Brain Dump n. 6

1. The fears of starting a company are easily erased. Mine were usual. Money was a big topic, after moving to Germany I was excited to earn a non-Italian salary to satisfy some big desires of mine (mainly subsidizing my dad, saving some money, and having costly experiences like traveling to Greenland or New Zealand). Status was on the list too. Switching from PropTech to Biotech was not going to be easy, so perhaps spending some time at a VC or a biotech startup could ease the process. In the end, everything was sitting on the platform fear of failure. What if I don’t raise and waste a year of my life? Would I easily get a job back? Will it look bad on my LinkedIn?I am extremely rational. But it didn’t matter how much I rationally convinced myself that of course, I would learn a lot in the process and that of course, nobody would force me to write “Failed Cofounder & CEO” on LinkedIn, the emotional tension was hard to solve.I then took the plunge and everything was let go. Subsidizing my dad had to wait a bit, nothing tragic, status was demoted, and fear of failure accepted. When I left Sirius (a company I cofounded beginning of 2023) the idea of looking for a job didn’t cross my mind and I immediately got into EF. Once you start, it is almost as if your mind is convinced that “well, I tried to warn you, but I guess nevermind” and gives up putting barriers to the virtual danger. Take the plunge, erase your fears.

2. The introversion vs extraversion dichotomy doesn’t make sense.People like categorization to guide them through behaviors, but a simplified model risks limiting personal decisions for the wrong reasons. I am an extrovert by all means. I like talking, I like listening, I love living with others, I love being surrounded by others, I love coworking and coffee shops because they are full of people, I can engage in a conversation for hours and have my energy up and high, and all other stuff extroverts do. People agree, see me, and expect me to be an extrovert. Except I am not.I don’t last more than an hour in networking events (so much that I prefer signing up, not going, and then reaching out to people individually), I hate busy places, I love staying with other people while working aka not talking, I try to avoid people at lunch so to eat alone and mind my business, I love spending time by myself on weekends, and after staying with friends it’s not that I am super recharged. The truth is much more nuanced. I could stay 24/7 with people, as long as they are part of my first inner circle of friends and in a big enough space. I love talking and listening, as long as it’s a deep conversation. I love coworking, as long as it’s at lower than its 40% capacity and higher than its 5%. I like eating alone if the alternative is eating with people that I necessarily have to engage with. I love eating together if we can stay silent for 10 minutes and nothing changes.The scale from introversion to extraversion is a fluid range, I hope you can learn the parameters to efficiently swim through it.

Thanks for reading and see you next week. :)

Brando