Choose your team wisely

Improvement starts where ego shuts up

Recently someone told me: "I don't get it. Your public presence feels extreme, so intense, always pushing like a machine, and yet your blog posts show a totally different side, reflective and thoughtful. How can you be both?"

Well, my answer is simple: one doesn't exist without the other. Intensity feeds introspection, and introspection fuels intensity. That's the beauty of living consciously.

This delicate balance, the tension between pushing hard and pausing deeply, is exactly what inspired this post. When reflecting on it, I realized you need to be conscious of your actions and willing to face the discomfort of your own limitations.

And when it comes to that, three specific character traits stand directly in opposition. These traits define your detractors. The first might not seem problematic at first glance, it’s certainly the least damaging, but it still holds people back from real growth.

1. The Busy Bees

We all know someone permanently under the gun. Constantly swamped, perpetually buried in urgent tasks and firefighting crises. These people aren't busy because they're indispensable; No one really is. They’re mostly disorganized, undisciplined, or even slow.

They mistake frantic movement for meaningful progress. They're precisely the kind who, despite living in the age of AI, still send emails riddled with typos or stubbornly dismiss AI tools because "they make mistakes," "hallucinate," or "can’t fully replace human intuition." What's really happening here is deeper: unconsciously, they're terrified that if AI handles their work effectively, they'll have nothing left to keep them busy. And without that constant state of busy-ness, their lives lose all meaning.

If you're always busy but never consciously improving, you're just sprinting in place.

2. The Defensive Brigade

Then there are the defenders, the folks who shield their ego like it's a newborn child. Offer them constructive feedback, and they'll react as if you've declared war. They deflect criticism, answer with skepticism, or worse, retaliate by critiquing you in return.

This defensive posture is exhausting and counterproductive. They spend so much time protecting their fragile egos that they remain blind to their own flaws. No flaws detected, no growth possible. It's that simple.

If you're too defensive to receive criticism, you're effectively locking yourself in an echo chamber where improvement isn't invited.

3. The Pretenders

Lastly, we have the pretenders. These folks talk a great game about working hard, hustling daily, and grinding endlessly. Yet when push comes to shove, they vanish behind screens, endlessly manufacturing excuses.

The problem with pretenders isn't just laziness, it's dishonesty. They create discomfort through deception instead of confronting the beneficial discomfort of genuine improvement.

Pretending effort is infinitely more exhausting than actually putting in the work.

The Uncomfortable Truth

These three types share a common trait: they actively avoid the productive discomfort. Real growth is inherently uncomfortable. It demands vulnerability, receptivity to feedback, and intentional action. Avoiding these will leave you stagnating at best, regressing at worst.

Who Should You Surround Yourself With?

Surround yourself with individuals committed to real growth. Whether they move quickly or slowly, operate intensely or calmly, what matters most is their intentional progress.

Some people are built for sprints; others excel at marathons. That's fine. Speed and style differ, but intentionality and continuous improvement are non-negotiable.

As a founder, your job isn't just to encourage growth, it's to ruthlessly eliminate the busy-for-nothing, the ego defenders, and the pretenders from your environment.

Improvement starts where ego shuts up.

Choose your team wisely.