You're a high-performer, an outlier, a creative misfit. The standard playbook for success feels like it was written for someone else—it glorifies burnout, rewards conformity, and whispers "keep your options open" whenever you dare to commit.
This newsletter offers a different approach.
Each week, I bridge the gap between seemingly separate worlds: from elite athletic training, to the psychology of high-stakes decision-making, and the hard-won truths of building in Silicon Valley. You get one actionable framework, mental model, or method you can use immediately.
This isn't just about getting more done. It’s about building a fulfilling business and life that doesn't just look good, but feels good too. We explore:
- Performance & Recovery: How to use rest as a performance multiplier, not a sign of weakness.
- Strategy & Commitment: Why deep commitment is more powerful than optionality, and how to build the conviction to go all-in.
- Mindset & Confidence: Practical, science-backed techniques to manage your self-talk, build confidence like a muscle, and use your unique psychology as an advantage.
- Communication & Influence: Frameworks for navigating fraught conversations, making a compelling case for your work, and validating others to build deep trust.
Think of this as your weekly session with a coach who’s been in the arena: elite athlete, YC founder, and Big Tech PM. Someone who knows the theory but trusts the scars more. If you're ready to stop grinding and start building a more powerful, sustainable way to win, this is for you.
If you're tired of generic advice and ready for an operating system built for your unconventional mind, join thousands of other ambitious outliers.
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Jason Shen
Jason Shen
Jason Shen
Jason Shen
Jason Shen
Jason Shen
Jason Shen
About Jason
Jason Shen is an xecutive coach who works with founders and ambitious outliers to reverse conviction decay, claim their genius, and win at their won game. As the author of The Path to Pivot and weirdly brilliant, he is a leading expert on resilience, transition, and unconventional success and his ideas have appeared in MIT Sloan Review, TechCrunch, FastCompany, and Every.
Jason previously founded 3 venture-backed startups (1 exit) and led product teams at Etsy and Facebook. He is a two-time Stanford graduate, a Y Combinator alumni, and NCAA mens gymnastics national champion. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife Amanda, a contemporary artist, and is a board member of Lunar Accel, an AAPI leadership development nonprofit.