How much do founders' childhood-formed psychological patterns drive their adult behaviour, and can they be changed?

Jerry Colonna · Jul 27, 2020

Being thrust into caregiving or adult responsibility as a child ('early promotion') can be a contributing factor to later depression and anxiety and to a loss of sense of self

You enter adulthood before your emotional body is prepared for it

6:49 Early childhood caregiving roles seed later depression

Brad Feld · Jul 27, 2020

The way to break out of unhealthy programming is to run small experiments with different behaviours, accepting that many will fail

He identifies repeating cycles by listening to trusted people's responses, then tries different things; a failed experiment still reveals a workable smaller version, like an hour of full presence instead of a whole day

32:23 Small behavioural experiments break the pattern

Jerry Colonna · Jul 27, 2020

Consciousness of your programming is what creates choice — never taking a vacation or deriving all your self-worth from your job is acceptable so long as it is done consciously and with full awareness of the costs to your relationships and internal happiness

Without consciousness, the programming directs your life; with it, you can respond from a mentally healthy place instead of reacting

36:56 Consciousness of the programming is what creates choice

Chamath Palihapitiya · Jul 13, 2020

Insecurity and an inferiority complex drive worse hiring decisions and harsher public commentary; growing older and more secure produces calmer judgment

He was not secure enough in himself to hire someone mission- or morally-aligned over someone merely capable, and his earlier bluntness came from raw anger

14:55 Insecurity and inferiority complex drive worse hiring and harsher judgment security produces calmer judgment

Chamath Palihapitiya · Jul 13, 2020

He would not change his traumatic childhood, because it was in that struggle that he learned what actually matters and discovered emotional intimacy he had previously dismissed as weakness

The dysfunction forced him into a fixing process where he found love, kindness and intimacy he had thought were signs of weakness and never knew existed

34:10 Processed childhood trauma produces valuable emotional growth not to be undone

Harry Stebbings · Oct 24, 2022 · hedged

A downside-protection mindset formed by early financial insecurity can make you a worse investor by biasing you toward protecting downside instead of chasing upside

His own family lost its money when he was young and he sees that instinct in himself

10:17 Childhood financial insecurity biases investors toward downside protection over upside