Founders, as you know, founding is really f*ing hard. Especially the quiet psychological battles you’re forced to fight many days.
If you’re looking to unlock the next-level you, I highly recommend The Gap & The Gain.
Having read hundreds of books on entrepreneurship, performance, self-help etc., I would put The Gap & The Gain in the foundational canon – a must-read – for every entrepreneur, at any stage of their journey.
Packed with eye-opening revelations about the high achiever’s psyche, anecdotes, wisdom… I won’t do it justice in the few minutes I have to write this, but the gist is simple:
There are two kinds of mindset:
- the gap mindset – observing the world through the lens of comparison to an ideal.
- the gain mindset – observing the world relative to prior progress.
Highlights included:
- How to measure one’s own progress in a productive way
- The trap caused by ever-shifting goal posts
- Why optimism is the only rational mindset if you’re looking to increase performance
- The hidden psychology of happiness, and why it’s crucial to high performance
- How our default state – the gap – causes stress, anxiety and fear
- How being in the gap mindset harms team members and undermines progress
- How the gain mindset propagates – but requires ongoing awareness
- Powerful examples from real-world high achievers
- Above all:
I personally believe Hardy & Sullivan excavated the root cause of anxiety itself.
Pro tip: The audiobook is insanely value-add, with hours of back & forth between the two authors. Full of extra treasures.
Thank you Dr. Hardy & Dan Sullivan for bringing this project to life.
