Big Bang Boss /  by Alexander Lyadov

There's a joke that scientists say: “We need just one miracle—the Big Bang. We'll explain the rest ourselves.” Even science hungers for a creation myth—the secret that sparked it all.

Something similar happens in business.

When a company already exists, grows fast, and seems unstoppable, managers, investors, and journalists start believing they understand this “machine” inside out. They grip the wheel confidently, press the gas hard, and enthusiastically pick new upgrades.

The founder is rarely remembered. That was long ago — crude, small-scale, and financially insignificant. Since then, they've jacked value a hundred times, gone global, rung the IPO bell.

It all works fine while the market stays stable. But when a crisis, new technology, pandemic, or war suddenly demands change — none of these “demigods” have a clue what to do.

Sometimes in those breaking points, the founder steps back in, grabs the wheel, works wonders: guts "essential" costs, sweet-talks creditors into debt swaps, spots growth in dead ends, reinvents the model, and so on.

Sometimes, in these turning points, the founder returns, grabs the wheel, works wonders:

  • slashes “essential” expenses,

  • convinces creditors to restructure debt,

  • finds growth where none seems possible,

  • reinvents the business model, and so on.

Suddenly all remember — it was the entrepreneur who creates the Big Bang.

But a couple years after the storm, when business climbs again, the new hires try hard to forget.

Yours sincerely,

-Alexander

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.

Stuck? Your business grows when you do. I’m your business therapist to guide your shift. See testimonials ​here​. Ready? ​Book your Catalyst session​.

Erase the Blind Spot /  by Alexander Lyadov

The question is, who can give it to you?

Your spouse sees the world much like you. Friends spare your feelings. Colleagues drown in routine. Strangers are polite or don’t care. You’re left alone with your guesses.

Such a life’s like groping in the dark. You’ll bash your head or stub your toe for sure. Sometimes the hurt’s so bad you want to freeze forever.

What’s the way out?

Seek a place where people see and speak things as they are.

It’s no easy task. Special conditions are needed:

  1. Participants gather to know others and themselves.

  2. There’s basic trust in everyone’s good intentions.

  3. Analytical dialogue, not casual chatter, holds value.

  4. A third someone pulls everyone to meta-position.

Once I was sure a therapist wasn’t for me. Then I saw the worth of individual therapy, but eyed group work with doubt. And then…

I tried group therapy and saw that experience can’t be matched one-on-one. Just different tools, like a microscope and a chromatograph. Each has its own value.

A group is a model of society — one that can tell you everything. If you dare ask the deep question and take the gift—not always sweet, but always precious.

Such feedback clears your blind spots, like an eraser.

It’s a wonder how others help you become your true Self.

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

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.

Stuck? Your business grows when you do. I’m your business therapist to guide your shift. See testimonials ​here​. Ready? ​Book your Catalyst session​.

Tripped into Cosmos /  by Alexander Lyadov

You walked sure and calm, then tripped for no reason.

No anger rises, if it’s the first time and no harm done.

It’s different if you’re tired of stumbling: “Again? Really?!”

An MRI scan or investor’s walkout makes you ponder too: “Hmm, this is no accident. Someone’s trying to tell me something.”

In our lives, no random glitches happen. Yet we ignore some for a long while. Until it burns.

Finally, we spot the silly phenomenon. We fiddle with it, study it, suffer, chase answers. The problem proves deeper, wider than we thought.

So when we fit the key to the lock, a secret door flies open—not to a room, but a stunning new world. The tighter the bowstring, the farther the arrow flies.

The stumbling block and the cornerstone are one and the same.

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

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.

Stuck? Your business grows when you do. I’m your business therapist to guide your shift. See testimonials ​here​. Ready? ​Book your Catalyst session​.

Free Your Beast /  by Alexander Lyadov

During fasting, the body literally eats itself alive.

First come the carbs—glucose stores in blood and glycogen in liver and muscles. Then the liver turns amino acids and fats into glucose. Later the body shifts to fats, and the liver brews ketones for the brain. End game—muscles and organs break down.

And if short voluntary fasting can help, long forced hunger means certain death.

No matter what a man wants, his body burns fuel smart—to stretch his life as far as it goes. It nudges him gentle but firm: “Be a pal, feed me, or else...”.

Just like that, dormant Potential gnaws at him from within. In psycho talk, the Self slowly swallows the Ego. Or in myths and tales—the gift morphs into a curse.

The gift just craves life—eat, drink, root down, grow tall, burst into bloom. Solid urge, right? Trouble is, the man shoots back: “Hold up, I’m not set. Not today.”

So he betrays himself. Payback hits hard. Apathy, depression, addiction, madness, flares of “baseless” rage.

Sound familiar? Time to feed your Beast and free him from the cage.

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

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.

Stuck? Your business grows when you do. I’m your business therapist to guide your shift. See testimonials ​here​. Ready? ​Book your Catalyst session​.

The Steering Test /  by Alexander Lyadov

To see if a company is healthy, sometimes a tiny detail is enough. Watch how management follows the CEO’s orders.

Say the CEO tells a VP, CFO, or personal assistant to do something for you—send a staff list, pay an invoice, or brief you fast on project X.

The boss gave it top priority. Yet it’s soon clear the manager drags his feet.

How’s that? Ask him, and he’ll give a solid excuse—like a client crisis, tax audit, or pneumonia. A man who climbed so high can justify anything.

One hitch—the CEO’s order flops, and the CEO didn’t even know.

Picture yourself driving a truck on a mountain switchback. All’s good—weather, scenery, road, radio blaring a hit. Then terror hits on a turn—the rig won’t heed the wheel.

No matter how strong the engine or pretty the view. Disaster looms ahead. Any system that can’t be steered is doomed.

If someone can blow off the CEO’s call, all rules, tasks, and deals lose force. Trust and team unity sink, while fights and mistakes climb.

Luckily, control can return. Guess who’ll do it?

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

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.

Stuck? Your business grows when you do. I’m your business therapist to guide your shift. See testimonials ​here​. Ready? ​Book your Catalyst session​.

Ask to Rise /  by Alexander Lyadov

Unknown artist

 

Over years of training, I’ve seen plenty of new grapplers. I can always tell who will leave his teammates far behind.

One sign only—this rookie isn’t shy about asking questions.

Smart, attentive, hardworking guys show up too. Their growth shines against those who came just to chat and goof off.

Yet all these fine traits are less important. Curiosity in action—that’s what lifts the greenhorn to the stratosphere.

Why? Mostly because it’s tough:

  • The asker looks like a fool,

  • He risks rude jabs, arrogance, or laughs,

  • Plus, he must stand out from the “smart” silent crowd.

If a man beats this hurdle, he’s wildly curious.

Clear—he’ll soak up advice like a hungry chick takes food. Nothing gets lost or forgotten, but fuels his growth. Soon the “upstart” towers above all.

In business, I’ve watched the same thing. Sometimes a guy pops up, stunning with his “thick skin,” “boldness,” and “shamelessness” while hunting answers to burning questions.

Even if he’s green and young, I already know: “This one will go far.”

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

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.

Stuck? Your business grows when you do. I’m your business therapist to guide your shift. See testimonials ​here​. Ready? ​Book your Catalyst session​.

The Playful Creator /  by Alexander Lyadov

The book “American Indian Myths and Legends” opens with “Rabbit Boy.” It’s a creation tale from the White River Sioux. Feel the beauty and meaning in this piece:

"In these far-gone days, hidden from us as in a mist, there lived a rabbit—a very lively, playful, good-hearted rabbit. One day this rabbit was walking, enjoying himself, when he came across a clot of blood. How it got there, nobody knows. It looked like a blister, a little bladder full of red liquid. Well, the playful rabbit began toying with that clot of blood, kicking it around as if it were a tiny ball.

Now, we Indians believe in Takuskanskan, the mysterious power of motion. Its spirit is in anything that moves. It animates things and makes them come alive. Well, the rabbit got into this strange moving power without even knowing it, and the motion of being kicked around, or rather the spirit of the motion—and I hope you can grasp what I mean by that—began to work on the little blob of blood so that it took shape, forming a little gut.

The rabbit kicked it some more, and the blob began to grow tiny hands and arms. The rabbit kept nudging it, and suddenly it had eyes and a beating heart. In this way the rabbit, with the help of the mysterious moving power, formed a human being, a little boy. The rabbit called him We-Ota-Wichasha, Much-Blood Boy, but he is better known as Rabbit Boy."

Before us lies nothing less than a “Big Bang,” the birth of the universe. So anything comes to life, from a cell to a star. It’s worthy of a book, but for now, note a couple things:

  1. Though it’s unclear how the clot of blood got there, it might hint at violence. Many peoples’ creation myths start with a founder’s death. So the carefree Rabbit stumbles on a grim, dirty, meaningless thing.

  2. Yet our Rabbit stands out with fullness and joy in life. He doesn’t fear it like others would—he joyfully plays with the “ghastly” clot of blood. No staring, no throwing stones, just leaps into the Game. Mind-blowing!

  3. Thanks to this spontaneous move, the Spirit of All Motion—Christians call it grace—descends on Rabbit. From the co-creation of Rabbit and Takuskanskan, formless matter turns into a little man.

  4. Rabbit gave the boy not just a name, but one that holds a sobering truth of his origin—Much-Blood Boy. So he, and all people, would never forget:

Fatal Chaos births blessed Cosmos when Creators act.

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

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.

Stuck? Your business grows when you do. I’m your business therapist to guide your shift. See testimonials ​here​. Ready? ​Book your Catalyst session​.

Sacred Profanity /  by Alexander Lyadov

Unknown photographer

 

Attention: the text contains explicit language.

The jiu-jitsu camp in 2017 was a blast. A cozy European town, packed with 150 enthusiasts from all over the world. All day, one killer seminar after another, and at night, great food and wild parties. In short, I was loving it.

Most folks in drills and sparring kept it respectful. Makes sense—grown men gathered to learn something new and have a good time, not for “bull's fights.”

There, I met a guy way more skilled than me in grappling. We talked often, but I felt a vague unease: “Something’s off.” He seemed both intrigued and annoyed by me.

One day, he suggested we roll. At one point, he caught me in a chokehold he’d bragged about as his “trademark.” He wasn’t lying—it was solid. I was gasping, ready to tap out. Then his face loomed over mine, and his eyes screamed raw hate and a clear urge to kill me.

By the way, it’s a known fact—some activities strip away the mask and show a man’s true self. Like grappling, board games, dancing, sculpting, sex, or driving.

His “message” triggered a “Big Bang” inside me:

“FUCK YOU!!!”

It was wild and unexpected. I usually can’t stand swearing—unless I smash a finger with a hammer.

But out of nowhere came a thirst for life, raw defiance, primal strength. I ripped free from his “fatal” grip. I’ll never forget the look in his eyes, wide with shock. He stammered: “How did you do that?! It was impossible!” I didn’t reveal the secret.

That’s when I saw—cussing can be a powerful tool if you know when and how to wield it. Swear words tie to taboos, and thus to the sacred. Culture pushes them down, sensing their danger. But like fire, they’re both a blessing and, well, a curse.

Without bans, society can’t survive—that’s clear.

But sometimes a man needs to cross those lines.

Let’s learn, shall we? :)

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

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.

Stuck? Your business grows when you do. I’m your business therapist to guide your shift. See testimonials ​here​. Ready? ​Book your Catalyst session​.

Limit Less /  by Alexander Lyadov

I remember the first time I drank a lot as a teenager. The night went great, and I woke up with a clear head. First thought: “Everyone warned about some hangover. Turns out it’s pure bliss!”

Of course, I just didn’t see the bill my body quietly paid.

What’s the difference between a baby and an old man? A baby falls on his belly or butt with no care. An old man moves slow, like a tourist with a backpack in an antique shop.

A baby’s small and flexible, so bruises don’t scare him. Unlike the old man, where a fragile hip break can be a death sentence. Their bodies hold different resources.

But that’s not the full story. Recall how kids grab strange animals, stick fingers in sockets, or step off heights. Even a strong body has a limit. And kids, alas, don’t know it.

A string of bruises, burns, and breaks teaches a child he’s not God. With time, an adult’s neck stiffens, knees ache, and his liver says: “I’ll handle a glass of wine, but you deal with the rest.”

Realizing the limits of your abilities is an invitation into maturity. But he must work on himself. Or else he turns into an old man, paralyzed by every danger.

It’s about mastering how he sees his limits. Where kids, and many adults, hit a solid wall, maturity hands him a key to a hidden door. The limit seems to exist, and yet it doesn’t.

Mature thinking is a paradox. It doesn’t fear mixed feelings, uncertainty, or conflict, for maturity knows the rule: “In sterquiliniis invenitur” — “In filth you'll find everything you need".

Yes, with age, a man’s physical strength fades. But if he taps his potential right, his other strength—intuition, imagination, wisdom—grows each day.

So a mature person is an optimistic realist.

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

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.

Stuck? Your business grows when you do. I’m your business therapist to guide your shift. See testimonials ​here​. Ready? ​Book your Catalyst session​.

Storm Within /  by Alexander Lyadov

A day will come when I’ll feel thanks for this time.
For now, it’s only intuition, a hunch, an insight. A spark in the dark.

I didn’t choose what’s happening, but here I am in it.
A wild hurricane grows, threatening to swallow everybody and everything.

By chance, my spot is the cyclone’s center, the “eye of the storm.”

A strange place. There’s a kind of order here, but it’s deceptive.
At any moment Chaos can turn the center into the destructive edge.

But until then, I get a rare chance to watch. What?
The most fascinating thing —how society, a group, or one man acts.

And most of all, I can learn a ton about myself.

It’s like two streams collide—what was and what’s to come.
Their boiling merge runs through everyone here.

This experience is a treasure, though it’s hard to believe.
My mind stumbled, asking: “Why am I here?”

The hurricane thundered back: “Find the answer in you.”

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

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.

Stuck? Your business grows when you do. I’m your business therapist to guide your shift. See testimonials ​here​. Ready? ​Book your Catalyst session​.

Feed Your Power /  by Alexander Lyadov

A couple months back, my energy level started worrying me. Tiredness, colds, sleepiness, mood—all off. WTF?!

Daily workouts, testosterone fine, healthy eating, sleep OK. Thinking over possible causes, I told an AI about my workload and age, then listed every bite I ate that day—down to grams and brands.

The AI’s verdict: “Your protein and fats are fine. The big imbalance—way too few carbs and calories (39% and 70% of normal). That’s the key reason you feel chronically drained with your training load.”

“So my body’s weak because... I’m not feeding it?!” If the AI were human, he’d shrug with a wry grin: “Revelation, huh?”

I quickly added rice, buckwheat, bananas, and nuts, keeping daily nutrient balance with the AI.

And what do you think? Everything clicked—energy and stamina in workouts, mood, and recovery through the day.

Even feels awkward admitting this slip. I share it because maybe you have the same problem, and it can be fixed in no time.

May the force be with you!

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

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.

Stuck? Your business grows when you do. I’m your business therapist to guide your shift. See testimonials ​here​. Ready? ​Book your Catalyst session​.

The Lie of Lack /  by Alexander Lyadov

 

You know the key to power over any man and people in general?

Hard to believe how cunning and simple it is.

You must make yourself believe:

“I AM NOT ENOUGH __________.”

Fill the blank with any word:

  • educated (authentic),

  • rich (unpretentious),

  • decisive (diligent),

  • passionate (patient),

  • predictable (free),

  • strong (gentle),

  • modest (ambitious),

  • vigilant (trusting),

  • kind (fair), and so on.

The quality doesn’t matter—only the sense of lacking something does.

More precisely, you must truly feel this lack as a fact.

“What can I do, I’ve always been,” mourns the voice inside.

A parent, teacher, idol, or chance might have planted this lie.

Voilà! From that moment, your life can be twisted any way.

No force needed—you’ll chase the bait yourself.

You’ll be caught, stripped for caviar, and then tossed back into the pond.

By whom? Stars, politicians, gurus, influencers, and other “authorities.”

They have what you crave most, right?

No.

All you need is already inside you.

Only this false belief stops you from claiming this __________.

The key to power over you must return to you.

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

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.

Stuck? Your business grows when you do. I’m your business therapist to guide your shift. See testimonials ​here​. Ready? ​Book your Catalyst session​.

Depth First /  by Alexander Lyadov

You decided to raise your flag.

Share your knowledge, find your people, or offer your skills.

In short, send a clear signal to the world: “I am. I’m here. I’m ready.”

They’ll notice you faster if your flag flies high and bold.

Seems simple—grab a long pole and use plenty of cloth.

But alas, at the slightest breeze, your flag will fall.

If your goal is to tickle the clouds, your pole must dig deep into the earth.

This underground part’s easy to undervalue, hidden from sight.

The long drilling process will tire you and cover you in dirt.

And by the way, no helpers will come. Your flag? You dig in the mud.

Laying the foundation matters, but only you can thank yourself for that.

So try to find meaning and joy in this “dark” stage.

Remember: Without depth, there’s no height.

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

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.

Stuck? Your business grows when you do. I’m your business therapist to guide your shift. See testimonials ​here​. Ready? ​Book your Catalyst session​.

Bless The Dirt /  by Alexander Lyadov

 

Picture your personality as a fairy-tale kingdom. It has borders, beyond which lie foreign lands. In its villages and towns, people toil. A wise king rules here.

Questions bubble up, curious and sharp. For instance: “Who’s an honest citizen, and who’s a murderer, thief, or liar?” There’s always someone stirring trouble, breaking the peace.

Say a villain’s caught. But here’s the hitch—threats and punishments don’t faze him. He only grows crueler, vowing to wreak havoc with cunning as long as he breathes.

So, what do you do with this criminal? It’s your call, for you are the Law. Lock him in a dungeon, destroy him, or banish him from your land? Problem solved?

Not quite. “The repressed returns,” Freud warned. In dreams, in slips of the tongue, and most of all in those “unexplained” flashes of hurt, irritation, sadness, or rage. The impostor has taken your throne.

Here’s a secret: there’s NOTHING spare, alien, or harmful in you. Everything matters—especially what stirs confusion, scorn, shame, anxiety, disgust, horror, embarrassment, or guilt.

Treasures hide where taboos lock your gaze. It’s tough to see the good beneath a repulsive mask.

But if you do, reality will surprise you:

  • The “criminal” was breaking a law that no longer made sense.

  • The “thief” was taking what demanded creative reworking.

  • The “killer” was trying to free you from delusions.

  • The “outsider” was a messenger of your true Self—God’s image.

This shift isn’t easy to embrace. But the effort pays off.

Richly blooms the land where its dirt is blessed.

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

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.

Stuck? Your business grows when you do. I’m your business therapist to guide your shift. See testimonials ​here​. Ready? ​Book your Catalyst session​.

Dancing with Void /  by Alexander Lyadov

I confess, two weeks in the Void did me good. I know myself better now, and oddly, this knowledge feels universal. The meta-dilemmas of individuals, groups, and societies are fractally alike.

This thought brings peace and freedom. No need to frantically fix the world, save someone (against his will), or run risky social experiments.

Better yet, you don’t need to mend, build, or improve yourself. Are you a shattered window, a dull pencil, a rusty lock? Your soul isn’t a machine, and you’re not its creator.

So where do anxiety, envy, gloom, irritation, fear, anger come from? A false belief: there’s a Black Hole inside you. Lack. Emptiness.

  • “If only I had…”

  • “Alas, I’ll never…”

  • “Where can I find…”

  • “Why did I end up in…”

  • “Once I achieve, then…”

  • “No matter how hard I try, I can’t…”

  • “First, I must do X, and only then…”

Here’s the bitter irony: it’s the exact opposite. The Void bursts with ideas, possibilities, meanings long held back. No hole—just a horn of plenty. Take as much as you can carry.

Sounds wild? I get it. The shift from lack to abundance is a sharp turn. You can’t just think it—you must feel it in your bones. The question is, how?

I’ve found no scientific papers, only faint hunches:

  1. After chasing countless lures, you tire of seeking answers outside.

  2. You begin to suspect the gold is in the mud—not the shop window.

  3. Others help you find in yourself what shouldn’t be there.

I’ll share more as I dig deeper. For now, I’m tempted to dance with the Void another two weeks. She’s wildly generous when you give her your full attention.

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

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.

Stuck? Your business grows when you do. I’m your business therapist to guide your shift. See testimonials ​here​. Ready? ​Book your Catalyst session​.

The Gift of Nothing /  by Alexander Lyadov

For the next week or two, my letters will stop coming. I chose to gift myself, and maybe you, a well-earned break.

A fierce longing for the Void hit me. I want to stew in my own juices. Ferment. Let noble mold grow.

From a rational view, this is reckless. The critic inside me chokes on arguments about duty, order, business, creativity, rituals. Five years of newsletters isn’t nothing.

But I’ve long known the mind misses what truly matters. First among them is the Void, which the mind fears, sure that “stopping life means death.” Such a sweet fool.

The paradox: a one can only be born from zero. All those bold shapes, complex graphs, and big numbers come only after the X, Y, Z axes are drawn.

First, there was Nothing. Zilch. The origin. The starting point.

This feels like my old ritual. Years ago, every five to seven years, I’d vanish for weeks into Peru’s jungles, the Himalayas’ pines, or somewhere else. This time it’s different—I stay put, yet travel far.

No psychedelics. No mysticism. The cosmos lives inside us all.

Sometimes it terrifies us with icy darkness and cold silence. But that’s just a mirror of how we face the abyss. Pay warm attention to it, and a black hole turns into a horn of plenty.

Where there was nothing, everything we need will rise. Maybe not how or when we expect. But in the end, we’ll be grateful we trusted that strange urge within.

I hope this “in-between” does us all good.

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

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.

Stuck? Your business grows when you do. I’m your business therapist to guide your shift. See testimonials ​here​. Ready? ​Book your Catalyst session​.

Treasures in the Dark /  by Alexander Lyadov

Do you dream nightmares that truly scare you? Ones you wish you could unsee? So shocking you can’t fall back asleep?

I used to fear those dreams. Now I watch them with curiosity. I even write them down and dig into their meaning. Though they feel uneasy in the moment, I don’t want to forget them.

I’ve learned to value not their form, but their hidden truth. Darkness, madness, violence, filth, slime, and blood serve the Self—the core of who you are—to trick the guard, your mind. Then your Ego catches a spark of insight.

Sometimes, horrific acts show the deep despair of a rejected part of you. It’s just trying to grab your ever-drifting gaze. Other ways didn’t work.

Understand this: where you feel calm and cozy, there’s no new information. But in that “filth” lie your treasures—wild energy, Wow solutions, and possibilities, each brighter than the last.

Next time a nightmare strikes, ask your subconscious: “Judging by the heat, this matters to you, and so to me. What are you trying to say?”

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

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.

Stuck? Your business grows when you do. I’m your business therapist to guide your shift. See testimonials ​here​. Ready? ​Book your Catalyst session​.

Touch the Rock /  by Alexander Lyadov

Watching a rock climber from afar, it feels like he’s stuck. Against him stands a smooth vertical wall and relentless gravity. What does he have? Only a fading spark of strength, experience, and love for life.

Here lies the gap between the watcher and the doer.

The first sees the whole scene, so he spots the objective risk. His worry makes sense: the problem is clear, the answer absent.

The second sees just a tiny patch before him. Sees? No—he merges with that fragment of reality, body and soul. Their bond is so fierce, the rock whispers its secrets to him.

Like a student cracking a Zen koan, the climber must become a question mark. Only then can he grasp the faint cracks in the world around him.

These are real chances, but no one sees them. To see, you must leave the cozy armchair of thought and crawl onto the sheer cliff’s edge. Real danger wakes a sharp focus that sleeps in safer times.

By paradox, the climber has less to fear—the abundance of opportunities outweighs the risk. Talent and practice cut danger to driving a car in the city.

You can’t grasp this with your mind. Let your fingers touch the rock.

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

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.

Stuck? Your business grows when you do. I’m your business therapist to guide your shift. See testimonials ​here​. Ready? ​Book your Catalyst session​.

The In-Between Path /  by Alexander Lyadov

What is stretching? The pull of an opposite force. And vice versa.

We reach one extreme, 90%, and crave more. With every extra push (+1%), the resistance grows exponentially. As if the whole Cosmos turns against us.

Oh, paradox! By chasing the “plus,” we feed the “minus.” We bring closer what we wanted least.

Here’s the secret: epic wins turn to ruin, and the victor crafts his own downfall. He who picks one extreme will fall. Why? Because ideologically, psychologically, and even metaphysically, he cannot stop. His “A” must destroy “not-A.”

He forgets: “A” and “not-A” are inseparably linked. In a dichotomy, if one disappears, the other loses all meaning.

Yes, extremes are sometimes inevitable and even useful. But steady growth always happens in-between.

Through this lens, it’s striking to watch the dance of opposites:

  • democrats and conservatives,

  • collective and individual,

  • religion and science,

  • control and freedom,

  • safety and creativity,

  • intuition and logic,

  • man and machine,

  • women and men,

  • past and future,

  • matter and spirit.

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

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.

Stuck? Your business grows when you do. I’m your business therapist to guide your shift. See testimonials ​here​. Ready? ​Book your Catalyst session​.

Sacred Mic /  by Alexander Lyadov

Here’s a guy, Ari. He carries 20 kilos of music gear on his back. Wanders the chaotic streets of New York. Crafts melodies on the fly.

Streams it all online. Surely he’s wasting his time, right?

Here’s what YouTube subscribers (800K and counting) say in the comments:

  • “Words cannot express how awesome this is”.

  • “One of the better youtube rabbit holes I’ve ever stumbled into fa sho!”

  • “The coolest thing about this is that the mic is free for anyone with the courage to grab it”

  • “Most talented people are unfamous”.

  • “This is the coolest fucking thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life”. “

  • Ari is a legend for sharing his time and talent with anyone on the street. He always does his best to make everyone sound as good a he can”.

  • “There is something magical about strangers randomly making music together”.

  • “Bro is just living”.

  • “The guy is a harmony genius.”

  • “No race. No color. We all the same people musically. United through the love of the beat and lyrics”.

  • “This channel is legitimately the best thing in music currently.”

  • “Ari is the future of improvisation.”

  • “So many talented people just walking around. Ari, out here attracting them like moths to the flames”.

The last comment nails why it’s so thrilling. Any passerby can grab the mic and sing or rap. Strangers whip up something from nothing, right here, right now.

Turns out, talent’s everywhere. Pizza delivery guys, managers, comedians, musicians. Their brilliance stayed hidden, tucked in the shadows.

Then Ari came along. On an ordinary street, he creates a sacred space where people feel the urge to share their God-given gift.

Suddenly, it’s clear: nothing stops creation. No need for degrees, experience, money, or setups. You don’t even need to know who’s who. Just answer the call.

A listener’s right: “This restores my faith in humanity.” When the world seems ready to lose it, drowning in lies, hate, and blood, moments like these spark hope that we still have a shot.

Ari’s wandering mirrors true living. It’s a fierce flow of creative energy where people drop their egos, find their unique spark, and weave a pattern of unearthly beauty with the threads of their souls. This quietly transforms everyone.

Enjoy:

Sincerely yours,

-Alexander

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.

Stuck? Your business grows when you do. I’m your business therapist to guide your shift. See testimonials ​here​. Ready? ​Book your Catalyst session​.