how much I want to work here.”

It was too much of a contrast to a Ukrainian-American hair dye and shampoo company, where I, a graduate of the chemistry department, was involved in product certification and the search for technical specifications in dusty patent offices. Here, though the line of work was frighteningly unclear to me, but the very “body” of the Ark Communications agency beckoned me to it like a magnet. The office was located in a cozy two-story apartment, there were Apple computers on the desks, and the employees I met were young, feisty, and extremely smart.

Thus, ostensibly by accident, I entered the advertising industry, where I spent a mind-bogglingly exciting first ten years of my career. I went from advertising to wealth management, and from there to an Internet startup, then to private equity and venture capital fund, and finally to business therapy. Each time it was a knight’s move, a strange one before and a logical one after.

In the beginning, there was necessarily a reluctant step into the unknown: “Well, okay, except out of pure curiosity,” and then the delight of discovering the Klondike: “Wow! No, it would be a crime not to accept such an opportunity. The process of personal R&D is not linear and goes through knots of chaos, where one have to sacrifice own comfort. In that moment, confusion, doubt, suspicion, irritation or fear envelop the mind, demanding that you give up the novelty. But if you simmer patiently in the cauldron of uncertainty for a while, curiosity always wins out over fear in the end.

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander

You can help Ukraine defend itself and the World from Russian aggression here.

Alexander Lyadov portrait

”Who are you and what do you do?"
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.

"I have an extremely important business decision to make. Can you help me?
Reserve a time on my calendar that is convenient for you to meet with me. We'll clarify your request and discuss options for how you can help.

Together or apart? /  by Alexander Lyadov

“I think the number one most unrecognized reason startups fail is because the founders fell apart,” says Naval Ravikant, who has invested in dozens of companies, including Twitter, Uber and Yammer. But why “unrecognized?” Naval didn’t reveal his thinking, but let’s try to guess.

A successful partnership is a single organism, like the fusion of driver and navigator in a rally crew. Together they are power; separately, each is meaningless. When there is harmony between the founders, they effectively solve all problems one by one. This is a necessary but not sufficient condition for success. War, economic crisis, change of legislation, intrigues of competitors and miscalculations of the founders themselves - many reasons can ruin a startup. But at least the reasons are more or less conspicuous.

Another thing is a rift between the founders. Misunderstanding, irritation, and resentment can build up for quite a long time before the conflict escalates. But to the founders themselves, what is going on is not at all obvious. If you ask them about the quality of the relationship, they will say, “There are disputes, but in general everything is OK.” Employees are usually as confused as children whose parents stealthily devalue and hurt each other, but strenuously maintain the facade of a happy family. It takes the eyes of an independent expert who, noticing the typical signals and asking in-depth questions, diagnoses which stage of the nine is the conflict.

But most importantly, the dissonance in the “head” makes the whole corporate “body” slow and clumsy. Decisions are delayed, poorly analyzed, and never fully implemented. Mistakes accumulate like a snowball. And when the immune system is weakened, any one of ten thousand diseases can strike the body. So if revenue growth is slowing, margins are dropping, and the team is feverish, it makes sense to examine not the symptoms, the competition, or the market, but the co-founders - are they still together or are they de facto apart.

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

You can help Ukraine defend itself and the World from Russian aggression here.

Alexander Lyadov portrait

”Who are you and what do you do?"
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.

"I have an extremely important business decision to make. Can you help me?
Reserve a time on my calendar that is convenient for you to meet with me. We'll clarify your request and discuss options for how you can help.