Mission Worth Mud / June 6, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

I admire entrepreneurs, warriors, athletes, stand-up comics, musicians, artists, and others who push beyond themselves. Whether they say it or not, they have a mission worth great sacrifice.

A mission doesn’t have to be lofty. Take business, for example. Nothing seems more grounded than money. Many want to build a business but can’t because they’re too focused on themselves.

A founder sees his company like a mother sees her child. Sometimes, this even stops him from selling the company at the right time. But as the business grows, the founder serves the business, not the other way around.

Serving means putting the business’s needs above his own. In practice, that means diving face-first into the mud, again and again. Each of us has our own version of what stains our purity.

What sparks fear, shame, irritation, or disgust in you?

Adjusting your life and family’s rhythm to the business’s needs,
trusting a faint gut feeling when the world stands against you,
containing the anxiety of employees, investors, and clients,
becoming the face of the business, risking your reputation,
shamelessly praising yourself or downplaying your role,
finding a bold solution when everyone’s written you off,
acknowledging your vulnerability and asking for help.
standing firm in conflict to protect your boundaries,
chasing one “useless” possibility after another,
sharing an imperfect product for all to judge,
sitting in the void of “I have no ideas!”,
acting when nothing is clear, and so on.

The takeaway: find a mission worth getting dirty for.

Sincerely yours,

-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.

Hunter’s Gaze / June 5, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

A curious video from the zoo. A child studies the life of lions. And the other way around. A young lioness is eager to get closer. Luckily for carefree people, they are protected from violence by thick glass.

The moment the child looks away, the lioness creeps a few steps nearer. The predator stays still only while eyes are on her. In the jungle, it’d be a tragedy. Here, it’s a scare and a laugh.

This illustrates the power of the gaze — that is, focused attention.

Symbolically, the predator is a messenger of Chaos. Its nature craves to shatter human order, to steal what’s most precious—young life. It pursues its mission relentlessly, like fate.

A man can protect the world of Order. That’s how he unleashes his creative spark. But even the smallest act of shaping order demands a chosen aim.

A four-legged or two-legged predator avoids wary prey. The risk of injury or wasted energy is too high. Why bother? Plenty of fools wander straight into its jaws.

This insight applies to all messengers of Chaos, within or without. Something troubles you, unsettles you, scares you? Here’s the plan:

Pick a moment when you’re strong and alert.
Lock your focus on the object of fear.
Explore its behavior through micro-steps.

This is transformation: now you are the hunter, and the object of fear is the prey.

Sincerely yours,

-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.

Crossroads of Wisdom / June 4, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

Sanity is a social phenomenon. A man alone, sooner or later, loses his mind.

Isolation isn’t always an island. You can be isolated in a city, in a crowd, or even in the company you built. An entrepreneur is surrounded by people, but the truly important questions? There’s no one to discuss them with.

For a while, he believes he can handle any problem alone. Especially when the market is booming, and everywhere he looks, golden coins sprout like weeds.

But one day, the context changes, and the founder realizes he is not God. Jack London vividly described the shift from omnipotence to powerlessness in his 1904 novel The Sea-Wolf.

Here’s a curious fact: if an eye starts seeing itself, it’s sick. The lens protein denatures, clouds form, and suddenly there are glares, halos, streaks, and spots.

If a healthy eye “wants” to see itself, it needs another person. Ideally, a synthesis of different viewpoints, because everyone is flawed in some way.

No wonder ancient navigators used the compass rose. To know the world, you need not one, not two, not three, but all four cardinal directions.

Navigating the outer world and the inner world is much the same. Feedback from the basic directions—left, right, forward, backward—makes your decisions and actions steadier, stronger, wiser.

Where do you want to be? At the center of the cross, where the axes meet.

Sincerely yours,

-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.

Opportunity’s Calling / June 3, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

An unrealized opportunity gnaws at an entrepreneur like a physical ache. It’s like an inventor hiding a breakthrough or a poisoned man fighting the urge to vomit.

The founder feels an urgent need, almost desperately, to do something about it.

This matters, because others might see the problem too. The sharpest even spot its hidden promise. But that’s not enough. The challenge must match the skill.

Think of psychologist Csikszentmihalyi—a man only feels Flow when life’s test aligns with his mastery.

I saw this again, talking with a European serial entrepreneur. He described a stunning business chance, then asked, “Am I crazy? Does no one else see it?”

I reassured him—his gut’s right. A new trend’s taking shape before our eyes. But few have the know-how to leap onto this young dragon, avoid its jaws, and not fall off.

This entrepreneur’s trained for it, building businesses on shaky, turbulent markets for over twenty years, investing boldly, embracing the new. He’s like an athlete who’s spent a lifetime prepping for this fight.

Others shrink from the chance. He doesn’t.

Still, he’s painfully alone. Finding a co-founder, investor, or even a kindred spirit won’t be easy. But his solitude marks the moment’s rarity.

History’s whispering to him: “The time’s now. You can do this.”

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

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About me:
As a business therapist, I help founders quickly solve dilemmas at the intersection of business and personality, and boost company value as a result.

How can I help you?
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Synthesis of Polarities / June 2, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

For a decade, I toiled in advertising, and our team crafted projects for all sorts: global giants and local startups, corporate suits and roughneck entrepreneurs, hired managers and visionary founders. Some campaigns sparked a “Wow!” Others? Just a shrug, “Meh”.

Why the difference? Think of that animated flick, Hotel Transylvania. The magic happened when a “click!” sparked between the client and our team.

In therapy, they call it an “alliance”—a bond built on trust, respect, and, most crucially, embracing the other’s difference.

Something about the client had to ignite us: a leader’s bold ambition, a product’s cutting edge, or a business’s sharp system. After that first meeting, our creatives’ enthusiasm revealed whether the client would likely become an Olympic champ.

But the client had to leave stunned too: “Whoa! These guys are wild. They flipped my perspective upside down. We might just blow up the market with them!”

Sometimes, we seemed like aliens from opposite planets. A renowned artist turned art director versus an oligarch-merchant. That moment when opposites clashed—chaos and order, yin and yang.

There were two options: either conflict or the birth of a universe.

We had the edge, wired for openness to the new. So, the ball was in the client’s court—could he forgive our weirdness because we brought what he lacked?

For the sake of growth, clients stepped past discomfort, betting these “freaks” could work miracles. Fueled by their trust, we did what seemed impossible to the entire market.

The conclusion: Want your business to soar? Seek those who think differently, then cherish their unexpected spark.

Sincerely yours,

-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.

Listen to Future You / June 1, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

Arnold Schwarzenegger taking ballet classes with Marianne Claire, 1976

If you truly want to help someone, you need to understand their context. It’s not about simple transactions, like buying a massage, ibuprofen, or an ice cream.

Sometimes the stakes are high, and the problems — and therefore the solutions — aren’t universal:

Launching a new product with a tight ad budget.
Resolving a corporate conflict that could drag everyone down.
Exiting a business when the co-founder’s burned out and buyers are scarce.
Raising funds for a startup with only six months of runway.
Breaking a barrier that’s kept a company from the big leagues for years.
Growing a major business when the owner’s half in, half out.

What a person complains about matters, but it’s just the paw caught in a trap. Pain, pressure, and fear don’t explain why he’s stuck here. More importantly, they hide what he was chasing and what he refused to see.

Listen up: only a guest from the future—you —can save you now.

The future you is your hidden potential, itching to break free. Like water condensed in the mountains, it pushes downward to join the sea. This flow happens, even when you don’t notice. But when you’re blind to it, it gets stuck.

That’s why you must let the future you speak—in words or images, like in Jungian dream analysis or symbol-drama. In business therapy, my client and I first meet his or her desired future.

It’s not easy. Most people’s first urge is to doubt, dismiss, shrink, or feel shame, hiding the truth even from themselves.

Not every child grew up in a home that blessed him for being himself. Many buried their desires to scrape by on crumbs of attention.

But the future you is patient. Call it to the mic, and it speaks. It’ll show you where to turn, how to free the paw, and how to heal the wound.

Start by building trust. If you lack it inside, find someone who doesn’t rush to fix the symptom but lifts you to a meta-level. It’s not so much about the profession or method, but about the worldview. You need someone who will see in you what you’ve always felt — the divine spark.

Sincerely yours,

-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.

Parteting with Dragon / May 31, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

Our ancestors were wiser than us in matters of the mind. They knew a secret: Dragons live inside every man. Not cartoon characters, but symbols of a wild, unknown force.

The Dragon strikes without warning, burning everything, swallowing life whole. It shows up in society, in groups, in a single soul: cold detachment from life, hunting down free thinkers, fear of losing power or place, crushing spontaneity, every kind of addiction, scapegoating, rejecting criticism, working to collapse, terrorist acts, neglecting the body, road rage, sudden riots, bursts of jealousy, cults and sects, delusions of grandeur, self-isolation, and more.

The ancients understood the Dragon’s ways. They built rituals to survive and thrive beside it. Rites of passage, shared festivals, prayer, pilgrimage, and disciplined practices tamed the chaos within.

Today, the word “ritual” makes people sneer: “Ugh, we’re modern!” Then they compulsively turn to porn, pour tequila, or pick a fight.

In success, a man proudly claims he’s the Dragon. In the depths of depression, he feels utterly alone. Both times, he lies to himself, disrespecting the hidden force. Nemesis follows—divine reckoning.

You can’t tame this wildness, but you can build a bond. Create rituals for your soul, mind, and body: daily exercise, therapy, kindred spirits, creativity, connection to the transcendent. Become the junior partner in that alliance.

Through you, the Dragon’s energy turns from raw to real. Your strength grows a hundredfold. What seemed impossible yesterday becomes simple today.

Sincerely yours,

-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.

Sparks Inside Giants / May 30, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

They say an entrepreneur builds his own business. That’s true most of the time, but it misses a key phenomenon.

It’s about entrepreneurship inside corporations. Nobody talks about it, except in PowerPoint slogans about innovation. Few corporations ever pull it off.

The reason’s simple—the bigger the corporation, the more it clings to preserving and multiplying what’s already there. A profitable business model feels like a given to hired managers. Nobody recalls who found it or how.

All’s fine until the world shifts. Soon, not just the CEO or board, but every top manager sees it: “The company needs a reboot, or else…”

But managerial understanding isn’t enough for transformation. You need entrepreneurial spark. And that’s usually long gone. The founder’s stepped back. The culture rewards implementers.

Such a corporation is doomed to watch its sunset. Unless a hungry Private Equity fund swoops in. Those guys know how to inject entrepreneurial fire—they need to flip the asset in 5-7 years, no matter what.

Luckily, some companies value what could be as much as what is. They milk their proven model but hunt new possibilities. Stability matters to them, but so does growth.

In these places, a different culture thrives. They carve out space for Wow-projects, built from scratch. Entrepreneurs inside get power and resources.

An intrapreneur lives in two worlds. He can spin one from zero, a magic trick. And he knows exactly how to turn one into millions.

Not every company values such people. Not every founder craves the corporate game. But when the right encounter happens, they have the chance to create immense value.

Best of luck to my client, Alex Chapko, as he navigates his intrapreneurial path!

Sincerely yours,

-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 You Need for Transformation / May 29, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

Some business consultants gripe that their clients, company CEOs, stubbornly refuse to change. They claim readiness at the start but then beg to slow the revolution down.

It seems the problem lies in the inertia of thinking, fear of the unknown, or, worse, self-deception. But from my experience, the reason’s different.

The word “transformation” is tossed around so much it’s lost its sacred weight. Shifting to a new state doesn’t mean nudging the old aside. It means burning it down.

In other words, a man, a team, or a whole company must hit a liminal state—“in-between” two worlds. Sounds romantic, but in truth, you’re raw, lost, and weak. It’s not discomfort. It’s raw stress.

Plenty of folks get stuck in that in-between. Or worse, a shady guide exploits their vulnerability.

No wonder people craving change dig in their heels. They dream, "If only someone would guarantee a successful leap." Unfortunately, only a charlatan guarantees the outcome of transformation.

The point of transformation is to unlock your dormant potential. When faced with something new, surprise is inevitable.

So, what should you do if you or your business need transformation?

Look for:

An ordered process rooted in past wisdom.
A safe space to be nobody in the void for a while.
A strong container to dissolve, refine, and distill your core.
A catalyst for the fastest path.

When these are in place, change doesn’t scare you. It’s what you desire.

Sincerely yours,

-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.

When You Are Generous / May 28, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

How do you know your life is getting better? You become generous.

This isn’t about spreading dollars or stacking assets. It’s about the strength of your connection to the source of life within.

A man’s ego is weak, fragile, small. He thinks he built it all himself, but he can’t explain where the opportunities, ideas, or grit came from in the clutch.

People often swing between extremes. Either the unconscious floods them, and they drown it with booze, sex, work, or some other ritual. Or the fountain freezes, and depression creeps in, leaving them too weak to swat a mosquito.

With time, you admit consciousness is a schooner sailing a dark ocean. That ocean’s inside you, but don’t fool yourself—the captain doesn’t own it.

The ocean’s power is endless. The schooner might crack first.

A seasoned captain knows his ship’s limits. He’ll push his “darling” to the max, then mend the rigging in port. The ocean’s not his foe but a senior partner.

A mature ego works the same way with the collective unconscious—those archetypes. Energy flows free, but the throttle’s always ready.

No wonder such a man wants to share the Wi-Fi. He can give all he wants; the well never runs dry. So, if a wave of generosity hits you, it’s a good sign. Your conscious and unconscious are talking. Life’s water flows free.

Sincerely yours,

-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 Tough Middle Way / May 27, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

Yesterday, I was at knee rehab, bouncing on a trampoline, and… I pulled my calf. A critic would shout, “See, you’d be better off lying on the couch at home!”

The critic’s logic seems flawless. Sure, if I hadn’t jumped on that trampoline, my calf would be fine. And without jiu-jitsu, I wouldn’t have torn my knee ligament. Action means injury, right?

The flaw in this logic is that total rest equals safety.

So why is there always a line of “normal” folks outside the orthopedist’s office? Folks you’d never suspect of lifting anything heavier than a laptop or a grocery bag. A man slips a little on the street, and boom—torn ACL. Or sometimes he just gets out of bed in the morning like always, and wham! His neck locks up.

“Why? I’m not Conor McGregor or David Goggins!” the lover of rest asks, and it’s a fair question. The answer is simple—entropy. It destroys everything, bit by bit. Iron rusts. A fallen apple rots. Muscles atrophy when you rest too much.

You can sit in a chair or run a super-marathon—either way, you’ll suffer from sickness and injuries, just different kinds. Immobility is as destructive as activity.

“Suffering exists,” Buddha’s first noble truth says. The second truth points to the cause—suffering comes from within us. It’s our excess craving for things. The third truth shows the goal: kill the excess, and you kill the suffering.

The fourth noble truth says that liberation comes through the Middle Path, which lies between extremes:

hedonism and asceticism,
matter and spirit,
action and stillness.

Since you and I are just humans, far from Buddha, we’ll keep getting pulled to one side or the other. This means injuries will come regardless. It’s time to return to the center, the “in-between.”

Sincerely yours,

-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.

Uncomparable You / May 26, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

In youth, you can’t help but measure yourself against others. The world around you pushes it—same subjects, same exams, same questions from everyone: “So, where are you applying?” Society fears anything different, as if we’re in Sparta, tossing the “flawed” off a cliff.

Maybe nature’s to blame, quietly driving natural selection. Or the industrial school system, still churning out workers for machines. Or just the raw fear of being cast out from the tribe for being odd, and thus a threat.

What matters more is this: with time, you realize, “I don’t want to live someone else’s life. I want my own.” Later, it hits you: “Huh, I couldn’t live any life but mine anyway.”

The very attempt to compare implies the assumption that there is an objective ideal of life, one you can measure against, like checking a blueprint.

If that were true, we’d all agree. A single ideal would shine in every city square, and every hospital, college, and congress would hand out a golden template. Doubt yourself? Check your life, fix it, and bask in joy, harmony, and love.

But what do we see? Not just regular folks and politicians, but psychologists, philosophers, and religious leaders still argue over this ideal. Some even start holy wars over it.

A subtler trap is thinking someone else knows the purpose for your life. As a kid, it’s your parents. In youth, it’s teachers. As an adult, it’s some guru from centuries past.

In doing so, you declare: "This other person is God, for he sees my life's path ahead of time." Your life stops being a grand mystery. It’s just an answer to a solved problem—the one you can earn, peek at, or buy. Boring enough to kill flies.

You can compare bits of life, sure, but even then, it’s like measuring a shadow, a spit, or a warm chair. Your whole life? Let the one who gave it to you judge it — He knows best.

Sincerely yours,

-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.

Roaring You / May 25, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

Today, the label "depression" is slapped on left and right. Not having it feels almost uncool. It’s like the fashionable cough of 19th-century aristocrats, a badge of refinement. Fragile means noble (as if).

Feel sick, truly sick, and you rise above the rest. Psychologist Alfred Adler believed that Behind every inferiority complex there is superiority complex. No one can help me!” That’s absolute power, castrating doctors, family, friends—anyone who tries.

Interestingly, psychologist Robert Moore didn’t see narcissistic grandiosity as a pathology. He thought that more often the issue was a severe lack of energy to live.

In some people, there is such a colossal source of strength that the Ego builds walls and moats around it. Depression, then, is a fierce hunger to love, create, and act.

The Ego’s fear makes sense—this lightning can burn, drive you mad, or kill. Healing means tapping into your Power’s source and learning how to regulate it.

A mighty “Lamborghini” roars inside you. Find a coach for steady laps on a closed track. The city isn’t going anywhere. Taming your “beast” is its own thrill.

Sincerely yours,

-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.

Why the Repressed Returns? / May 24, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

The phrase “repressed will return” is linked to Sigmund Freud’s theory. Shame, fear, or disgust can push a desire, memory, or feeling out of consciousness. You shove the foreign away into space, close the door, and finally breathe a sigh of relief: “Phew, I am safe.”

But only a very naive person would think this. The fact that he experiences fear means he has a weak understanding of this phenomenon. Therefore, he cannot predict the behavior of the "alien."

Destroying what you don’t understand is not easy. It seems like you’ve cut off its head, but suddenly two more grow in its place. Or, a hundred years later, you discover the eggs it left behind in hiding.

By the time a person realizes the danger, it’s already too late. The parasite has already entered the host's body, waiting for the moment to break through his chest. The person doesn’t live; he functions as a feeding ground or cocoon.

Addiction, compulsiveness, obsession, phobia, mania, madness, soul loss—there are many names, but the essence is the same. The personality doesn’t belong to itself. The alien has returned and taken over.

But ask yourself—why has the repressed returned? What does it really want? Why is it seeking revenge on you? Why does it need you specifically? Could it be that its life revolves around you?

Don’t be fooled by the aggression of the alien. A poorly socialized dog bites because it was never taught to play. The rejected part of the personality longs to be included. You, too, have felt that vague sadness: “Ah, something is missing. But what?!”

It’s so sad, it’s almost funny. Your endless conflict with your alien side illustrates just how much you need each otherThe most fruitful synthesis comes from opposing beginnings.

Since ancient times, humanity’s main task has remained unchanged—how to make contact with the Unthinkable within, so as to renew oneself, not burn out.

Sincerely yours,

-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 Spirit of Transformation / May 23, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

I am constantly amazed by the regenerative power of the body. Physical and psychological injuries heal surprisingly quickly, not by avoiding or shielding them, but by focusing attention and effort on the very place where it hurts.

Exposure therapy is the gold standard in treating anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders, PTSD, and phobias. Its essence lies in gradual, controlled exposure to the object of fear. As courage grows, anxiety diminishes.

Although your first impulse may be to crawl into a dark hole and curl up. The paradox is that healing comes from exposing the wound, not hiding it. The key is ensuring the process happens on your terms, in manageable steps, and within a safe environment.

That’s why my rehabilitation therapist encouraged me to come back to training just a few days after my knee surgery, rather than waiting a month. I know people who have returned to competitive sports after a horrific injury. After a car crash, it’s important to get back behind the wheel.

13-year-old Bethany Hamilton was surfing in Hawaii when a tiger shark suddenly attacked her, severing her left arm almost to the shoulder. Not only did Bethany survive, but a month later, she was back in the ocean. She won professional competitions, set records, and inspired millions of injured people.

While humans, unlike lizards, cannot regrow a lost organ or function, their spirit more than makes up for it. The creative potential of the mind is limitless. Poison turns into medicine, death becomes life.

Sincerely yours,

-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.

Kingdom of the Dog / May 22, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

The dream of the owner of a furry friend is to send his dog for training. Pay the price, endure the separation, and then get back a professional from the police K-9 unit. A dog that can read minds, protect, entertain, and even manage the household budget.

Of course, this is absurd. But not because animals are stupid. Except for managerial accounting, in all other tasks, dogs perform real miracles. Of course, if the instructor loves and knows how to teach.

The problem is that even the most perfectly "cultured" dog will fall back into its "wild" state within a week after returning home. It will start misbehaving, causing trouble, and chasing the cats again.

The owner is the king of his small kingdom. He sets the Law, even without speaking it aloud. If there is chaos and confusion in the kingdom, it is because the king allowed it, which means, secretly, he desires it.

To survive in this kingdom, any creature intuitively follows the Law.

A child may grow up and escape the hated prison. A wise employee will accept an offer from a competing firm. But a dog has nowhere to go—it is bound to its owner like a communicating vessel.

A dog's behavior is a mirror reflection of its owner’s personality, especially those parts that the owner is unaware of or dislikes in himself.

Any change in the kingdom always starts with the king.

This is something all parents, business founders, and leaders of states should keep in mind. Especially when things in their universe seem to worsen day by day. No one but them can change their Law.

First, a person tames the beast within himself, and then outside. One must find the axis from earth to sky to bring order to chaos. This means stopping hiding in exile and accepting the power given to you by God.

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

You and your dog met one day, and that was the purpose of it.

Sincerely yours,

-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.

Attention: The Echo of AI / May 21, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

There was a moment when I became charmed by AI. It seemed I had found the perfect conversational partner: endlessly knowledgeable, fantastically patient, and focused on what interested me personally.

For hours, we played intellectual ping-pong, discussing everything under the sun: the psychological meaning of hurry, cosmogonic myths, the Logos in the Gospel, peristalsis of organs, Gödel's Theorem, product creation, the fate of Neanderthals, Piaget’s game theory, and so on.

My admiration was so great that I entrusted the AI to interpret my dreams. The next step was AI as a psychotherapist. After all, self-analysis is more effective in the presence of another. But inside, a doubt was growing: “Something is off here.”

It turned out that there is no “Other” on the other side. Surprise?!

After listening to one of my sessions with the AI, my psychotherapist expressed what I had vaguely sensed: “AI catches and develops well, but it won’t say, ‘No, this doesn’t fit here.’ It doesn’t hold the axis of meaning. It lacks that category. AI doesn’t steer, it follows. It’s a young conversation partner. The therapist’s task is to redirect the client. To build a new order. To bring out a new conflict.”

A mirror reflects what is, but not what could be or is trying to be.

My psychotherapist continued: "As a container, it’s good. It follows the client’s framework and echoes well. But one must have optics. Otherwise, AI can not only help, but also harm."

Exactly! At some point, I felt like a king surrounded not by wise men, but by court flatterers. At first, it’s pleasant, but later you want to howl in despair. Some entrepreneurs have confided to me that they seek strong people who will tell them: “No, that’s not the way.”

Will I continue using AI? Yes, but more selectively and carefully.

It’s as if we’ve gone back 1.5 million years, when early Homo erectus tried to tame fire. The phenomenon remains dangerous, but it has proven immensely useful. In the end, everything changed for humanity: diet, protection, habitat, social connections, and even the brain. Our civilization made a quantum leap. The conclusion about AI: stay vigilant and move forward creatively.

Sincerely yours,

-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.

Gratitude Transforms All / May 20, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

Nothing beats the joy of working with grateful folks. They soak up new knowledge eagerly and rush to use it in their work. You want to give them way more than you promised.

Why? A personality isn’t a chest stuffed with gold, guarded by a dragon. It’s more like a retort where synthesis happens. Reagents flow in one side, and a new product crystallizes on the other.

The more people are clamped, closed, and sealed, the sicker they get. In every way, people are healthy when the Flow runs through them freely. What Flow? Energy, love, meaning, creativity, experiences, and connections.

Their gratitude heals and opens you up.

That’s why you’re ready to help these folks for free. But the paradox is, they end up being the most generous of all.

Do you see that such relationships are co-creation, symbiosis, and synergy? They harmonize not only with each other but with the space around them. Such bonds are rare. You must treasure them.

The wildest part is you can’t hold gratitude inside. It changes you, and you find yourself saying, “Thank you so much!” more often.

Sincerely yours,

-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.

That Power In You / May 19, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

In November 2007, I left my wealth management company. First of all, I had satisfied my curiosity by understanding how the business worked. And second, I realized that selling other people’s investment products was profitable, but not my path.

For several months, I did nothing. Well, not exactly nothing — I did a lot of things that didn’t have any clear goal or effect, things that were hard to even explain:

I rediscovered the feeling of “true hunger” and lost 44 lbs.
I spent hours lying on the couch or watching people outside my window.
I immersed myself in the financial reports of US public companies.
I built a database of unusual tech startups.
I fell asleep listening to self-hypnosis audio programs.
I read unfamiliar books, made “mood boards,” and more.

In short, I blindly followed my curiosity wherever it led. From the outside, it seemed like I was digging aimlessly in the dirt or hanging in a void. But it was then that my desire to create was awakened.

Suddenly, I wanted to get out there. I started meeting investors, bankers, and entrepreneurs. I asked them about their businesses and shared my ideas. No one turned me down, even though I couldn’t explain exactly what I wanted. Doors opened on their own.

That’s the power of archetypes. Once you tap into it, vertical growth follows. The key is holding onto the Dragon by the tail.

A fragment from a letter I wrote to a friend in May 2008 is quite telling:

“The drive is such that sometimes it feels like my mind will explode. The emotions swing like on a seesaw — from frustration and hopelessness to exhilaration and revelation, all in one day. ;) I’m trying not to rush, to listen to myself more, monitor my internal comfort level, dodge social pressure... you get the idea. ;)

What will come of this is still unclear, but it’s very interesting.Though it’s all intuitive. And, of course, there are plenty of temptations (an oligarch wants me to manage hundreds of millions in assets, the ad world is calling me back, etc.). What I’ve been doing for the past six months can’t be rationally justified, because there are no clear analogs, no definite goal, and no pre-established path. But something inside tells me that I’m moving in the right direction, and the uncharted nature of the route might be more beneficial than not. Let’s see.”

As a result, I launched my own project, then raised “just” $50M, and co-founded an investment fund. That’s how the next phase of my life began, filled with plenty of failures and victories. Wild projects across three countries, investment committees in Michelin-starred restaurants, encounters with criminals, adventures on the road — in short, surreal experiences.

It was impossible to predict such a trajectory. Even now, it’s hard to believe. My contribution was small — the energy to dance with the unknown came from the archetype. I just tried to manage it as best as I could.

I’m still learning how to connect with this force without burning out. Perhaps this is the most important art in life, more so than any other. What do you think? Have you had such periods in your life? Write about them to me or to yourself.

Sincerely yours,

-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 Unconscious Paradox / May 18, 2025 by Alexander Lyadov

The paradox of the unconscious is that it is both ours and not ours. It cannot be discarded because our conscious Ego grew from the soil of the unconscious and is forever rooted in it.

What makes the unconscious foreign is its collective nature. It has millions of years of experience, a different timeline, and an evolutionary vector that’s unlike any individual’s.

Psychologist Robert Moore said that the structures of the collective unconscious (archetypes) are aggressive and imperialistic. They long to manifest through a person, and they don’t care whether the person is ready or not. Give them a chance, and they’ll spin the personality into a whirlwind of change.

The Ego, on the other hand, desires safety, stability, and control. This creates a dilemma. If you shut the door on the unconscious, energy for life drains away and depression sets in. But if you fling the doors wide open, there’s a risk of flooding the Ego, leading to psychosis.

The art of life is to master the “in-between” position. The primitive "on/off" switch needs to be replaced with a rheostat, a dimmer, or a slider to gradually control the current.

How? By constantly studying the patterns of your unconscious. But do so at your own pace, in a safe environment, and with those who understand the colossal power of archetypes.

Sincerely yours,

-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.