From the STN Archives

Learning the Game of ‘Me’

It's an Inside Job

Smartphones, computers, the Internet, satellites, space flight ….

What do these things have in common besides being products of technology and engineering? 

When they were still concepts, they were considered to be completely insane. 

“We consume things that everyone thinks are crazy until it’s done,” says entrepreneur and self-described “brand alchemist” Matt Gottesman. 

Gottesman works primarily in digital branding, helping big brands transition to the digital realm. 

“I saw a need very early on for businesses and brands to adapt to a digital world that was going to become very savvy and a way that we were all going to communicate,” says Gottesman.

Gottesman has spent all of his career in a technology-related role. But, the fantasy of what a “tech entrepreneur” is like usually misses one key element: it’s incredibly lonely. 

Being creative and ahead of the curve often means standing alone. It means being the “crazy guy” at the table. It means there’s got to be something foundational  inside holding it all together when the external world says “no.”

Gottesman struggled with feelings of doubt and questioning his own judgement and sanity on his path to success. He was raised with the values of integrity, kindness and love. A happy upbringing had prepared him to be a hard-working, likeable person. He gave until it hurt. 

“I didn’t understand myself in relation to everything else. . . I didn’t understand my own boundaries and needs.” 

The Enlightenment

 

It took burning out and a perfectly timed discussion with his father for Gottesman to realize that inner work was needed in order to advance. He started to understand that what’s going on inside of a person (feelings, intentions, beliefs, thoughts etc.) emulates light or shadows out into the physical world. 

The more I grow personally and spiritually, the greater the outcomes have been,” explains Gottesman. The more he developed personally, the more success he achieved professionally. His uncertainty of if his timing was right or if he was too much of a dreamer transformed into realizing it wasn’t that he was too early, it’s that others were too late. 

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