#7: George Kapernaros – Imposter Syndrome, Self-Moderation & Living a Free Life

Send us a text

As a rule of thumb, the most “successful” people I know are depressed and brutal on themselves. These are people with extreme wealth and by all accounts innovators and high-performers in their fields.

This isn’t just my experience; a recent study by UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco detailed the personality, mood, and human factors that are common among entrepreneurs in which:

• Self-reported mental health concerns were present across 72% of the entrepreneurs in this sample, a proportion that was significantly higher than that of the comparison group.
• 49% reported having one or more lifelong mental health conditions, 32% reported having two or more lifelong #mental health conditions.
• The entrepreneurs were significantly more likely to report a history of depression (30%), ADHD (29%), substance use conditions (12%) and bipolar diagnosis (11%) than were comparison participants.
• 5.4% of the entrepreneur participants were suicidal, more than double the control group (2%).

This cultivates a subterranean culture of isolation that breeds further anxiety, depression, and self-hatred – especially among young professionals who already overwhelmingly struggle with imposter syndrome.

As you'll hear in this discussion, I am one of the 32% of entrepreneurs with two or more mental health conditions. As someone diagnosed with ADHD, generalized anxiety, and bipolar II, it's something I cope with on a daily basis both in my professional and personal life.

George Kapernaros is a marketing consultant based in Athens, Greece with a degree in Political Science & International Relations. His innovative work is at the intersection of behavioral marketing, retention, and applied conversion psychology, which he has applied to over 200 product launches and multi-million dollar campaigns.

Some of the topics we discussed further:

• Are entrepreneurs more likely to have ADHD?
• How business partners expose strengths and weaknesses.
• The struggle of dealing with imposter syndrome.
• Marcus Aurelius, stoic stress testing, and behemoth to-do lists.
• Childhood influences, over-achievement, and abusive self-talk.
• Is balance even achievable as an entrepreneur?
• Self-moderation, and the momentum trap.
• Implanted aspirations, and what is a "free" life?
• Risk-taking, and the illusion of security.
• Consuming vs creating, and scarcity vs growth mindsets.
• Turnover, mindless corporate growth, and the compound interest of bad decisions.
• The struggle of passion projects vs maintaining cash flow.
• What you can learn from studying comic books, conmen, and cults.
• Marketing, the randomness of success, and the importance of testing your beliefs.
• The butterfly effect of stress, caffeine, nootropics, and health optimization.
• AI, UBI, and jobs of the future.
• The looming issue of climate change, and how to prepare for the disruptions ahead.

Connect with George:

• Website: GeorgeKapernaros.com
• LinkedIn: @George-Kapernaros

Music by Kirby Johnston – check out his band Aldaraia on Spotify