Insight
Colonna: Generational trauma and immigrant backgrounds drive achievement through constant catastrophizing
“I notice this a lot with the descendants of immigrants, or the descendants of those who might have survived pogroms, or the descendants of those who might have experienced famine, there's a particular attachment To holding on to the possibility of negative out…”
Opinion
Colonna agrees with Lux Capital's Josh Wolfe: chips on shoulders drive success
“Josh Wolf, who is a VC at Lux Capital, likes to say, chips on shoulders, put chips in pockets. And he is right when he speaks about that.”
Insight
Colonna: Breakthrough innovation happens when relaxed, not driven by inadequacy
“In my experience, those real innovative moments actually occur when the brain is relaxed, when the heart is relaxed, ok? When we are not terrified that we are not enough.”
Insight
Colonna: Toxic workplaces stem from empowering people who cannot use words
“We wonder why we have toxic workplaces. Well, because we give power to people who don't know how to use their words.”
Insight
Colonna: Prolonged Disconnect Between Inner and Outer Persona Causes Depression
“And that led to this disconnect between the inner me and the outer me, which on a prolonged period of time leads to depression.”
Insight
Colonna: Shape-Shifting for Anxious Parents Creates Generational Behavioral Patterns
“If we grow up in an environment where, where in order to say, make our depressed father Less depressed, or our anxious mother less anxious by shape-shifting. The likelihood is that we will pass that pattern on to our descendants.”
Insight
Colonna: Personal Change Requires Risking What Your Coping Mechanisms Protect
“Now, until we get to the point where we're willing to risk the thing that this system was set up to protect, we're not going to change.”
Insight
Colonna: Leaders who hide internal anxieties damage team psychological safety
“And then all of a sudden you, as someone who holds power within your organization, are starting to impact the psychological safety of those around you, because you're not really talking about what's going on.”
Insight
Colonna: Equanimity, Not Just Resilience, Is the True Psychological Goal
“I often talk about equanimity and equanimity as the real goal that resilience is the path. Being able to be resilient, Against the forces is a wonderful adulting skill. But what we're really after is the equanimity that says, I may have made a mistake, and I r…”
Insight
Colonna: Morning rituals should focus on raising consciousness rather than rigid form
“There is a little bit of a tendency in our world right now to place a little too much emphasis on the form. Where do you journal? Oh, do you meditate? And I just want to bring people back to the function. Cause the function is taking a fix on your life. How ar…”
Insight
Jerry Colonna: Resilience Without Discernment Can Create Stubbornness
“Resilience without discernment... Can create stubbornness. Resilience with discernment and skill means being able to apply stick to itiveness, perseverance in the right ways.”
Insight
Colonna: Always have the direct conversation to reset draining relationships
“My impulse would be always to have a conversation because the practice of having the conversation, even if the conversation isn't well received, is a good muscle for you to develop.”
Insight
Colonna: Material possessions are only the container of life, not success
“The material stuff. Those things are important, but they are the container, not the content. Success for me is content that makes me feel at the end of the day Not bad, dude. You did a pretty good job.”
Disclosure
Colonna: VC Success Was Driven by Overcoming Childhood Feelings of Poverty
“See, it was really important to me to be perceived as a financial wizard, as a really successful VC. It was really important because it overcame decades of a sense of poverty that I grew up with. I had to be willing to be poor in order to be free.”
Disclosure
Colonna walked away from venture capital while co-investing with Wilson and Feld
“Or Fred Wilson and Brad Felt, two of the most successful VCs in the world. And I walked away from the business when it was the three of us making hay.”
Jerry Colonna