The Psychological Needs of the Extremely Ambitious

Highlights

"If you’ve never tried to [“make your venture-backed startup profitable”], you probably under-appreciate just how psychologically demanding it is—in particular, how much fresh and unfettered thinking, win-win relationship building, emotional self-management, authentic conviction, earned self-trust, intellectual ambitiousness, and disciplined focus it requires."
'people either get it or they don’t'—a kind of fixed mindset applied to the talents and capabilities of others.
references Fixed Vs Growth Mindset

Beyond “setting more realistic goals,” my clients need help balancing wildly ambitious goals with honesty about the low probability of success.
Beyond “reappraising their catastrophic thoughts,” they need help recognizing when their “reappraisal” is just a rationalization of what is in fact a looming catastrophe that needs to be solved.
Beyond “taking other people’s perspectives,” they need help disconnecting long enough to work out their own.
Beyond “asserting themselves,” they need help seeking out relationships and communities that offer them closeness without assimilation.
Beyond “learning mindfulness skills to manage their stress,” they need help recognizing when they're using these skills as a procrastination tool.
Beyond “scheduling self care,” they need help powering through a week without rest for the sake of a valued endeavor.
Beyond identifying generic values to guide their choices, they may need help articulating a mission statement that captures their aspirations, while still allowing flexibility in execution.
Most of all, they need help developing the self-awareness and self-honesty to determine which skills they need when