I no longer chase dopamine in business – I seek clarity

I believe that business can be built without ego, without comparison, and without getting excited about who looked at our LinkedIn profile.

It does not motivate or excite me now, but I was not always here.

 

There was a time in my life when my dopamine levels would spike just because someone whose position name sounded important, paid attention to me, which would automatically trigger a thought – what can I get out of this, and how should I evaluate myself in front of them, how to make them stay…

Naturally, the next step was entering the “performance” mode.

Show more, do better, let them know you are worth their time – and eventually, worth collaboration.

 

Today, I know it all came from a place of inferiority and the submission to hierarchy that is instilled in us in this industry (and basically, in every industry). From being taught to be perfect children (unproblematic, self-efficient and obeying rules – inside deeply craving for attention and recognition), then perfect students, later perfect employees, and so on.

It is all based on fear – the fear of being rejected for who we really are.

 

Getting out of that state took me a lot of time.

As a rule, I was never fully trapped in it, because having the soul of an entrepreneur and a creator, at some point, resistance to all those norms naturally rises in you. And I always had that resistance in me, even if I did not know where it came from.

I even thought something was wrong with me, because I did not bow deeply and say thank you to all those who “gave me a chance.”

Years later, I understood – it was never them giving me a chance. It was I who gave them a chance.

 

And I am not writing this from a place of ego.

I write either from the heart or from the soul. And I no longer make decisions (especially business ones) from calculation or strategy.

I do everything from feeling and instinct.

 

Before I got here and allowed myself to feel (which now automatically protects me from what is false or fake), before I fully trusted what comes to me in the form of intuition, I went through a long journey of therapy, also based on a feeling. I trusted myself and let my feelings lead me.

No, I did not go from one doctor’s office to another. I did not ask others “who I am”. I did not ask them for a recipe for myself. I have never needed an external analysis because there was never anything wrong with me. I knew that.

 

I found my therapists in books. In podcasts. In my journal. In myself.

I found my answers in me. It all has always been there.

And what I could not manage alone, I brought to my Hellinger sessions, to a lady whom I met in another life in 2003, who reappeared on my path exactly when I needed her most. In the moment when I needed to reposition myself in opposition to my business partners, and earlier, to my employers and clients.

 

And we did it.

 

I have reached a place where I no longer think things like: “Do I belong here?”, “Will they want to be part of what I create?”, “Will what I create be understood?”

 

I feel complete clarity in my project.

 

And I know that my people will find it, understand it, and want to be part of it – not because of calculation, but because our energies will align.

And none of us will enter the “ego mode”. No one will enter the “performance mode”. No one will try to prove that they are a camel (this is a Polish saying/idiom – udowadniać, że nie jest się wielbłądem – Google it) – because, most naturally, no one will need to.

 

Why did I write this post?

Because I felt this was the moment for it.

 

It is Monday at noon. I am slowly sitting down to work, like I do every Monday.

I once promised myself not to follow the trend and not to complain about Mondays – so I start my work week softly. With lemon water and creatine drunk in the sun on my balcony, mushroom coffee next, and a book. Today – The Power of Now.

I opened my laptop. I opened all the tabs I left here for myself on Friday, to pick up Monday exactly where I left off. I had also left LinkedIn open, which showed me who clicked on me this month.

 

And what did I notice? My body no longer reacts to it. I did not feel a dopamine rush.

 

What I saw there made absolutely no impression on me, even though there were big names and important brands there.

 

I am still within myself, in my presence and my present. I do not step outside of what is mine. I do not imagine what these people might have thought about me. I no longer protect myself from it. I do not write inner scripts. I do not give it energy. I do not give it my time.

I move on. In my silence. And in my peace. On my path.

Without “performance”.

 

My free LinkedIn Premium expires next Sunday, July 27th 2025.

Heavens, bless this moment.