This content was created by GHION.AI . This content was uploaded by GHION.AI . This is a YouTube talk titled "Justin Rosenstein: Manage Your Own Psychology" (created 2013-05-13). Justin Rosenstein addresses an audience about leadership and managing the self-doubting inner voice. He recounts a dinner and mentorship advice from Ben Horowitz (and mentions Marc Andreessen/Andreessen Horowitz and Dustin), describes meditation practice and techniques for relating differently to judgmental thoughts, and encourages continuing to act despite fear.
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It was around that time that we had our Series A, which Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz participated in, or Andreessen Horowitz participated in, and we were out to dinner with them. Dustin and I were out to dinner with them a little while after that. And I really respect Ben as a mentor, and so I wanted to get his advice on this, though I was a little intimidated to be like, I didn't want him to be like, I just gave you all this money and you're telling me that you're scared of doing the job I'm paying you to do. But instead, he just very matter-of-factly was like, yes, this is actually a good thing for you to know. The most important part of being a leader is managing your own psychology, and proceeded to tell me all these stories of times that he struggled with this. So I just want to finish by telling you a few things I found really helpful in doing this. So the first one is, I want to say, how many people in the room have experienced, maybe every day, some sort of voice in your head that sounds like it's your voice, but it's telling you you're doing things badly? There is a voice that is self-doubting and judging. And it's very easy to confuse this voice for your self, especially because it speaks in your own voice. But it's not. It's sort of like having an annoying judgmental roommate living in your head. You'll notice this now that I point it out. And every time that you hear that voice— so I've, after doing tons of— I'm not sure what your path was. I've done a ton of meditation work and all sorts of things. And I still hear this voice. But the difference is that I now have a new relationship to it. I hear the voice, I say, "Thank you. I appreciate that you're trying to be helpful. You can keep hanging out in my head, that's totally fine. You can kick your feet up, make yourself comfortable, but that's not me and I make decisions from a different place." And so I continue to act in the face of fear even when those things keep coming up and telling me, "Oh, you're screwing this up."
