Chad Silverstein recounts lessons from one-on-one practices with a coach named Chet about leadership and addiction. He warns that CEOs are especially vulnerable to power-driven addictions, emphasizes handling "one mess at a time", and urges transparency, reaching out for help, and confronting denial—either in oneself or in loved ones—without delay.
Chapters
All the one on one practices with Chet. He used to come in and without naming names, he would tell me about a lot of his experiences over the years helping people become built to lead. And used to tell me all the time how CEOs have to worry the most about, you know, power hungry addictions, getting the best of them because, you know, they have money, they have freedom, and they think they're unstoppable until they get a big wake up call or they hit a rock bottom. And I remember he used to tell me that, you know, the most important thing is to know one, that you can only deal with one mess at a time. And someone who is struggling with something, which we're all surrounded by people who are all struggling with things, including ourselves. And you can't take on too much and try to conquer too much at the same time. So one mess at a time. And if it's a bad one that you need help with, you need to reach out and talk to somebody, you need to be able to lean on someone who can be there for you so that you're not alone. And the problem with anyone who's struggling with something that you know they're, they're, they're hiding is that they'll lie. And you know, they're living two lives. Living a double life is just no way to live. You know, being completely transparent and being open, so hard to do. But it's, it's the way to really free yourself. And the people who are in the most denial of that are the ones who are struggling and not dealing with it. And so figuring out where that exists, either in your life or a loved one's life, or someone close to you at work, it exists and it's not far from you, if not from within you. And so pay attention and do something about it. And if that means you have to be an irritant to someone that you care about, then be that irritant to that person. And if that means that you need someone to be an irritant to you, then go find that person and don't delay. If not today, when.
