Different /  by Alexander Lyadov

Jeff Dabe is a famous arm wrestler from Minnesota, who has won many awards during his long sports career. For his giant hands he was nicknamed Popeye, like the character of the cartoon “Popeye the Sailor”. It’s no wonder, because at 1 meter 75 cm in height, his forearm circumference is 49 centimeters. For comparison, Arnold Schwarzeneger’s bicep size in his prime years was 54-57 centimeters. Envious people even suspected Jeff of gigantism or elephantiasis, but experts at the University of Minnesota ruled it out. That’s the kind of Atlantean the American soil gave birth to. Judging by the photos, Jeff’s classmates didn’t bully him as a child.

If Jeff ended up being a violinist, that would be unusual. And he probably would have had to overcome a lot of obstacles along the way. But a successful career as an arm wrestler — that’s just natural and normal. The unique anatomy of his body practically challenges the whole world: “Who’s the most daring one? Come out and fight!”. To ignore such an asset would be as sinful as to leave uncut the Cullinan, the world’s largest diamond.

But life would have turned out differently if Jeff had rejected his gift. It’s easy to imagine an alternate scenario where a boy grows up deeply depressed over the belief that he’s a monster, a beast, a freak. This, by the way, is what happens when a child’s peculiarity causes horror, shame, or disgust in some of his parents. Then Jeff would dream passionately of changing himself, trying to become like everyone else. But, of course, it would be in vain.

Apparently, Jeff was lucky — his parents loved and accepted him for who he was. The attitude of significant Others toward him is eventually internalized by the child, becoming one of the voices within. But Jeff’s caption to his childhood photo on Instagram reads, “Born this way 😜 Different and unashamed 👊🏼”.

What about you? Have you figured out your superpower?

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander

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”Who are you and what do you do?"
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Values and suffering /  by Alexander Lyadov

All values are crystallized through their opposite. It takes hunger to discover the true taste of food. You have to go crazy in solitude in order to reach out with your soul to the people you love. To be a jaded slave to truly want freedom. To stay in a city without police for a month to realize how quickly the civilized world collapses. Without living in extremes, what is already there is taken for granted. And therefore either overlooked or devalued: “Yuck, it’s only X.” Thus, an infant is sure that his mother’s breast is always available, if only he cries out.

By the way, the highest pleasure arises only if one has previously felt an acute need for something, but without guarantees of getting it. Why then do people not rush to immerse themselves in a state with a minus sign? The answer is, “I don’t have the energy for this extra discomfort. Not surprisingly, it’s rare that anyone would admit that extreme contentment regularly fills their life. Rather, on the contrary, if there is any consistency, it is only with respect to troubles and setbacks. And sometimes all difficulties pour out at once, as from an overturned bucket. When, after exhaustion, one eventually manages to overcome them all, there is no jubilation. Why?

The living out of the extremes happened under duress. Fate tried to drag a man to the bottom of the river like an alligator drags a calf. But, having played enough, it allowed him to come ashore almost unharmed. What kind of holiday is this, when all the energy went to the fight. Yes, there is a new value now. How about some more? “Oh no, at that price, never!”

Fortunately, there is an alternative. You can buy a ticket for a hundred times less if you act, first, well in advance, second, willingly, and third, on the terms you choose. Yes, there will be sweat, tears, and blood, too, but their volume will be disproportionately small. In business, it’s called an investment — exchanging a small value today for a much larger value tomorrow.

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander

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

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Threads of Order /  by Alexander Lyadov

 

When one's familiar life is scratched by the sandpaper side of Chaos, even though one is alive, nothing is the same anymore. Not immediately, but the experience of what has happened catches up, which is expressed in distracted attention, gloomy perception, and loss of strength. The last thing one wants to do is to do chores like farming, sports, or business tasks. One thinks: "Eh, maybe skip today." But that's exactly what you can't do.

When the amount of Chaos around, and therefore within, is increasing, the only defense against it is to preserve Order at all costs. I have heard that even in the most difficult circumstances it is important to take care of one’s body and appearance, and not to wave: “It doesn’t matter now. Down-to-earth rituals, besides their hygienic meaning, have a symbolic meaning. After all, what separates a man from an animal is the smallest thing-the ability to realize who he is and what kind of filth he is in. Even if he is immersed up to his ears, the very fact of being conscious of “me-in-itself” does not allow the dirt to stain his soul.

Otherwise, one can sink, get hurt, get infected, or go crazy pretty quickly. Chaos’ strike is like the fall of the first domino knuckle in a (supposedly) stable chain of being. One failure pulls another, and soon one finds oneself at the very bottom of the well. The Matthew effect is interpreted in terms of class inequality, but it also applies to the individual-environment relationship: “To those who have everything, more will be given; from those who have nothing, everything will be taken.” This effect works for good when rebalancing occurs so that the excess of chaos does not burn up the fuse and the excess of order does not suffocate.

But that’s for later. In the meantime, it is necessary to lean on something. Fortunately, there is something at hand. You just have to keep your habitual ritual from disintegrating, saving one “little thing”, another “trifle”, and a third “nonsense”.

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

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Turbo Learning /  by Alexander Lyadov

Whichever new field you take, you immediately find yourself in the Library of Alexandria. Endless stacks of multi-volume books of knowledge open up to your eyes. Perhaps you are interested in the field of psychotherapy, say, CPT, or you need to find the answer to the prosaic question: “How to choose a gas burner (because winter is coming)? At that moment, you feel like Alice falling into an Internet rabbit hole of videos, diagrams, and texts. As amazed as a child who discovers the world in a drop of water under a microscope, so are you, amazed at how many varieties of burners there are and the nuances about each. And if you’re a novelty-hungry person by nature, you risk getting stuck in this enchanted kingdom.

To make sure life is not wasted, you need to master the skill of turbo-learning anything. My approach is based on three pillars — clarifying your goals, singling out the main thing, and finding the expert. Clarifying one’s goals is necessary because the value of anything is a purely personal choice. Every hammer is meant to strike, but agree that a neurologist’s hammer and a blacksmith’s sledgehammer are different tools. Often we are looking for the perfect or best thing, but we end up with the Japanese proverb: “Ten men are ten shades of color.” Knowing yourself saves a lot of time.

Next, every object has a backbone or engine, as my jiu-jitsu coach used to say. Once you know this part, of course, you won't become a professional, but the necessary 80% of knowledge will be gained through 20% effort. Although I tend to observe rather than talk to people, I must admit that the fastest way to gain knowledge in an unfamiliar area is to ask questions of an expert. Well, if you are dealing with a Master, he will not only give you a comprehensive answer, but he will clarify your true goals beforehand in order to impart the essence of knowledge. That way you can get 99% of the results you personally want, investing just 1% of your precious resource.

Sincerely yours,

-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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Creating a gap /  by Alexander Lyadov

I will not speak for others, but analyzing many cases from my life, I have to admit that the greatest harm to me was not so much caused by sudden negative events as by my reaction to them. Whenever a force majeure occurred, I was plunged into chaos, albeit briefly. Panic, stupor or, on the contrary, haste, the desire to run somewhere and do something. I had to pay for my impulsiveness with a waste of time, money, nerves, or energy. Moreover, it was not only me who suffered, but those around me as well.

For example, a novice biker, when he sees a truck suddenly pulling out across the highway, in horror, puts the bike on its side. As a result of inertia, he slides on the asphalt and at high speed hits a hard obstacle, which he was so eager to avoid. The experienced biker continues toward the truck, but presses hard on the rear and then the front brake, as well as firmly squeezing the tank with his knees. The bike is likely to stop within inches of the truck. But even if the impact does happen, there will be no health consequences because of the low speed. When practicing extreme braking on a motorcycle track, the mind doesn’t immediately believe this counterintuitive insight. The problem doesn’t turn into a tragedy if you don’t let your brain panic.

“Well, how can you not freak out when X is happening!” - one inner voice asks irritably. To which another voice replies with a sobering quote from the movie Bridge of Spies: “Would it help?” For any dangerous situation, there is a path, if not a complete and quick release, then at least a path of minimal loss, after which recovery and counterattack are possible. And for a salvific solution to seep from space into the mind, one must create a gap between the negative event and one’s reaction to it. Amazingly, sometimes a pause of a second is enough. Unfortunately, I don’t always manage to do such a trick. But so far, I haven’t found a better way to react to novelty with a minus sign. Have you? Please share.

Sincerely yours,

-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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Protection from disaster /  by Alexander Lyadov

 

"Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall" can be read in the Book of Proverbs (16:18). You don't have to be a religious person to appreciate the validity of this thought with respect to all people, including ourselves.

It is human nature to go to extremes. When the mind finds itself in impasse, it usually blames not itself for earlier decisions, but some higher power that has unjustly turned against it. On the contrary, if circumstances are strikingly lucky and with one touch he turns banal metals into gold, the mind is inclined to attribute all laurels exclusively to itself in a narcissistic impulse. To get away with any responsibility, preserving all the privileges - this is the ideal of the arrogant mind. Curiously, the higher the IQ, the more likely this behavior is.

And that would be all right, but in both extremes, the mind becomes more and more withdrawn into its fantasy world, distancing itself from reality as it is. No matter how brilliant the mind may be, it cannot foresee all the scenarios of a changing environment. Moreover, as established in physics, the very act of observing a system inevitably changes it. And anything that violates the desired picture of the world, the mind ignores, rejects or even tries to eradicate. The skyscraper of the intellect grows taller and more complex, but there is no cornerstone in the foundation. So the more often the statement, "I know it all myself," comes closer to disaster in every sphere — business, sports, family, and life in general.

The wise Solomon indicates the direction of the solution in the following verse: "It is better to humble oneself in spirit with the meek, than to divide the spoils with the proud." So, to survive and thrive, it is important not only to tame your pride, but to seek out partners to keep a strong connection to reality.

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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The plasticity of speed /  by Alexander Lyadov

Speed is an amazing thing. You can tell how fast you are, for example, by looking at the dashboard or beating someone at a traffic light. However, outside of such laboratory conditions, speed behaves like a heated caramel, which is shaped into a candy by the hands of a master. It is known that in seconds of extreme situation or hours of psychedelic ceremony a person manages to live a whole life. And when there is a working alliance with the client, the 12-hour session flies by in the same breath: “That’s it? Wow! Thought it was still morning.”

The plasticity of speed is useful to remember when it comes to the transformation of an individual, an organization, or a society. Its numerator and denominator live mysterious lives, either shrinking into a point or stretching into infinity. From the outside, it may seem to the observer that nothing is happening. But in reality there is an intense process of cell division going on under the static shell. The quantity is preparing to change into a new quality. It takes both the mother’s patience to radiate heat and the father’s push for autonomous life. And if in the animal world the timing of the transformation is regulated by an algorithm of instinct, for an individual, a group or a nation, there seems to be no simple instruction. It is not the template and prêt-à-porter that is more appropriate, but the bespoke and haute couture.

However, if this complexity of transformation does not frighten you, you will be rewarded with both the process and the result. When you know that each stage is meaningful, patience and determination emerge on their own. Most importantly, trust in the wisdom of the Process grows, that everything happens just as it should. Then gratitude for what you have naturally arises. This, in turn, helps to put together all the “useless” elements, previously scattered and trampled in the dirt. When literally everything turns out to be the building material, the construction of a skyscraper, observatory or temple takes place at the third cosmic speed.

Sincerely yours,

-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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Entrepreneur vs top manager /  by Alexander Lyadov

medieval merchants

Unknown author

 

What is the fundamental difference between the work of a hired manager in a corporation and the work of a self-employed entrepreneur? Here and there one can earn commensurate remuneration, manage similar assets, and have the same power. Whatever parameter you take for a top manager, there is an equivalent for a founder. And yet there is a difference, and it is so colossal that it is even embarrassing to put these two activities side by side.

To use the legendary investor Benjamin Graham’s metaphor, they both make deals with Mr. Market, taking risk and creating value in the process. But while the entrepreneur receives an objective reward directly from Mr. Market, the top manager never does. The latter has a layer between him and Mr. Market in the form of a CEO, board and/or shareholders who subjectively decide whether the top manager deserves the reward or not. Even if he has tamed the Cretan bull and cleaned out the Augean stables, not the gods, but the people will give the verdict: “He’s a hero” or “Lucky. Anyone could have done it.” Thus, in addition to pure market risk, the hired manager has the additional risk of human bliss. Such uncertainty changes everything.

It is enough for a manager to get burned a couple of times without getting what he thinks is a well-deserved bonus from the owners, and he will no longer want to look for the crane in the sky in this company. The best managers will go to a competitor or set up their own business. Many of them will stay, but will try to get a bigger bird in the hand. Some managers will start to cynically fight for power, to become the de facto beneficiary of the business, but to leave the risks to shareholders.

The conclusion? If you are a top manager, work for those shareholders whose main goal is to grow the market capitalization of the company, not to have fun in the spirit of Game of Thrones. If you’re a founder, create the most transparent connection possible for your managers between their efforts and the reward for the value they create.

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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Strength without injury /  by Alexander Lyadov

 

One of the strongest climbers in history, Wolfgang Gullich, said: “Getting strong is easy, getting strong without getting injured is hard.” Intense development occurs at the edge of the zone of competence, when one undertakes ambitious experiments. But it is enough to lose focus or be careless for a moment, and a sprain, tear, or fracture occurs. The recovery period inevitably sets the athlete back, atrophying not only muscles and ligaments. Much worse, the previously knurled neural pathways become overgrown with weeds. Then you have to speed up your way to the master from a beginner again. This is how time is lost. Windows of opportunity are closed forever.

In addition, after serious injuries, functionality is not always fully restored. After all, the scar is different from the smooth and supple skin it was before the cut. Now there is another point of vulnerability on the body, or in the brain. For example, when an athlete subconsciously takes care of a previously dislocated arm and does not risk going for a record. By the way, old age can be considered an excess of the consequences of all kinds of traumas - physical, psychological, mental - which result in such a super-vulnerability that it is simply impossible to live with.

Knowing all this, a seasoned athlete, especially one with a wise coach, arranges the training process so as to have rapid growth, but to make the risk fee feasible. Putting yourself to the point of vomiting at every workout is, of course, epic. But it’s not an option for someone who has an ambitious long-term goal. In fact, true mastery is not only about knowing a particular activity, but above all about the ability to avoid catastrophic injury. It is no coincidence that Warren Buffett reminds us, “Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget rule No. 1”. He who has preserved capital (money, health, time) is able to earn income. As opposed to someone who doesn’t value what he has and ends up rightly left with nothing.

Sincerely yours,

-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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The Clue Train /  by Alexander Lyadov

In 1999 The Cluetrain Manifesto was published, describing the tectonic impact of the Internet on marketing in the future. The title of the manifesto came from a quote from a veteran of a Fortune 500 firm that was in free fall at the time: “The clue train stopped there four times a day for ten years and they never took delivery.” The clue train is a delightful metaphor, isn’t it?

By and large, nothing in life just happens out of the blue. Any fundamental change begins to accumulate critical mass long before the decisive hour. The growth of a new phenomenon, even if quietly, causes a certain tension and discomfort in the environment. Therefore there are always harbingers of revolutionary change, but most people do not notice the clues. Why?

The main reason is pride and fear of the mind. By diligently drawing a map of the world for many years, the mind narcissistically falls in love with its product. So in the end it willingly substitutes a static map for a dynamic reality. Now there is no way to allow even a small crack in the familiar picture of the world. After all, if a tiny corner of the worldview is a lie, chances are that everything else is a mistake, too. It is a disgusting feeling, when the ground falls from under one’s feet, because it is impossible to live in the hell that is unfolding.

Still, the fact that the train with clues regularly comes inspires optimism. So, then the question is only in our skill to catch its specific smell, notice the smoke and hear the noise. It only takes a change of attitude of the mind. Then valuable parcels will reach the addressees, updating our map of the world in time, and, consequently, our life.

Sincerely yours,

-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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Ideal trajectory /  by Alexander Lyadov

 

Every action has a perfect trajectory when it is directed toward some goal. The criterion? Achieving the desired result with a resource expenditure tending toward zero. Deviation from the ideal trajectory is a sin because energy is wasted. It is as dangerous as a schooner going out to sea if there is a hole in the bottom.

However, only a professional, who knows by experience what it means to act on the edge when every joule counts, can appreciate such an insight. An uninformed layman is irritated by the “excessive” frugality and discipline of a professional. And a beginner carelessly warms up the atmosphere with his energy, not realizing in which areas it is necessary to push and in which to relax. Moreover, the baggage of past knowledge can be useless. Transferring assets from one area to another is not a quick or obvious process. For example, the endurance of a marathon runner is of little use in wrestling, and the strength of a javelin thrower in butterfly swimming. First we need to understand what is the optimal path, trampled by past generations of professionals.

What is the conclusion? First, in any new activity, immediately look for a medium of expertise to speed up the download. Second, keep the criterion in mind - ideally, energy consumption is close to zero. Third, be sure to be clear, this whole enterprise is for what purpose?

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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Founder's illusions /  by Alexander Lyadov

 

“Of course I know what I want my business to be in a few years.” That’s roughly what the founders’ initial statement sounds like, to summarize a lot of our meetings. Over the course of the conversation, however, it became apparent to both of us that this statement was false. What was internally felt as clarity by the founder suddenly turned out to be vague when trying to express aspects of the vision in numbers and words. To my clarifying questions, I often heard: “Hmm, good question. I have to think about it. I can’t answer right away. I could see that the founder himself was surprised as his confidence turned to confusion.

This insight explains a number of negative symptoms that the company has long suffered from. Co-founder conflicts, suspension of important decisions, squandering of resources, CEO turnover, declining profits and more are happening because all the stakeholders, including the founder himself, are convinced: “Whoever, but he knows exactly where we’re going.” The inevitable contradictions between what was asserted just a month ago and today are interpreted in the spirit of, “I guess I just don’t know something. But, of course, the owner knows best.”

The irony is that the founder’s vision is both present and absent. I realized this phenomenon when I studied the psychotherapeutic technique of “Focusing,” discovered by Professor Eugene Jendlin of the University of Chicago. Although the technique is effective in and of itself, it was important for me to learn its basis, which Eugene called the Philosophy of Implicit. Before something can be expressed in words, images, concepts, structures and other explicit forms, it necessarily exists in the human body in an implicit form. The latter arises as a result of the constant connection of any organism with its environment. Transformation of implicit into explicit does not always happen by itself quickly and easily. In such cases it takes time, a push of fate or someone who knows how to listen in a special way.

Sincerely yours,

-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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Founder's Questions /  by Alexander Lyadov

If you’re a founder and you’re reading this text, you probably can’t say that the state of your business makes you extremely happy. Some aspect of it is causing you confusion, irritation, or anxiety. Things used to be different, but then something happened and a snowball of problems began to grow that are strikingly resistant to the usual “remedies”.

Although your situation is specific, it probably falls into one of three categories of typical problems. First, it is a lack of resources, from financial capital and talent to your personal time and energy. Second, it is a lack of or missing opportunities to develop your business and you as an individual. Third, it is disorientation, stupor and defocus in you as a leader as well as the rest of the company’s managers.

It looks like the rate of change in the world will increase exponentially every year. Customer needs will change faster. The familiar models and competitive advantages of companies will become obsolete more rapidly, and formerly blue oceans will turn to red ones. The range of competitors’ specialization will expand, and the boundaries between industries will blur. The volume of produced content will increase in an avalanche, worsening the Signal to Noise ratio. At the same time, more opportunities will open up. But they will also close faster.

Every founder will be more and more concerned with the following questions:
1) Where do I find the resources (money, talents, energy, time) to make my business survive and grow ahead of the competition?
2) Which of the opportunities will take my company to the next level?
3) What should be a priority for me and the team today and in the future?

I’m convinced that all the answers are in an unexpected place. More details later.

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander

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

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The secret of solving any problem /  by Alexander Lyadov

Mundari person with cow by David Dhaen

Mundary people by David Dhaen

In my distant childhood I was struck by a story by V. Bianki about two hunters — a townsman and a forest man. Having killed a bear in the evening, the townsman remembered his friend’s advice that in winter one can have a nice night’s sleep in a bear’s skin. However, disdaining to get dirty with blood, he decided to wrap up warm and soft fur inside. In the morning, the townsman woke up in icy captivity, as during the night the frost had fettered the blood-wet hide outside with “iron hoops”. That would have been the end of him, but a friend found him, rescued him, and instructed him: “The fur should go outside. That way it’s warm on the inside and it doesn’t get cold on the outside.” I remember imagining very vividly how repugnant the choice of the salvation option was and, conversely, how appealing the eventual doom option was.

Perhaps this is the secret to solving any problem. The key to the lock lies literally under one’s feet, but his mind utterly refuses to notice it. Why? The desired function is hidden behind an outward form that disgusts, disdains, hates or fears a person. Each of us has specific topics that we cannot even glance in the direction of, let alone pick up and examine thoroughly from all angles.

If this is true, then no matter how intractable your current problem in business or life may seem, you can be sure that its solution is not outside, but inside you. Then the question is not at all where to go, where to find and how to get VIP access to supposedly Secret Knowledge. The main question is what kind of transformation of yourself is needed to discover behind the unacceptable form exactly what will set you free here and now.

Sincerely yours,

-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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Founder's Dilemmas /  by Alexander Lyadov

Usually my business therapy begins with a diagnostic session, for which the founder and I set aside one intensive day. After the session, I prepare a detailed analytical report in which, among other things, I describe the founder’s dilemmas that I was able to discover. Some dilemmas are glaringly obvious, while others have to be deduced from the anxieties that deprive the founder of harmony and peace. As a rule, dilemmas count in the dozens. Yes, that’s right — not one or two, but dozens.

Subsequent analysis reveals the implicit connection between most dilemmas, which allows us to develop a strategy for solving them all. Each dilemma has a “face,” though the word “grimace” is more appropriate. A dilemma resembles a knot-some simpler, like a bow on a sneaker, and some more complex, like a knot of salt and time. Functionally, the knot greatly limits the degrees of freedom of the parts it has tied together. Both parts of the dilemma pull in different directions, but their desperate jerks only tighten the knot further. Alas, there is no forward motion. Efficiency tends to zero. Energy is dissipated into the void.

Every knot restricts the movement and steals the life resource. And if there are thirty or fifty such knots in the mind of the founder? Together they swaddle the person, as in hojojutsu, the Japanese martial art of tying an opponent with a rope. And that would be all right, but a medium-sized private business reflects its owner like a truce mirror. The bottleneck of such a business is not the market, the team, or the competitors, but the founder himself. If the entrepreneur, and consequently his business, lose speed in making and implementing decisions because of a critical mass of knots, the more dynamic and volatile the industry, the more vulnerable the business is. The good news is that untying the knots triggers a reverse process that unleashes a tremendous amount of opportunity and resources.

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

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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?
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.

Entrepreneur Magnet /  by Alexander Lyadov

 

The prudent founder seeks to maximize the market value of his company. It does not matter whether he makes this calculation explicitly or simply feels with his backbone that capitalization increases non-stop. The entrepreneur has no illusions that he can get everything for nothing. Reality expects sacrifice from man. Despite the call of hunger, a handful of seeds must be buried in the ground today in order to have a chance of a harvest in the future.

In the first approximation, the more money invested in seed, fertilizer, water and man-hours, the more significant and predictable the result. But only as long as each seed falls into the black earth, not the rocks. Otherwise, it is not scaling and not even an experiment, but squandering resources, that is a crime in terms of business morality. Reality punishes this with a change of ownership or bankruptcy.

Although a sane entrepreneur does not expect to be rewarded for free, this does not mean that he is a fan of the idea: “More investment is the only possible way to increase the company’s capitalization.” To the founder’s intelligence, such an idea is an insult, for it denies him his entrepreneurial essence. “Inventing solutions for absolutely impossible problems” is what reads under the microscope on the DNA of a true entrepreneur’s spiral. But what super-target is worthy of his spear? When the capitalization of a business is skyrocketing with no investment at all.

Yes, in its pure form the ideal is unattainable. But it is not the ideal itself that is valuable, but the pursuit of the ideal. The entrepreneur attracts other people’s capital when it is impossible not to attract it. The founder also invests his own money very reluctantly. Like a compass, his arrow is always parallel to the direction of the Earth’s magnetic field line. That is, his mind is looking for a way, having invested less, to get more. Mathematically, his investment X tends toward zero, while his return Y stretches into infinity.

Yours sincerely,

-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.

Common sense in business /  by Alexander Lyadov

Any slacker can solve a problem with an unlimited budget. Even a fire will go out if you dump a ton of cash on it. Clearly, there are situations where all the money in the world won't save you anymore. For example, the Titanic. But in other cases, indeed, the speed of its solution to a complex problem is proportional to the amount of investment made. So the first impulse of many people is to try to solve the problem with more money when standard ways don't work.

The non-standard nature of the problem means there is a high degree of uncertainty about what it really is. Perhaps by increasing the usual budget by 20%, we will get the desired breakthrough. Or maybe we will pour investments indefinitely, trying to concretize the abyss. In fact, such unfortunate initiatives can regularly be observed when leaders obsessed with "good" intentions waste colossal public resources for the sake of some ideology. In terms of psychology, their pleasure is super-valuable and therefore has no bottom. Like a drug addict, they will not stop until they have zeroed out all their reserves.

Fortunately, business is one of those areas where common sense can be measured. The function of business is to create and multiply value, which is indicated by an increase in market capitalization. This is how the criterion of right and wrong emerges. If a company's value has grown, it is good; if it stagnates or falls, it is bad. You can assess whether a particular initiative effectively corresponds to the main function. It's about ROI, which is the return on investment of funds in project X versus project Y. So the business has a limiter that protects against crazy initiatives. Provided, of course, that the business owners prioritize common sense and not something else. After all, even a strong team of top managers is powerless to prevent the owner from destroying his business.

Yours sincerely,

-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.

Flamboyant dreams /  by Alexander Lyadov

Some people simply ignore their dreams. They don't see any benefit in them. Others, when they wake up, rush through a dream interpreter in an attempt to find the common meaning of the symbols. My relationship to dreams is different from both. I benefit greatly from dreams, but only on the basis of my personal interpretations.

Carl Jung viewed curiosity as a way of communicating in time of self to self, that is, the future Alexander to the Alexander of today. We are often unable to explain why we are suddenly pulled in some direction like a wind sail. Attempts to resist this call end up generating longing, apathy, and hatred for ourselves and people. On the contrary, when we surrender to it, months or years later we are grateful for the priceless gift. Likewise, I perceive dreams as a coded message to me from the future self. Like the prototype, the dream seems to anticipate what is about to materialize in my life.

The only difficulty is that, for mysterious reasons, the "director" likes to give dreams an excessively vivid, flamboyant, and dramatic form. My hypothesis is that otherwise it is impossible to get around the rigid attitudes of the mind, which takes everything too literally. So the future Alexander strains his imagination to the limit in order to break through to me today with the help of strange symbols. An important message turns out to be encrypted. But the key to it cannot be found in popular dreambooks. Each symbol is intimately personal.

For example, today I had a hard time unraveling that the fantastic creature I saw at night was a person who had greatly influenced my life in my youth. Instantly, everything — the dream's plot, the other characters, and the objects — found a deep meaning, connecting the past, present, and future in one thread. I did not understand the message with my mind, but with my gut, or hara, as the Japanese would say. And now I am very grateful to the sender, for I know a little more about myself.

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.

Why are there so few entrepreneurs? /  by Alexander Lyadov

Unknown artist

Why are there so few entrepreneurs?

It is believed that an entrepreneur must sacrifice everything.

What he has and what he doesn’t have by borrowing money.

This is an unfortunate and dangerous misconception, I must say.

Sacrificing material assets is not easy, of course.

But fortune demands something more, and by an order of magnitude.

To give up illusions is the true price of success.

It is those illusions that are more precious to man than anything else in the world.

They are so precious that to get rid of them is like taking off one's own skin.

There are too few people in any society who are willing to do that to themselves.

No wonder fortune favors them in return.

Having thrown off illusions, the founder sees reality as it is.

And what is reality like? Forever spouting opportunities, one better than the other.

The entrepreneur is left to scoop up this water of life with his hands.

There, right in front of his eyes, from zero emerges one.

What about capital? It is secondary.

There is always plenty of money in the market. In good times and bad.

If you can make something out of nothing, it’s up to you to choose whose capital to accept.

Yours sincerely,

-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.

Sign of Innovation /  by Alexander Lyadov

 

“It’s impossible to get new technology without having both sides. It’s hard to develop a tool that can only be used for good,” said Mark Andreessen, co-founder of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. In this interview Mark and Joe Rogan discussed the possibility of an apocalypse, due to the invention of nuclear fusion, artificial intelligence, etc. Every innovation — fire, railroads, electricity, computers, or the Internet — at first or later has been feared by the potential disasters it has brought to people.

The peculiarity of innovation is that it allows us to create additional value through the successful implementation of a new idea. However, value, that is, significance and usefulness, are not inherent to anything by nature. The value of a phenomenon or object is given by society, a group of people or a person. This means that depending on the power that drives people, any innovation — contraception, antibiotics, social networks, or AI — will turn into such a mark.

After all, if we don’t lie to ourselves, there are two beginnings within each individual: the “plus” and the “minus. It is no coincidence that in the Bible the first truly earthly people, the children of Adam and Eve, were the shepherd Abel and the farmer Cain. Both worked in the sweat of their brow, both offered a sacrifice to God. Offended that God would not accept his sacrifice for some reason, Cain hated his brother and committed the first malicious murder of a man by a man in history. Symbolically, this age-old drama is playing out within each of us. Work hard or cheat? Sacrifice the most dear or hold back? Be jealous of another or change yourself? Difficult choices have to be made all the time.

Therefore, the greatest uncertainty is not in progress as such, but in man himself. His decisions will determine the future. It is worth remembering this when you are carried away with the next “saving” idea for your business, much less for all people on earth.

Yours sincerely,

-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.