Touching Infinity /  by Alexander Lyadov

 

For days I can’t stop listening to the ​sounds of the desert​. When I write, meditate, or just sit in the dark at night.

The wind never rests. Sand drifts, dunes shift. It reminds me of our life—so much motion, yet nothing really changes. “Our” life, the life of humankind, it has always been this way and always will be.

There’s only one difference: the desert doesn’t try to change itself. It is what it is—flowing slowly into its own endlessness.

Such self-sufficiency makes the desert generous. All you need is to place yourself within it—physically or in your mind. Listen to the wind. Study the patterns of the dunes. Let the warm sand slip between your toes.

Silently, the desert works its magic. It takes away everything unnecessary, foreign, and false—and in return, it weaves your soul into the eternity of being. Your own finitude stops frightening you. The desert is you.

Deep inside, each of us longs to connect with something vast. Sadly, we often choose substitutes—alcohol, ideology, tribes, consumption, the approval of the crowd, and so on.

Yet the path to the eternal is always within reach:

  • Water: a river, an ocean, a fountain.

  • Air: mountains, sky, stars.

  • Earth: a park, a forest, a desert.

  • Fire: a flame, creativity, beauty.

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​.

Reinventing Yourself /  by Alexander Lyadov

When I look back on my career so far, I must face a strange truth:

Every few years, I made one decision that created it all.

Like a man lost in a thick forest, he pours effort into walking, building camp, hunting, cooking. But all that hustle means nothing unless he checks his compass—moss, river, stars—to set or shift his path.

That’s how it went when I:

  • left chemistry for advertising,

  • cracked a new agency pay model (it saved us in crisis),

  • helped the market see the huge potential of local clients,

  • chased answers at Chicago GSB (no one around me did that),

  • leapt from advertising to wealth management,

  • fell in love with venture investing and co-founded a $50M fund,

  • and later created business therapy — a synthesis of many disciplines.

Each time, I froze first before deciding. A new opportunity pulled me hard. Yet it looked dumb, vague, unprofitable, crazy, or flat-out scary.

When I stepped into the “abyss,” a whole new phase kicked in. Like ice turns to water, then steam. The molecule stays the same — H₂O — but the degrees of freedom can’t be compared.

It’s tempting, in hindsight, to see the path as linear and to rationalize each turn. Also, the years spent realizing each stage make it hard to forget.

But key is to mark where you reinvented yourself.

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​.

The Cross of Healing /  by Alexander Lyadov

A sports rehab pro hands out tough exercises, but one nobody likes. It’s electrical muscle stimulation.

For example, after a knee injury, electrodes are placed on your thigh, and for fifteen minutes the machine sends electric waves that make your muscles contract as if you were doing squats with a barbell.

But here’s the twist — you control the current yourself, which means you control your discomfort as it turns into pain. Why would anyone do that?

The rehab guy warns: “The higher the charge, the faster you heal.” Top’s “120,” but “50” already stings. You face a dilemma—spare yourself now or ditch the limp sooner.

Truth is, max charge won’t kill or wreck you. Red electrode marks fade in minutes. The pain is psychological — it’s your mind refusing to hurt itself.

Sleep loss, gloom, weather, post-workout fatigue—all drop your pain threshold. And there you sit, finger on the button, realizing: “My biggest foe and limit is me.”

There are two extremes. Go too soft and wonder, “Why did I even come here, wasting money and time?” Go full “Goggins mode,” and your soul protests, “Do you even love yourself?”

Balancing truth and mercy is an art. Seek comfort in illusions, and you won’t heal. Use violence against yourself, and your body will cut the power to live.

Look — the vertical crosses the horizontal inside you, me, and all of us.

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​.

Oasis in the Sands /  by Alexander Lyadov

To create something new means to transform yourself.

That’s why true creation is rare.

The new might turn useful and honored later, maybe. But now it’s shaky, dirty, alien, risky, and strange.

The opportunity looks like a narrow black hole—uncomfortable to even peek into, let alone crawl through.

Why do some folks leap into that void with glee?

They’re not fools, thrill seekers, or self-destructive souls. Quite the opposite: they’re sharp, grounded, and very much in love with life.

So something redeems the inevitable emotional, mental, and physical burns from touching the Unknown. Yes, a prize waits. It’s the Creator’s joy in changing the world:

Where a dead desert lay, an oasis blooms and a fountain gushes.

How did these men spot a whole ocean under scorching sand?

Like seeks like. The water of life springs inside them.

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​.

Within Reach /  by Alexander Lyadov

 

Everything we need most is already within reach.

This thought keeps gnawing at me. And so, examples—others’ and mine—pile up like a snowball.

Lately, I sparred a guy less skilled than me. Though I ruled, he pulled off a “Tripod Sweep” a couple times. That basic move hit so timely and fast that, knowing it all, I couldn’t block it. Hmm, odd.

From my experience, that’s a sign of a “tokui waza”—a “signature move.” Some moves you “somehow” nail quick, drill with joy, and they pop out in a fight on their own.

I told the young grapplet: “Water what grows on its own,” since a “signature move” often decides matches. But his reply showed he saw no special worth in it.

Sadly, this happens to us all the time. Likely, culture drilled into us that life’s best comes only from backbreaking toil. And that good stuff, born easy or landing light, deserves no thanks or awe.

In business therapy, I keep opening folks’ eyes to their natural Gift. A founder moans progress stalls for lack of quality X, blind to the precious quality Y he’s got in spades.

Turns out, no need to chase an MBA at Stanford, gulp 40 bestsellers a year, or copy guru “secrets.”

Just take this: the answer isn’t out there—it’s inside you.

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​.

From Template to Creation /  by Alexander Lyadov

You recall those kids’ coloring books? Just black-and-white outlines of fairy tale and cartoon folks, brought alive by a child’s colored pencils.

There’s a tiny spark of creativity in choosing colors, perhaps. But clearly, filling in a ready-made template is much easier than taking a blank sheet and drawing from scratch.

It’s not just about a kid’s skills, but his faith in himself and birthing that hazy image he can’t wait to make real.

That’s what sets an entrepreneur from a hired manager, even a CEO.

A founder fears no blank page—it lures him in. Any sketch, even the roughest, fires him up. The magic lies in turning nothing into something.

A sketch locks the art’s intent. Right off, you see the uniqueness, scope, and potential value of the business idea.

Sure, there’s still much work ahead: refining the lines, choosing the colors, picking the right frame, and so on. Fortunately, there are skilled managers who love that kind of work.

Most thrilling?

Watching those who colored others’ books for years finally grab a blank sheet.

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​.

The Creator's Back /  by Alexander Lyadov

Once I knew an amazing designer. She was as talented and hardworking as she was humble and fragile.

Since she spent days, sometimes nights, at the computer, neck, shoulder, and back troubles crept in over time. They ached so bad she couldn't budge her main "tool."

For a designer, that's a death sentence. Not just paychecks—her creative expression hung on a healthy body. A classical musician friend told the same tale. After 30, many pay for childhood practice years.

Years later, the designer girl wrote me she'd caught the kettlebell bug, watching me. Back then, I raved about this lost gem often.

I couldn't picture that graceful girl gripping a kettlebell, but facts don't lie—her body pain fled. Funny, I thought, it’s the intellectuals and artists who need sport the most. It’s the only way to keep doing what you love for a long time.

Lately, lower back woes kept me from the desk. I changed plenty to turn it around. I’m not sure which factor helped the most:

  • Added back and shoulders to leg work with the rehab pro,

  • traded static chair for a dynamic ​capsule​,

  • hoisted monitor to eye level,

  • got a height-shift desk,

  • switch poses more,

  • walk everywhere.

Sobering stats: “In the Western population, 70%–85% will develop LBP (Low Back Pain) at one point in life, 60% will continue to report LBP 1 year later, and 10%–15% will have chronic LBP” [​1​].

Takeaway: Best time to fix your back is NOW.

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​.

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​.