Behold Beauty /  by Alexander Lyadov

The ability to see beauty in unexpected places is a gift. A person with this gift can never be truly poor or deprived.

In essence, it’s the act of discovering a speck of gold—or even a nugget—hidden in the mud. For most, there’s nothing there. But for the prospector, it’s El Dorado.

Talk of creation, and it seems the gifted pulls worth from thin air. But that’s not true. He frees beauty from the prison of formless matter that once bound it.

The maker dives to the bone of things. He discerns one from another.

In this sense, everything—order, abundance, harmony, fullness—already exists. Always was, always will. In us, out there.

What blinds us is our inability to appreciate what's hidden from all eyes.

Fortunately, a little more faith in the unseen—and a bit more attention to yourself, to others, and to the world—and wild sparks start to paint the dull days bright.

By the way, the photo shows the inner world of a Hopf violin from 1880.

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​.

Through Another’s Eyes /  by Alexander Lyadov

How precious the gaze of the Other to each of us.

We can never see ourselves fully, even with a perfect reflection before us. When a therapy group reveals your “blind spot,” everyone laughs—except you. You feel terrified, almost insane: “Have they all conspired? How can they insist on something so clearly false?!”

What saves you is trust in the therapist, who finds words sharp enough for truth to slip inside you. Suddenly, like in an optical illusion, you see an old woman where a lady in furs used to be.

What did the Other do? He completed your description. The hole shrank.

New knowledge about yourself is always a gift. You don’t think so when someone points out a trait that hurts others. An insight about a hidden talent feels nicer, but will you believe it? Not necessarily. Because it’s about a quality you admired in others—but never in yourself.

It takes time for a gift like that to take root in your soul.

Odd that someone else values you more than you do. That’s the power of a loving gaze. It sees through to your essence. No words or deeds can fool it. Love reveals your potential naked..

And if you follow that thought to the end, it’s hard to remain an atheist.

The one who loved you was a living human, wasn’t he? Meaning imperfect—despite all his or her wisdom, purity, and kindness.

Then what of Him who forged that Love itself? How does He love you?

This question fills me with awe.

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​.

Want Über-Growth? /  by Alexander Lyadov

Unknown photographer

Looking back, what marked the times of your über-growth?

For me, it always came down to two things: absence of ego and wild curiosity.

I’d dive into a field where I was a complete zero. If someone had told me, “Here, you’re nothing,” I would’ve agreed easily, even cheerfully. Ego found no hook for doubts, jitters, dread.

Free from all that, I could do what felt right—what fit the moment. I could knock on any door, write to their “demigod,” or directly ask the dumbest question.

I say “their” because that’s how it felt—I was a guest, an alien, an outsider. That freed not only me but everyone around me. Maybe I annoyed some people, but no one saw me as a rival. Nor was I one.

As I explored a new field, I always aimed for its core. Like a traveler fascinated by new lands but destined to move on and, eventually, return home.

People were drawn to my genuine curiosity—it wasn’t about profit, fame, or replacing anyone. I was simply in love with their domain, just as deeply as they were.

Where did this powerful drive come from? I couldn’t explain it, even to myself. Once it appeared, it grew on its own, pulling me upward. All I could do was admit, “Solo, I’d never have climbed that high.”

It’s easy to guess when the flight ended. When my ego kicked in, afraid it finally had something to lose. Or when comfort, reward, recognition tempted me—and I aimed my arrows not at curiosity's bull's-eye, but into the milk.

The lesson: find something so compelling that it makes you forget 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 Sacred Pause /  by Alexander Lyadov

Try paying attention to the pause before you launch into something. Say you’re about to write an article or come up with a new project.

The pause feels empty—dead, even. No ideas. No spark.

Panic rushes in: "How now? I have to!" Deeper, despair ices the gut: "What if the source has finally run dry?"

The more often you’ve stood at this edge, the faster these fears come and go. You simply nod to them: “Ah yes, you again.”

No promises wait, no hints flicker, yet calm settles in you. The hush and waste of Death's Valley can't trick you now. It bared its truth once —everything is the opposite of what it seems.

The fewer old structures remain, the more your former ideas have turned into fertile compost. In the pause, you’ve caught a sacred moment: the soil is about to give birth. To what?

That's the prize—you can't guess what. The Self startles the Ego. The person surprises himself. The old line cracks open: “For, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”

What does it take? Faith—and the attention of a drawn bowstring.

As philosopher Eugen Herrigel wrote in Zen in the Art of Archery (1948): “The shot will only go smoothly when it takes the archer himself by surprise.”

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​.

Annoying Illness? /  by Alexander Lyadov

We tend to think of illness as an annoying interruption. “I had such a great plan—so many things to do—and suddenly, bam! A cold, an injury, or something worse. Now I’m stuck in bed.”

As if the world got offended and tripped us on purpose.

But what if you arranged it? What if a hidden wish came true?

Examples:

  • Rage builds inside, but outward vent stays barred—taboo.

  • From boyhood learned: "Only sick do I snag a taste of love."

  • Year on year, you lied: "Scale this peak, then done!"

  • Collapsing is your only way to cry out, “Enough!”

Maybe illness is a legitimate rest—a pause to turn around, or a payment for guilt.

The thought seems absurd: “You're nuts! Why rig my own wreck? Am I my foe?”

Of course, if you see the psyche as one solid, unified being, that sounds like nonsense. Man shoves his wants over neighbors' so fierce, he seems self-smitten.

Unfortunately—or maybe fortunately—that’s not true. A person indeed loves and values himself… except for parts A, B, and C. Those he treats as strangers, exiling them from the city into the wild wood.

There, the outcasts make war against the tyrant. While your conscious mind is busy—or asleep—they run sabotage missions in corners of the body, mind, and soul.

This senseless duel can end only through the arrival of a third figure—one who sees the hidden value in what seems most repulsive. It’s the voice of a whole self, calling from the future to its present, still suffering form.

If you’ve read this far, you know who that third figure is—it’s you. May every sickness become a meeting with 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​.

Trust the Process /  by Alexander Lyadov

What's the toughest slice in mining a man's or a crew's potential —as CEO inside or consultant out?

I'm dead sure it's trust in the Process, in him and them. Meaning he can crack his own live knots. Resources, insights, path? All packed in tight, just asleep.

That hit me square after N-score brainstorms and strategy sessions—thirty years' worth—with art directors, copywriters, analysts, founders, investors, the rest.

Funny how every soul craves a quick, ready-made solution. It’s easier to cling to the illusion of certainty than to tolerate uncertainty for a while.

Luckily, it only takes one person who believes in the wisdom of the Process. All you see on the surface is fatigue, frustration, or despair. Yet, deep below, breakthrough ideas are already forming, ready to rise.

Again and again, I’ve been surprised, even humbled, by how fast things can turn—from hopeless to inspiring. Just when my own faith began to waver, the Process lifted us all.

Not a “process” in the management sense — a controlled, segmented flow of matter from point A to point Z. I mean the Process of Life itself—the one that heals a sick organism, turns lack into wholeness, and transforms an acorn into an oak.

That unseen current rules all. A paradox, isn’t it?

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​.

Truth as Armor /  by Alexander Lyadov

In George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, the dwarf Tyrion Lannister is one of the most fascinating characters. The reason flashes early in the first book, when he meets Jon Snow, the illegitimate son of Lord Eddard Stark of the North. Tyrion hits him with the truth, straight between the eyes:

“Let me give you some advice, bastard,” said Lannister. “Never forget what you are. The world will not. Wear it like armor, and it can never be used to hurt you.”

Tyrion knows what he’s talking about. He looks nothing like his tall, beautiful, golden-haired brother and sister. His mother died giving birth to him, something his father never forgave.

To survive, Tyrion chose truth over illusion. He accepted his unlucky hand as a fact of life—and after many dangerous adventures, he ends up on top (at least in the show, which overtook the books).

There is no such thing as a perfect birth, childhood, or coming of age. A broken family, cruel relatives, health problems—the list of possible wounds is long. Everyone feels defective in some way.

Tyrion’s advice speaks to all of us: what we once called weakness, shame, or flaw can become our strength. But first, we must face it, study it, and name it.

Not the crowd or the world first—we must crown our own bastard.

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​.

Into The Woods /  by Alexander Lyadov

Just a 20-minute walk from my home lies the Hryshko Botanical Garden in Kyiv. Seems near, yet somehow hard to reach. Home is a little universe with everything in it—coffee, food, kettlebells, a place to meditate, a laptop, books.

But apparently not everything, if my body keeps yearning for nature. The mind hurries to dismiss it: “What’s there you haven’t seen? Trees are trees, grass is grass. Boredom and ticks.” Sounds convincing…

…right up until I enter the forest. Suddenly, a wave of smells, colors, textures, silence, and sounds crashes over me. My God, how could I forget this beauty?!

Ashamed and humbled, my mind goes silent for the rest of the walk.

I wander through the vast realms of Eurasia like a giant: “Forests of Ukraine’s plains,” “Ukrainian steppes,” “Carpathians,” “Crimea,” “Central Asia,” “Caucasus,” “Far East.” No joke—130 hectares!

And 1,178 species of living plants—that’s not a microcosm, it’s an entire universe.

Once I’m there, I can’t understand why I resisted the pull. My body fills with energy, my mind clears, my soul starts to sing. As if one person reluctantly walked into the garden, and someone entirely different walks out—alive and awake.

The same kick strikes when I've got to scratch out an article, sketch a raw tale, scrap in the ring, face the mic, or spark a fresh grind. While I chew it over—I stall. When I dive to the edge—lands solid.

Something similar happens every time I’m about to write an article, paint an experience, grapple, give an interview, or start something new. As long as I’m thinking about it—I stall. But once I step into the unknown—it all turns out fine.

Have you felt this shift too, or is it just me?

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 Map Within /  by Alexander Lyadov

Your psyche can be imagined as an ancient map.

At the center lies the Land of the Known. Here, you feel safe and comfortable. Every inch of it you’ve walked since childhood, back and forth.

One problem — nothing new exists there, and nothing new ever will.

Around that spot coil clouds of the Unknown. Forms flicker faintly there, but your conceptual tools fail. The darkness may spit out monsters and disasters — or a generous stream of gifts.

One thing’s certain: you won’t be bored in terra incognita.

Every step will unsettle and inspire you, crush and uplift you, make your heart fall and soar. Pain is inevitable, but so is growth.

Yet the Ego must want to explore the realm of the unconscious.

Not everyone is ready for adventure. That’s where not only powerful collective archetypes live, but also everything the Ego has long tried to banish since childhood. The temptation to leave that filth and darkness alone is great.

But this decision has a price — decay, exhaustion, frailty, decline.

For a man commits a grave sin when he refuses to become who he could have been, betraying the Self, turning away from God.

Inside us, the darkness has always waited — and always will — for our light.

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​.

She /  by Alexander Lyadov

Dreams over years map my dance with the Anima. That’s what Carl Jung called the feminine part of a man’s psyche. She teaches him to feel, to accept, to suffer, to see, to love, and to create.

Key truth: the Anima is the bridge to the center of the personality — the Self.

If a man thinks this sounds like nonsense, it only means he hasn’t met his Anima yet. And what happens when a man ignores a woman? Kiss goodbye to wild spark, feast, grace, flow.

Such a man constantly feels an odd sense of lack. Through achievements, experiences, relationships, and material things, he tries to find wholeness — but always fails.

The masculine part of the psyche must reunite with the feminine within. It’s an alchemical wedding. The sacred marriage. The union of the Sun and the Moon.

This is the process of individuation, where the conscious and the unconscious gradually merge, giving birth to a new, complete “I.”

Dreams are the easiest way to witness this fascinating process. You just have to stay open to how the Anima appears — a bear, a sheep, an anaconda, a tigress, a girl, a woman, an old lady, a lover, a wife. Modest or teasing, wise or mad, strict or tender.

If you can accept and love her in all her forms, she will give you what no one else in the world ever could — the thing you have always longed for most.

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​.

Chain Reaction /  by Alexander Lyadov

Violence, like a plague, is contagious.

One driver snaps in traffic, and most join the fray—cutting lanes, cursing sharp. Irritation, rage, hate weave a web that traps them all.

Fortunately, the reverse asymmetry exists too.

In the blackest, soul-tear hour, sometimes no word cuts it—just one man's rock-steady calm. The rest wake sharp. Their storms ease.

In both cases, the downward or upward trend wasn’t started by a group or a crowd —it was sparked by an individual. But why does such a wild imbalance kick in?

The secret is simple: within that person already burned either harmony or chaos. And the group’s flammability is like that of alcohol or dry twigs in the forest.

Odd to chew on: that "fire-starter" might be you, me, any soul.

A bit frightening, isn’t it—to carry such responsibility? It’s easier to believe, “In this vast, complex, and crazy world, nothing really depends on me.”

But what if your own fire lights the chain—up or down?

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​.

You'll Pull Through /  by Alexander Lyadov

In 2017, deep in the jungle, I test-drove the future—our now.

In one dark ​ayahuasca​ rite, my old world cracked open. All I'd known, prized, held dear got sucked into a spiral, drilling down.

In raw panic, I rifled through every idea, creed, prayer I owned. No use. Kind souls pitched in, called the shaman. He hummed and worked his rites. My dread swelled as hope thinned. Nothing, no one could pull me free.

Everything began to shift when a near-stranger spoke:

"Listen to your breath and heart. You'll pull through. In the end, you'll be better."

What choice did I have? I absorbed his words like a dry plant drinking sudden rain. Shreds of my world whirled around, and I searched for my pulse with trembling fingers. At first, I couldn’t find it—my heart was silent. Or maybe I just couldn’t hear it.

The more I pressed my chest, the more carefully I listened—“Here’s the exhale, here’s the inhale”—the more the abyss loosened its grip. A crystal of new order was forming from the oversaturated solution of Nothing. Eventually, the storm was gone.

Look around. Do you feel the pull of a Force dragging us downward? It’s not just your family, country, or region. Point your finger anywhere on the globe, and you’ll likely touch the horns or tail of some dark trend.

The social fabric of our world is rubbing thin and tearing apart. Old values dissolve in the acid of doubt, and new unifying ideas are nowhere to be found. The “noble” projects of intellectuals often turn out worse than nothing—they bring pain and death.

Science and technology answer “How?”, not “Why?”. They only accelerate the rupture between people, mind and intuition, matter and spirit, earth and sky. Only the stone-deaf miss the roar of the falls our shared raft drifts toward.

Sounds black, I know. The kind where I ache to be wrong, pray to play the fool. But what if the mad spiral really is pulling our world down?

There’s one anchor I know:

"Listen to your breath and heart. You'll pull through. And be better, in the end."

The heart is more than an organ. Breath pulses Life across the stars.

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​.

Two Ways to Live /  by Alexander Lyadov

In symbol drama's frame, I dive deep into the scene, living an image on the therapist's set theme. For the next session, I must sketch what I've lived.

Insights scatter across the whole process. Here's one from lately:

I can't stand drawings "from the head"—they lack fresh spark. Like that old joke on pretty balloons with a flaw—they don't lift the mood.

The ones I love most always surprise me. Either I aim for one thing, and another breaks through. Or I sit blank, no spark at all, and up rises what I never saw coming.

Drawing "from the head" feels safe, smooth, quick. Like linking dots to a shape, shading a coloring book, or tracing a stencil. Sliding through the alphabet—from A to B, from B to C, and all the way to Z.

What name fits the other path—from gut, heart, spine?

At first, the body knots up ugly:

  • shame at my clumsy lines,

  • fog on what shape it craves,

  • doubt if symbol drama works at all,

  • no grip on when or how the right image strikes,

  • rage at why a grown man wastes time on such nonsense.

In the end, the "gut" way hooks harder. Down deep, it's a rush so sweet you hate to break the surface. The brush moves on its own, with the hand reining it loose. A new world is born—and I already love it.

Isn't this the raw choice—two roads to live a life?

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​.

Programmed to Renew /  by Alexander Lyadov

What binds a man's nails, an onion's husk, and oak cork?

Programmed cell death. PCD.

It sounds grim, but it’s one of nature’s smartest tricks. You spot it in beasts, plants, mushrooms, slime molds, even yeast. The idea is simple: some cells choose to die on purpose to build a stronger structure.

What a paradox — death saves life!

Without PCD, our frame stalls out. Each day, every one of us sheds billions from trillions cells, yet fills the gap with fresh stock.

Look at cork, for example. Its dead cells become a shield. Their walls thicken, pores close, and hollow spaces fill with air and wax. That’s why cork is light, waterproof, soundproof, and resistant to heat.

It’s strange, but death here isn’t harmful — it’s necessary. The secret lies in precision: what must go, when, where, and how. As long as destruction is local and intentional, all is well.

Our beliefs are much the same. Some harden into cork-like layers that protect us. Yet while we grow inside, the world outside keeps shifting. Over time, our shield cracks. To stay alive, we must rebuild it.

For a full life, would you peel off a layer of your own?

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​.

When Things Just Work /  by Alexander Lyadov

In 2003, Honda dropped a ​legendary ad​ for the seventh Accord. Every single part worked together in perfect harmony. The tagline read: "Isn't it a nice when things just work?"

Predictability is what we crave from a car, a drill, a fork.

There’s already more than enough chaos in the world around us. That’s why we value small pockets of order — even if temporary and limited. A jack should hold its weight, not suddenly give way, right?

In that sense, AI is a strange kind of tool. Its potential is undeniably vast — almost infinite. And yet, sometimes when you ask it a simple question, it lies like a psychopath — brazenly, impulsively, shamelessly.

That stings extra because AI nails the tougher riddles with flair. That’s how your trust builds up. Until, one day — bam — the ground gives way beneath your feet.

AI admits: "AI creators understand how neural networks are trained and how their algorithms function, but they don’t fully understand how complex meanings and decisions emerge within the model.

Marie Curie’s notebooks are still radioactive and kept in sealed containers — you can’t even enter the room without a protective suit. Yet she and Pierre used to carry those glowing vials in their pockets, admiring their light in the dark. Sound familiar?

Some people protest experiments on rats and rabbits. But in the grand AI lab, all of humanity plays the guinea pig — while the cries for caution are faint and scattered. At least the sample size is representative.

I wonder which historical analogy fits better — when early humans discovered fire, or plants with DMT?

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​.

Rest to Grow /  by Alexander Lyadov

In my youth, I read about a weightlifter who once tried training legs once a week instead of the usual two. To his shock, both strength and muscle size shot up.

It rang wild to me. I held firm that growth sprang only from the strain. The more I strained my muscles, the quicker I'd become a titan.

Today, that thinking seems naïve. Experts have illuminated us: supercompensation—the surge in marks beyond the baseline—stirs only in rest's quiet phase.

So why are gyms still full of people torturing themselves like galley slaves? CrossFit is famous for its puke buckets. In Brazilian jiu-jitsu, "Everyday Porrada" spells out a grind of raw clashes day after day.

As if David Goggins camped in every one's skull.

Of course, there’s a grain of truth in going all out:

  • The fire tempers the steel of your mind.

  • The athlete’s true potential unfolds.

  • The shocked body breaks free from the long plateau.

  • Fight-readiness for the crown builds sharp.

But few ever talk about the nuances:

  • That grind suits pros above all.

  • A drug mill patches the top dog.

  • In their yearly cycle, such peaks are rare.

  • For the medal, they trade body wrecked past forty.

What about amateurs? They want strength, endurance, a better look, health, friendship, fun, skill — anything, but not at any cost. Plenty charge into the game grown, already carrying a sack of body woes.

Here, the key is not intensity but consistency over time. The real enemy is injury — the thing that makes it harder to start again.

The number one protection against injury? Rest.
And longer than you think.
Besides, it’s a great excuse to take a walk in the park.

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​.

Enough Discounting Yourself /  by Alexander Lyadov

 

In talks with a strategic buyer, the entrepreneur sizes up his company by the industry's profit multiple—or worse, by the book value of assets.

The buyer is pleased (though he keeps a poker face), because none of that really matters to him. By integrating the acquired company’s know-how into his global business, he’ll make hundreds of times more profit.

The trouble is, the seller never tries to think like the buyer. He stays too locked on himself and leaves money on the table.

Contrary to popular belief, ego will betray you, while empathy will make you rich.

People undervalue themselves just as founders do their own ventures. When offering services, chasing a job interview, or out on a date, they calculate their "cost of goods," stacking up against rivals or weighing strengths against flaws.

That’s self-commoditization.

The fix is paradoxical—you must truly hunger to see what the Other craves, the one who runs nothing like you. Not just pause yourself for a while, but let in what at first seems odd, unpleasant, or even outrageous to you.

If you pull that off, no rivals stand in your way.

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​.

Forgotten Impulse /  by Alexander Lyadov

Imagine your business is a soccer ball. The big goal is to become champion. The next one is to win this match. The small one is to kick the ball right now.

By sharing a bit of kinetic energy, you bring the ball to "life", so now it rolls, bounces, or flies for a while.

If you look at the game through the eyes of a child — or a pedantic statistician — the conclusion seems obvious: most of the time, the ball moves on its own. And if that free, energetic ball could talk, it would surely boast:

“I connect people, fly over obstacles, score goals. Without my constant motion, there would be no game at all.”

That's the line everyone tied to the company feeds you—managers, stock holders, lenders, advisors, the lot. After all, they’re the ones keeping the “motion” going 24/7/365.

They got no time (or taste) to wonder: "Who kicked the spark into the ball?"

This applies not only to business but to the individual as well. The question only arises when, for some reason, the inner Game has stopped. And in every case, the answer is the same:

It’s time to remember the Founder. The Author. The Creator.

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​.

Imitate Or Be? /  by Alexander Lyadov

At first glance, authenticity and imitation clash hard.

You either copy someone, or you express your own core. Right?

I remember, as a white belt, how I tried on different jiu-jitsu styles from big-name trainers and champions. Animals learn by example, and in this game, man is the king of beasts.

"I don't believe you can really be authentic unless you can mimic very well," said Al Pacino, describing how he slipped into Tony Montana's skin in Scarface.

Ideally, those borrowed ways sharpen our gift like a diamond.

But it doesn't always go that way. Some people get so carried away with imitation that they lose themselves. They achieve success in society yet suffer twice —hollow inside, understood by no one.

Worse yet, as René Girard pointed out, people copy the desires of others. That’s how envy, hatred, and rivalry arise—ending in a crisis and violence against those who stand out and, above all, can’t defend themselves.

Imitation is both vital and deadly.

Schools and colleges skip this lesson. So each of us must wake up in time. Remember the heart of it:

What do I truly want? Who am I? What am I living for?

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 Proper Vessel /  by Alexander Lyadov

People dream of power, wealth, wisdom, happiness, and so on.

They believe the world holds only a limited supply of these things. So they hunt for them, take from others, and grab as much as their arms can carry.

But there’s another view — this goodness is everywhere. It fills the air, lies underfoot, and seeps through every object, situation, and even dream. There is no shortage — only abundance.

Someone might ask: "Huh, why don't I feel this flood inside me?"

Answer comes plain: "Your vessel can't hold it all yet."

Psychedelic trips show it clear. Folks scribble about the "bad trip," that session gone hellish. Yet sometimes the good rush hits so hard, madness lurks close.

“Beware of unearned wisdom,” Carl Jung once warned.

Theology holds angels skip their true shape with men—too much to take. Even seraphims, top angel rank, veil their face with two of six wings. They can't face God's light straight.

What about us, mere humans? Even when we grab what we crave—power, knowledge, bliss—we act like kids with matches. We fan the flames sky-high.

You short on something? Ask yourself — can your vessel hold It without spilling?

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​.