Share the Void /  by Alexander Lyadov

Every time, I dread that today is the day when I have no ideas for the newsletter. I must endure the fog of nothing, and in the end, light breaks through.

But sometimes, no matter how long I wait or scan the horizon, all I see is a bare, lifeless steppe. Wind stirs the grass blades. Time stands still.

I recall S.N. Goenka's word from a Vipassana retreat in India. When you meditate ten hours a day, thoughts, memories, feelings, sensations bubble up. Often ugly ones.

The goal: watch it all steady, unmoved. Sooner or later, every wave fades and dies. If the pain became unbearable, you could change your posture. What mattered was equanimity — if you fought the pain, equanimity was lost.

So if no ideas hit today, no need to panic, let alone beat yourself up. Ride the void out. The experience itself is important.

And why not try to describe it? The right words help you feel what’s happening more deeply. Even a private journal has value. But the effect is stronger when someone reads it. Sure, someone you trust with your odd thoughts.

Thankfully, I have you. Our connection began long ago, so I’m ready to share even emptiness with you, not just my usual overflow.

Why bare it? I’m curious to observe my own stupor and the far-from-guaranteed breakthrough. It’s easier to do that in your presence.

AI analyzed my essays and gave me its verdict about the main theme:

“You’re not writing about transformation — you’re performing 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​.

The Scarcity Trick /  by Alexander Lyadov

Our main struggle is both right in front of us and almost invisible.

The opponent's aim: to convince you that inside you there is a lack, a gap, a hole.

For example, an investor says: “I’m making a generous offer, but I have many other projects — you need to decide now.”

Almost every guru and influencer promises: “Look at my bright, full life. Want the same? Do what I do!”

Or fresh from Black Friday: “Today is the last day — 35% off all ___ sets. Hurry and buy at ___.com”

Seconds ago, your life felt just fine. Now temptation gnaws: "Loser, don't miss the jackpot!"

Look closely — every day you’re bombarded by hundreds of such messages. Their left finger pokes the wound, their right points to the "cure."

You can get angry at the trick, or you can say: “Huh, this is just a game of tag.” Players lunge hard to tag each other, shake the "curse" off themselves and pass it on.

Then a real interest appears — keep anyone from tagging you.

The instant pity, self-doubt, or scolding stirs, look around: “So, whose poison have I already carelessly licked?

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 Cost of Saving /  by Alexander Lyadov

There are two ways to help someone.

The first is to force a saving solution — fast and efficient. Crash, fire, heart attack, fall under ice. Every second counts. The spot calls for guts and even rudeness, right?

Yes, but only if the person is unconscious or a child. Both of them will later thank the saver. Maybe.

But what if adults in full awareness are the ones suffering? Force your help on them, do it often — and it will destroy them. The rescuer’s motive, kind or cruel, doesn’t matter. The result is the same.

But what if grown folks suffer wide awake? Force help on them, do it often—this will kill them. Savior's motive, kind or cruel, doesn’t matter. The end is the same.

Violence contradicts freedom, and that means the will and choice to live.

An adult stripped of freedom turns into a child, an animal, a machine. Such devolution is unbearable torture, especially when wrapped in words of love.

The second way of helping leans on a person’s freedom. You have to see the uniqueness of the individual-in-his-situation. Sometimes it’s right to offer options, and sometimes it’s wiser to shut your own mouth.

It’s clear that the second way is far harder. Instead of a standard “victim type,” you face the eyes of a Person. Instead of a ready-made template — an emergent solution, something that appears between you.

If the second way feels close to you, congratulations. There are very few like you.

Guardians of others' freedom and 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​.

Beauty Wants Sharing /  by Alexander Lyadov

 

You stumble upon something truly valuable. Do you share it with everyone?

Or is your first thought: “I’d better keep this for myself”?

A diamond, a business opportunity, a loophole in the system — clear as day. No one gives away money, fame, privilege, or power for nothing.

Yet some treasures you can't hoard. Their magic is that sharing makes them grow.

Take beauty in all its forms:

  • a word,

  • an idea,

  • a gesture,

  • a moment,

  • a glance,

  • an act,

  • music,

  • nature,

  • art.

What a joy it is to see beauty reflected in someone else’s eyes.

Trophies — a victory, a prize, a gold medal — have their time and place too. A game gets dull when everyone wins by default.

But if the prize is all there is? Violence multiplies.

Shared goodness does the opposite — it strengthens harmony in society and inspires people to feel together, exchange, and create.

And shared goodness comes in many forms:

Truth, love, wisdom, forgiveness, gratitude, joy…

What’s the balance in your life — more “share” or “keep”?

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​.

False Dilemma /  by Alexander Lyadov

"The victim always dreams of swapping places with the persecutor," my therapist once dropped that gem. If the chance comes, the wounded one unleashes a cruelty that shocks him and everyone.

First lesson: in deals, don't squeeze a business partner dry if fate hands you a royal flush. He will swallow the loss in the game. But humiliation? He will start plotting revenge. Why would you need that?

Far better to dodge the victim spot yourself. Sooner or later, you'll unleash your worst—hate, hypocrisy, cunning, heartlessness—anything to make him the fallen one.

Sadly, the temptation is strong, because the victim gains secret power. Someone else is always responsible for his situation. And he? He is entitled to demand and do absolutely everything.

The victim rises above any law, turning... into God.

In myths, this is called hubris. In religion — pride. In psychology — the dark triad: psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism. No happiness here, just schadenfreude — joy from another’s pain.

Brr… Not the best perspective — a willing slide into a personal hell.

The way out sits right where the way in did—I own what happens to me. Sure, the world is full of malice, incompetence, indifference, and bad luck.

But the best call is to step out of the victim–villain trap. What say 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​.

Unlock Other You /  by Alexander Lyadov

“If you can say ‘I can’t,’ it means you can do more,” smiles the sports rehab coach to his client who’s ready to raise a white flag.

Pulling the band toward my chest, I realize: “Huh, he’s right.”

My rehab coach told me: “This is the last back exercise. Do as many as you can — 150, 200, or 300.” No one is watching me. And I’m tired.

At first I thought: “200 max.” Then: “Fine, another 100.” Next: “Round to 400.” Finally: “Make it 500.” I bet in a contest, I'd push past 1,000.

We have no idea where our limits are.

Why? Because the word “our” is misleading. We keep saying “my body,” “my mind,” “my soul,” though it’s clear we didn’t create any of this — we simply received it one day as a gift from someone or something.

We remember the past, we sense the present, even plot what we chase tomorrow. But honestly, how often in life have we stunned ourselves: “Wow! I didn’t expect I could do that.”

And right then, it's clear: inside you lurks a stranger—the Other You.

He is more than real, yet unseen by all. SSo for you (let alone the crowd), the pull runs strong to peg yourself as just the fixed shape, set in stone long ago.

For example:

  • “I can’t…”

  • “I'm zero at...”

  • “Who am I to...”

  • “No way for me...”

  • “I’m too impatient”

  • “Oh, I’m so trusting”

  • “I’m not as brave as…”

  • “I always react this way”

  • “That's not my strength,”

  • “Too late for me to change”

  • “That's not for folks like me”

  • “With my nature, impossible...”

  • “What can I do, I’m an introvert”

  • “Creativity? That’s definitely not me”

The Other You just chuckles: “Hold on. I’m about to surprise 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​.

The Symbolic Act /  by Alexander Lyadov

In symbol-drama work, you draw the experience you lived through. Many people complain that they “can’t draw,” and because of that they don’t want to try. I understand them well.

The gap feels too big between what you long to bring to life and what actually appears on the paper. Inside, we believe that accuracy, completeness, and beauty matter.

Luckily, that’s not true — the symbolism is of utmost importance.

A symbol is an image with a metaphorical meaning that unites form and content, says Wikipedia. Unlike a sign, a symbol does not point directly to the object it represents.

Because every symbol is abstract, people react to it differently, depending on what they have lived through before. Sometimes they see much more in a drawing than you expected.

Draw a horse like a child or like Velázquez — people will still recognize it and will tell you what resonates in them. If needed, they will “finish” your picture on their own. For one it will be a workhorse, for another — a mustang, and for a third — a chess knight.

And your own attitude toward the drawing will also change. For example, in the moment of creating it, the imperfect tree or the roughly painted door irritates me. A day later, I nod: "Came out right."

My mind silently completes the tree and finishes painting the door.

What if the same thing happens in other parts of life? At least when it comes to starting something. Neatness and perfection are secondary — precious is the very Act, and the kick from 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​.

Protect What's Human /  by Alexander Lyadov

Have you noticed the stream of “new” music on YouTube? A flashy cover in the style of the genre, convincing keywords—hard not to click.

And often the track is beautiful. There’s only one problem: you can’t tell whose album it is. Somewhere deep in the comments, the channel owner admits under pressure: “Well yes, it’s AI.”

You might think: if the product is good, who cares? We invite AI into our work and life more and more.

There’s no issue when the machine handles routine. Trouble brews when it fakes the human hand. AI didn’t create anything new. It fed on the heritage made by people before it.

A clear “Made by AI” label is needed, but the question is much larger.

Erasing the line between human and machine is unacceptable. Ambiguity breeds confusion, conflict, madness—and in the end, death. Or at least, not life.

Think this is an exaggeration? Follow the thread to the end.

Imagine one day everything around you, and everyone you meet, is artificially generated. Instead of people—bots. Instead of nature—Photoshop. Instead of touch—impulses through electrodes in your brain.

No nausea yet? I’m already queasy.

No wonder ancient people feared any kind of double. Blurring differences between people multiplied the risks of misunderstanding, disputes, violent flare-ups—and could doom the whole tribe.

We brushed off the experience of our ancestors and now multiply doubles and lies. Social media, like mirrors, create billions of reflections, each more similar to the last. Why be surprised by the rise in mental illness, isolation, unrest, and war?

Creativity, love, humor, nostalgia, empathy, self-reflection, morality belong to humans (and in early form, to animals). Handing this to a machine—even playfully, even “just pretending”—means betraying the best in us.

In the end, I hope we set the boundaries: where AI harms and where it helps.

For now I have a simple filter: “Track dropped five days ago? Shoo!”

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​.

Aim Emerges Within /  by Alexander Lyadov

 

A hunter never thinks of drawing the bowstring as wasted effort.

He knows he must also find time to calm his breath.

Even more important is choosing a target that pulls him in.

That’s how a shot begins—with desire.

The easiest path is to copy someone else’s desire: “I want what Joe has.” That’s how we all learned as children: to value whatever the important people pointed at.

But with age, you grow tired of renting other people’s desires. They give you drive, yes—but never fill the emptiness afterward.

Then comes the grand question: “What do I truly want?”

It is beautiful and terrifying at once. Beautiful—because it speaks straight to your real self. Terrifying—because no force, no willpower can produce the answer.

Just as with drawing a bowstring, you must set aside time. It will feel “unproductive” and “pointless.” Your core task is to listen to yourself — deeply.

Namely, to that unknown part of you that kept silent until now.

She has always wanted to say and do infinitely much.

She only needs to know if you are ready to play the Game for real.

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​.

What Is Love? /  by Alexander Lyadov

Love is letting the Other be.

We're talking otherness in anything or anyone, including yourself.

It's easy to root for what's familiar and predictable. Safety and comfort slide in without a fight. That's the womb-bubble: all for you, no one but you.

Different story when you trip over otherness.

For example:

  • Sudden events wreck what you've built.

  • A man turns out nothing like the one you thought.

  • You've got urges that shame or scare you just to name.

Right away come irritation, anxiety, disappointment, pain, and anger. You lose control, and then you lose peace. Where there is a wound, there is death, right?

Yes — but it is not you who dies. Only your opinions, convictions, and fantasies. If they're thick and dear, goodbye turns to torment.

And what does Otherness offer in return?

  • The world’s unpredictability makes your play with it alive.

  • People's differences let them stun and spark each other.

  • Your "black hole" ends up a horn of plenty.

Feels like a fair trade to me. 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​.

Light in the Dark /  by Alexander Lyadov

Here’s my power-outage schedule from yesterday and today.
It’s obvious how many inconveniences appear at once.
Gloom and anxiety circle like sharks.

Yet I was struck by something else: upside lurks here too.

My apartment sits in the city center. All day long, there’s a buzz: screech of cars lunging at green lights, hammer clang from some neighbor's fix-up, flash of billboard glow, and so on.

When the power cuts out, the whole district freezes.
Fall dusk drops fast. The odd silence shocks the ear.
The gaze turns inward on its own.

These are perfect conditions for introspection, that dive into self.

The outer world calms down, and the inner one does too.
Bad Wi-Fi kills the urge to dive into social media. Now it’s just you.

The light will return someday. But right now you’re in the “in-between”.

That's how I felt once, leaping from a plane—two or three rapt minutes adrift between sky and earth.

In that space, the grip of past and future loosens.
A paradoxical calm rises despite the chaos around.

From the dark depths come new sensations, emotions, thoughts.
For some reason, I want to be honest, completely open.
I won’t call it grace, but there is something sacred in it.

The mystery fades the moment the lights come back. I even feel a bit sad.

Still, the waking world pulls me back fast.
Piles of pings and tasks wait, impatient.
Had my flight? Time to walk the earth.

And I can’t help wondering:
Is it possible to feel grateful… for everything?

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​.

Smart Neck /  by Alexander Lyadov

 

A strong neck is a good thing, right? The muscle frame shields your vertebrae from harm. It matters in sport and in everyday life.

Thinking this way, beginners start training their neck with a “wrestler’s bridge” or by hanging a heavy kettlebell from a helmet strap.

Mike Tyson once ​admitted​ he ruined his neck with daily bridges, doing a crazy number of reps for 20–30 minutes at a time. And this with a bull-thick neck measuring 50+ cm around!

“How should I train my neck?” I asked a sports rehab specialist. “You don’t,” he surprised me. “What’s the main muscle of the neck?”, now he turned the tables. “Probably the traps,” I guessed. “Right. And what fires the traps best?” he pressed. “Any kind of pulling with the arms!” I lit up. “Yes. That's plenty,” he sealed it, then added: “And if you really need it for sport, go isometric with a band.”

A beginner tries to copy free-style wrestlers or tunes in to fitness influencers, whose goal is to grab attention with things that are exotic, freakish, or shiny new.

But the person you should ask is the expert who has no time for social media because he has a line of athletes on crutches waiting for him. From statistics, patterns emerge. And patterns are stubborn things.

Takeaway: everyone needs a strong neck. But not at any price.

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 Gift of an Obstacle /  by Alexander Lyadov

We get angry when something slows us down, holds us back, or boxes us in.

Resistance feels like a waste of time and energy.

Our very freedom feels pinched.

We mutter: “Without all these obstacles, life would be so much better.”

But would it? Take these:

  • Soil's pushback lets us walk and run.

  • Lifting weights strengthens muscles, bones, and ligaments.

  • An opponent returning the ball makes the game interesting.

  • A needle scratches hard through lacquer to create an etching.

  • A stubborn dilemma, in the end, gives birth to a fresh insight.

It seems obstacles annoy us before and delight us after.

They trip us up until they are integrated into our life.

So let's hurry the question: "What good will this snag bring 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​.

A Psychotherapist Talks with a Business Therapist /  by Alexander Lyadov

I want to share with you my conversation with Dr. Greg Madison, a psychologist and psychotherapist from England. What’s most interesting is not my answers, but Greg’s way of relating — something you rarely meet.

Greg is a master of Focusing, a therapeutic method I’ve also studied for many years. He listens and hears like no one else. With him, you want to tell everything.

Here are the themes we touched on:

  • ​2:10​ – my first encounter with Focusing

  • ​4:20​ – what makes Focusing unique

  • ​5:45​ – the unconventional nature of my career path

  • ​10:10​ – what Focusing taught me

  • ​14:25​ – the role of Focusing in business therapy

  • ​18:50​ – Eugene Gendlin, the founder of Focusing, as a model

  • ​21:20​ – where confidence comes from when you’re stuck

  • ​23:50​ – how trust is born in business therapy

  • ​29:45​ – why it’s hard to think about the future of your business

  • ​31:20​ – a common problem in strategic sessions

  • ​33:10​ – why I work with founders, not top-managers

  • ​37:00​ – why a founder must craft the vision

  • ​40:00​ – how to model a different way of relating inside a team

  • ​43:25​ – the problem of disintegration in the “corporate body”

  • ​45:25​ – the forgotten art of blending the “mundane” and the “sacred”

  • ​47:55​ – the cyclical renewal of a person and an organization

  • ​51:25​ – where the true value of a growing company lives

  • ​54:05​ – the real purpose of strategic sessions

  • ​56:25​ – the fractal nature: self–team–society

  • ​1:01:15​ – consequences of alienation from one's own desires

  • ​1:03:30​ – how violence spreads on a planetary scale

  • ​1:06:25​ – the importance of seeking global creative solutions

If you enjoyed the interview, please share it with someone who might find it helpful or inspiring. Thank you in advance!

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​.

Catch of the Day /  by Alexander Lyadov

Only now am I beginning to understand the meaning of this newsletter. It turned out to be practice in trusting what's valuable yet unseen.

From the very beginning, I made a firm decision not to have a “content plan.” I was inspired by the fisherman’s sign in the harbor: Catch of the Day.

On one side stood my desire—and even my promise—to come home not empty-handed. And on the other, the power belonged to the ocean, not to me.

Each time, the blank screen weighed on me and stirred fear: “What if there are no ideas today?” All I could do was calm myself down and stay patient, trusting that the inner ocean would guide some fish into my net.

Day after day, the newsletter kept proving the ocean’s generosity. Only the surface was barren. The depth hid billions of tons of fish. So all my worries about a lack of ideas turned out to be laughable.

More or less, but there is always a catch. Sometimes I reel in something exotic—bluefin tuna, fugu, or a giant crab. The hunt excites. Unpredictability shifts from enemy to friend.

In truth, every day I build a relationship with the black abyss inside. It turns out it doesn’t want to swallow me—it wants to feed and amaze.

And what is required of me? To leave the safe shore, cast the net, and wait.

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​.

Exponential You /  by Alexander Lyadov

Unknown artist

Venture investors don’t care about a startup’s current valuation. The wisest of them don’t haggle—they just write the check. If there’s a chance to hit a billion, it doesn’t matter whether the entry price is one million or two.

What excites an investor is the startup’s Wow-future, and its growth rate today is what makes that future believable.

On the opposite end of the spectrum stands the vulture capitalist. He buys a company under stress, cuts it into parts, and sells them off. There’s no talk of investing in the future at all. A vulture loves only the price-spread he can capture right now.

Funny thing: we tend to see people in the same two ways.

The temptation is to notice only what’s visible at the moment—someone’s troubled state and the current balance of “assets and liabilities.”

But unlike companies, every one of us holds a sleeping capacity for exponential growth. Some will wake up. Some, sadly, won’t.

And what serves as the alarm clock? A rare gaze from another that hits like this:

“Through who I am today, He/She sees who I can be, want to be, and will be.”

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​.

Desires Who? /  by Alexander Lyadov

Suppose some hypnotist wants you to do X. Forcing you would be costly and risky. The ideal outcome is when you exclaim: “I desperately want X!”

How does he make that happen? He narrows the infinite variety of the universe to a tiny segment — X, Y, and Z. Within that frame, X gains maximum weight.

Then the hypnotist puts on a white coat and, through monopoly, excludes all other opinions. Now the “right” choice is obvious.

But the real trick is this — the subject himself helps the hypnotist.

We’ve lost the ability to hear our true desires and got used to silencing them — a side effect of entering culture through imitation.

The question “What do I want?” feels unbearable because it brings the discomfort of uncertainty. So the mind looks for a model — similar, but higher up. Where does He look? At X. Therefore, X is valuable.

“I want that too! I’ve always wanted only X!”

The way out isn’t to find another guru — it’s to turn your attention inward. Into the desert silence, until your own “I want” begins to speak.

The real battle is for your attention. Who does it belong to?

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​.

Words of Freedom /  by Alexander Lyadov

To be honest, I didn’t believe her at first. I kept opening up, more and more, watching her closely: “What if This tips too far?” I was afraid that what I had carried inside for so long would be too heavy for anyone to bear.

But I saw this clear just lately. All along, I'd pegged myself an introvert.

Turned out, I held back from folks because I sensed their psychological fragility. They could accept me only “up to a point.” Truly unbreakable people—I hadn’t met any before.

Maturity doesn’t come with age; it takes enormous work. Otherwise, even the slightest Otherness in someone will upset or scare you, stirring the urge to reject.—or better yet, destroy—what feels foreign.

A healing therapist has faced, grasped, and embraced every part of herself. Of course, she’s imperfect too—and gladly admits it. The key is that she must be far less breakable than her client.

Only then does a space emerge where you’re free to say Everything.

Oh, what a release! Like that first gulp after holding breath. A wild cascade of truths. And look — your “black hole” is not evil or ugly, but a source of beauty, creativity, and love.

So through words, we help each other turn darkness into 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​.

The Body of Your Business /  by Alexander Lyadov

They call business a corporate body for a reason.

If the body runs right, it keeps growing—bigger, tougher, stronger. Folks say a tight team moves like one living organism.

But here’s the nuance most skip: the big body of a business is fractally similar to its smallest part—the body of the founder. At least it is, as long as control hasn’t passed to private or public investors, but remains with the one who created it.

If the company starts stumbling, slowing down, or bleeding losses, don’t rush to blame the team, fix the processes, or chase funds. Eye the top dog close.

A pale face? Puffy eyes? A scattered voice? Bet the whole company feels it too. Teams start clashing. Contractors fail. Clients make mountains out of molehills.

Want to heal the business? The founder must recover first.

Every renewal of a company’s body repeats its birth—when the Creator once burned with a Wow-idea that simply had to be brought to 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​.

Break the Spell /  by Alexander Lyadov

When you join a new group, it’s almost inevitable — someone will attract you, while someone else will unsettle, annoy, or even scare you.

If you’re curious why, read about the phenomenon of transference. Simply put, it’s when we unconsciously “recognize” in another person someone from our past — someone who once loved us deeply or hurt us badly.

In truth, we’re not seeing a person but a phantom. That’s why any interaction with him, even in our thoughts, leads to misunderstanding, disappointment, and conflict.

I used to fall into that trap often, but the sheer dumbness wore me down. Now, whenever I feel dislike for a stranger, I look for any excuse to start a conversation… about nothing in particular.

My goal is simple: to break the spell by touching real life. And you know what? The "spell" breaks instantly. Every time, I’m surprised to discover I actually like the person who first made me tense.

Huh. How many world woes arise from ghost encounters, not human souls?

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​.