Читать книгу The Resilient Founder - Mahendra Ramsinghani - Страница 19

Entrepreneur, investor, and author Brad Feld, with his authenticity and boldness gave me the impetus and permission to explore this topic. Brad has been one of the first venture capitalists to open up about his mental health, thereby giving the rest of us permission to feel. The world has encouraged us to think, become deep-thinkers and show off our rational sides, even compete on the logical plane. Yet here was a man who could bring deep feelings and show us his human side. When Brad and I co-authored Start-up Boards, the seeds for this book were planted. Founders shared their boardroom challenges, and when we started to dig deeper into the founder's own well-being, it was apparent that depression was rampant, unstated yet obvious – the huge elephant in the room.

In a business culture that values doing (execution) and thinking (strategy), we need to evolve toward feeling – a part that remains ignored in the world of business. By operating with our heads alone, we cast aside the best part of ourselves – the golden heart. And deep feeling leads us to awareness of feelings, unstated desires, hidden motivations, and frustrations, and the best part – our dark side. To know and have a healthy relationship with the darker parts can be a rewarding step toward our own self-development. But we don't quite know where to begin. We buried these feelings and it was best not to express these, not to talk about it. Jerry Colonna (who authored the foreword to Start-up Boards) has recently published Reboot: Leadership and the Art of Growing Up, a must-have guide for CEOs. Jerry, a former venture capitalist, is now a CEO-mensch, helping the leaders address a wide range of emotional challenges as they build their companies. One of his first observations when I started to write this book was, “When it comes to depression, our language is insufficient. Our words are inadequate. As a society, we have no practices in place to discuss, support, and nurture. How do we make it safe to step into this void and talk about it? ”