Insights

Founder Psychology

Two ongoing series on the psychology of founding, leading, and lasting. Bite size articles and video by Byron.

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Short Tales of Psychology

Bite-sized essays on the inner game of building a company - what the research says, and what it looks like in the founder's chair.

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ConfidencePerformance Psychology3 min

Carlos Alcaraz: On Belief Under Pressure

Watching Carlos Alcaraz at the Australian Open 2026, I noticed something: when the pressure rises, so does his willingness to take risks. What founders can learn about belief, and the quiet pull of a loss-avoidance mindset.

Performance Psychology3 min

James Dyson: Success Through Failure - And How To Stop Avoiding It

James Dyson endured 5,126 failed prototypes before the bagless vacuum worked. The real barrier for founders isn’t failure itself - it’s the quiet habit of avoiding the feeling of being wrong.

Authenticity3 min

Michael J. Fox: On Fear & Authenticity - A Parkinson's Story

For seven years Michael J. Fox hid his Parkinson's diagnosis, terrified of rejection. When he finally let the mask drop, audiences embraced him - a story about fear, authenticity and the cost of hiding who we are.

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In Session with Byron

Insights and strategies from behind closed doors - what really comes up in psychological performance sessions with founders, and what you can take from it.

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The Psychology of Not Putting All Your Identity Eggs in One Basket

In this episode of In Session with Byron, psychologist Byron McCaughey tackles founder identity - and he's not here to tell you your role shouldn't be tied to who you are. He's been there himself: watching a business fold and feeling it as a hit on his sense of self. The issue isn't having your identity tied to being a founder. It's when that becomes the only thing you measure your self-worth against. Byron unpacks self-complexity theory - the idea that having multiple life domains (founder, psychologist, dad, husband, friend) means a hit to one domain doesn't take down your whole sense of self. When we're aware of those domains, we make decisions with more clarity and less fear. Learn why tying your identity to being a founder isn't the problem, what self-complexity theory says about withstanding setbacks in one area of life, and a simple exercise: write down everything you are besides a founder. Get clear on your domains, and you free yourself to make the right decisions for your business - not just the fear-avoidant ones.

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The One Freedom You Always Have: A Lesson from Viktor Frankl

In this episode of In Session with Byron, psychologist Byron McCaughey draws on a powerful idea from Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning - that even when everything else is stripped away, we retain one freedom: the choice of how we respond to our circumstances. Frankl wrote this as a Jewish prisoner in a WWII concentration camp, and it's a principle Byron returns to often in session with founders. As entrepreneurs, we face our own adversities constantly - many of them entirely outside our control. But how we respond, the mindset we bring, and the actions we choose in the face of that adversity remain ours to decide. Learn why Frankl's idea of the "last human freedom" applies directly to founder life, how to separate what's outside your control from what's always within it, and a grounding reminder for the moments you're stuck worrying about things you can't change. No matter what you're facing, you always have the choice of how you respond.

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Rumination vs Reflection: How to Escape Thought Loops

In this episode of In Session with Byron, psychologist Byron McCaughey tackles rumination - that post-board-meeting, post-pitch spiral where you can't stop replaying what you said and analysing what they said. Rumination is not the same as reflection. Reflection means considering what happened, extracting the useful information, and moving on. Rumination is a loop - and the research is clear that it correlates with anxiety and depressive outcomes. On a practical level, it also means you're never fully present for the next thing: the work in front of you, time with your partner, moments with family. Learn the critical difference between reflection and rumination, a simple diagnostic question - have I learnt anything new from thinking about this in the last 24 hours? - and how grounding in your senses pulls you out of the loop, because the brain can't attend to the present and replay the past at the same time. If the answer to that question is no, you're ruminating. Come back to the present.

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