The two of the came in at successive hours. Both extreems of what you can be.
One, out there to make millions, talking, screaming, planning, forecasting out six months to ten years, putting things in motion: phone calls, emails, banners, social contacts, meetings all set-up. My job is to keep him just this side of psychotic. If he succeeds he will be thought of a brilliant. If it all blows up and falls apart; he will be just another bipolar disorder, needing more medication.
Look at the heads of many of your most successful start-ups and you will seem guys just like this. But you can look at the guys standing outside of the pub, flicking cigarettes and talking rag-time. The differences are slight.
The next hour the tortoise came in. He carefully obsesses over each detail of each decision. What are the possible reprecussions? What can go wrong? What will people think? Session after session he seems to go over the same things. But he slowly, cautiously moves forward, often aware of the price he pays for hesitating, but also knowing that worrying about the risk would have ruined everything anyway.
Thankfully, most people fall between these two. But we all have tendencies to go more one way than the other. Often people seem to choose areas of their lives to take risks and be a bit "out-there": business, investing, relationships, sports, drinking, drugs, sex, or just not doing their taxes. I am no longer surprised to find how many people seem measured, reasonable and secure, and yet will do one or two really wild, fucked up things, and do them over and over.
Keeps things interesting.
3 comments:
its good that you recognize that there is some value in being "just this side of psychotic" Many mental health professionals just seem to want to drug the life out of you
Great post. Esp. loved the line "flicking cigarettes and talking rag-time." Inside every therapist is a novelist or poet trying to get out.
That's true. Things started looking up when I realized that everyone has their cross to bear.
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