Thread by @garrytan

As you grow as a leader in any org, all of the things in your past (the trauma, tragedies, conflict) that you run away from will pursue you until you confront & integrate them.

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” —Jung

I found at times in my life, eg when I rage quit / burned out of my startup in 2010, that I even used that frame.

I put my head in my hands, felt I had no choice, and closed the book on the chapter saying “It was written.”

Now I know that my path was not true because I had blinders on. I was conflict avoidant due to a hard childhood (high ACE score— I recommend everyone know their own. You might be fine or it might surprise you.)

I would fail again and again if I didn’t become aware and integrated

Control your shadow and you will control your fate

I got huge help from my exec coach @yarbroughcam who founded @torchlabs

We talk about our own struggles and how exec coaching and therapy can allow you to reprogram yourself

Torch does this now at the individual level and can also help entire orgs

We are programmed by years and decades. Our experiences are deep grooves that are carved into our beings.

But meditation, therapy, coaching, group work: those are our tools to even know what those grooves are and what they do to us.

And only then can we rewrite and transcend!