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The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish

Jerry Colonna: The CEO Whisperer

The Knowledge Project with Shane Parrish

Farnam Street

Business, Investing, Entrepreneurship

4.72.9K Ratings

🗓️ 17 October 2023

⏱️ 92 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Jerry Colonna was a high-flying New York venture capitalist in the early 1990s, but his life wasn’t as glamorous as most made it out to be. He was anxious, overweight, unhealthy, and unfulfilled, and after suffering a panic attack on the streets of Manhattan he gradually shifted into coaching, giving him a new lease on life and a career as one of the premier executive coaches in the United States.
In this episode, Colonna opens up on what went wrong and how he changed it. Offering raw and revealing insights on resilience, discernment, self-esteem, anxiety, motivation, and the rituals that keep him fulfilled in life.

Colonna is the Co-Founder of Reboot.io, an executive coaching and leadership development firm dedicated to the notion that better humans make better leaders. He is also the author of Reunion: Leadership and the Longing to Belong.

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Being able to be resilient is a wonderful adulting skill.

0:06.5

But what we're really after is the equanimity that says,

0:11.1

I may have made a mistake, with remorse I will learn from that mistake.

0:18.4

But my sense of self-worth is not at risk.

0:22.4

I will use the positive experience of that mistake

0:26.0

to learn and grow and do a better job

0:29.0

for the joy of doing a better job

0:32.0

not because I'm being chased by a demon that says,

0:36.0

you're a piece of crap. Welcome to the Knowledge Project, a podcast about mastering the best of what other people have

0:58.3

already figured out so you can apply their insights to your life. I'm your host, Shane Parish. If you're

1:06.2

listening to this you're missing it. If you'd like access to the

1:08.8

podcast before public release, special episodes that don't appear anywhere else hand-edited transcripts or you just

1:15.8

want to support the show you love you can join at FS.

1:19.8

Check out the show notes for a link.

1:23.0

My guest today is Jerry Colonna, founder of reboot.io.

1:29.0

Colonna is a certified professional coach, but before all of that, he played a prominent role in the early

1:34.4

development of Silicon Valley. With Fred Wilson he launched Flattoron Partners in August of

1:39.9

1996 which quickly rose to one of the top VC firms. But like many of us he reached all

1:45.8

the goals he had set out for himself only to find how hollow and unfulfilling it really was.

1:53.9

People call Jerry the CEO Whisper

1:56.2

and you'll see why.

1:57.3

This conversation is personal for me.

...

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