The cognitive distortions of founders
Since beginning to build up the motivation earlier this year to leave my job to start building something on my own, I've enjoyed going through unique non-mainstream takes on entrepreneurship rather than the ones on news outlets/ publications.
An interesting topic has been the core cognitive distortions founders have. The best overview I've gone through is a short video by Micheal Dearing mentioning some of these from his experience.
He says that human beings
- Observe
- Form judgments
- Take action
Cognitive behavior theory says that automatic thoughts color the above activities. Founders wear special goggles that create cognitive distortions (= superpowers). The distortions observed by Michael in successful founders among the 1000s he has met -
- personal exceptionalism - view ones work as snowflake special
- black and white thinking - genius or shit view of things, leads to excellence
- schumpeterian - creative destruction, accept pain and damage that it takes
- correct overgeneralization
- blank canvas thinking
All these characteristics have drawbacks as well that need structure to be prevented. Do take a look at the entire video.
What are the distortions you've observed or learned over the years?
Thanks for sharing Rnjai!