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.

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.

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.

Life Is a Paradox / January 7, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

Maturity is the ability to embrace paradoxes. Why? On the surface, paradoxes look like irreconcilable conflicts.

Polar forces clash like rutting stags, tusks locking, sparks flying, and dirt scattering. A fragile psyche can’t handle it, begging for the chaos to stop.

But here’s the secret: conflict is Life’s way of manifesting itself—a desperate yearning to move forward, held back by something unseen.

Imagine your legs arguing over which one is more important. Words turn to insults, then sabotage—one tries to trip the other, tosses a banana peel, or drops a nail in the path.

The result is obvious: the body collapses, injured and unable to take another step.

Each leg has its own truth because they’re controlled by different CEOs. The left hemisphere of your brain governs the motor and sensory functions of the right side of your body, while the right hemisphere governs the left.

The hemispheres aren’t identical. The left focuses on the known, while the right engages with the new. Just think how radically different their perspectives must be.

And yet, by 10 to 12 months of age, children learn to walk.

Despite their differences, the hemispheres collaborate toward a common goal, enabling the child not just to walk but to dart around like a whirlwind.

Or more accurately—not despite their differences, but because of them. Each side contributes something unique, propelling individuals, groups, and humanity into an exponential future.

Maturity doesn’t fear or avoid conflict. On the contrary, it seeks conflict out, using it as raw material to creatively transform it into paradox. Why? Because true life is always a paradox.

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.

Force of Harmony / January 6, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

James Nolan Gandy crafts functional artworks from wood and metal and creates stunning graphics using drawing machines he built himself.

There’s something hypnotic about watching a complex pattern gradually crystallize out of nothing. The blank canvas in its body nurtures new meaning.

What is this—chaos or order? It’s more like an alchemical union of opposing forces, giving birth to unique beauty.

I marvel at the product made by a mechanical hand, animated by the artist’s imagination. But who breathed the spark of creativity into him?

One thing is clear—a certain force drives us all. When we resist it, we suffer. But when we act with it, we amplify harmony in others and ourselves.

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.

Your Natural Triumph / January 5, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

Imagine you’re given a list of games with a desirable prize at the end. Chances are, you won’t say, “I’ll play the one where I’m clearly terrible.”

If you can sit still for long periods, then hide-and-seek might be your best choice. If you’re a fast runner, tag is probably the way to go.

Everyone has different gifts, which means the odds of winning vary depending on the game.

In judo, this is called “Tokui Waza”, or “signature technique.” It’s the move that aligns perfectly with your body, mind, and spirit. It’s the one you pick up effortlessly, refine with joy, and execute almost instinctively.

In a match, you’re like a hunter closing in on prey, driving your opponent into a tight corridor that leads straight to your trap—your “signature” move. Ideally, even your first grip on his gi is already setting the stage for the final goal.

As long as you’re free to dictate the game, you’ll steer the fight in your favor. Now, let’s say someone comes to you and says, “I want to bet on you. If you win, I’ll make a lot of money and generously share it with you.”

I’m sure you’ll choose the strategy above—the one where triumph comes with the least effort and risk. If you succeed, your client will keep betting on you, over and over.

This is the blueprint for successful partnerships—whether with a client, co-founder, investor, employee, contractor, or anyone else. You use your God-given gift to benefit others, the world, and yourself.

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.

Bamboo Growth / January 4, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

The older a person gets and the more unique his life becomes, the harder it is to find a lifelong business partner. Thinking otherwise often leads to disappointment—for both yourself and others.

Thankfully, that’s not even necessary. Just pick a companion for a section of the journey.

With one person, you can pass the time on a train. With another, you can cross the Atlantic in an exciting adventure. And with someone else, you might share a short elevator ride up three floors.

The key is that the trip should benefit you both—and bring you joy.

Sometimes, you’ll find it hard to part ways with a companion. That’s wonderful! Plan your next expedition with him or her.

Like bamboo sprouting from the ground, let the partnership grow step by step.

Yours sincerely,

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.

Let Go to Gain / January 3, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

For some remarkable professionals, chasing long-term jobs is more harmful than helpful. Yet, because of societal norms and ingrained habits, they persist in seeking "lifetime employment."

And they find it... only to lose it within a year.

You could puzzle over the nature of such a curse. Or, let me offer something better: turning that curse into a gift.

Imagine you deeply desired what you actually despise.

This means that working on short-term projects is your ideal. Here’s why working in 3-9 month cycles might just be perfect:

It’s easier to agree on specific results with a client.
It’s simpler to deliver what you promise (if you’re an expert).
Clients are more likely to pay bonuses since they’re affordable.
Especially when a happy client offers you the next project.

By the way, you’ll face almost no competition. Most specialists are chasing stability through long-term employment.

Unlike them, you make life easier for your clients: “Why should we overcommit in a chaotic market? Let’s nail this one great project, X1. If it works out, we’ll do X2, and so on.”

Long-term relationships can be seen as a continuous series of short-term engagements. Your value isn’t in sticking to one team but in being the expert who’s consistently invited to join new games by different people.

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.

Partnering with the Unknown / January 2, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

Frank Frazetta is often called the "Godfather of Fantasy Art" and one of the most iconic illustrators of the 20th century. Saying he had talent is an understatement.

The artist was creating predictably like a factory machine, right?

Well, not exactly. Here’s a story from his wife and business partner, Ellie Frazetta:

“It was a Sunday night — I’ll never forget it. The cover art had to be in by Monday morning. Not only does Frank not have the faintest idea of what he’s going to paint, he doesn’t have any canvas board in the house. We get into this terrific fight — it’s always like this. Frank runs down to the cellar. We were putting in a masonite floor in the basement so Frank decided to tear up a piece of the floor, put it on the easel and had it done in six hours.”

When it comes to creating, you don’t get to decide the what, where, or when.

And the more honest your work is, the less of your “usual self” you’ll find in it. Developing an idea feels like meeting yourself for the first time: “Wow, so this is who I am! I had no idea. Now I know!”

“Creation” isn’t the right word. A master never works alone. There’s always a partner in the dance. Its name? Co-creation. Because there are always two: the lead and the follow, the sky and the earth, the spirit and the matter.

Want to be more prolific? Learn to co-create with the Other.

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.