ARC.
The Rules Nobody Teaches You.

Why do some thrive in startups while others burn out? It's not luck or talent. It's something you were never taught.

Welcome to the game you didn't know you were playing

Your brain has evolved over hundreds of thousands of years to seek one thing: predictability. Humans who found safety survived. Those who didn't, died. Now look at startups. Your product might pivot tomorrow. You might run out of cash next month. Nothing is certain. Everything's on fire.

Neuroscience shows your brain processes this uncertainty the same way it processes physical pain. Same neural pathways. Same alarm bells. Most people think they're not really cut out for startups. Nothing's wrong with you. Your brain is doing exactly what it evolved to do. The difference? Some people learned to override it.

The system behind the human edge

After 15+ years in startups, I kept seeing the same pattern. Same disaster. Two people respond completely differently. One gets destroyed. One gets launched. But why?

I watched a startup implode the week before Christmas. One brilliant designer looked shattered. One developer, the guy who grabbed everyone's lunch orders, who fixed things without being asked, started his own company months later. It's growing rapidly.

Same moment. Same skills. Opposite trajectories. I've spent years studying why. Then validated it against 100 research citations including from neuroscience and behavioral science.

So what is it?

Three things

Working together

1. Attitude

How you respond to chaos

Your ancient brain sees uncertainty as threat. The people who thrive train themselves to override it. They see pivots as data, not disaster. They burn their luggage without drama. Neuroscience proves this isn't personality. Optimism is trainable. Resilience is buildable. Agency, the belief you can influence outcomes rather than being a victim of them, is a choice you make daily.

2. Relationships

How fast you build trust

Belonging is as fundamental as food and water. In startups, you have weeks to build what corporations create over years. Every interaction either builds trust or erodes it. The people who become indispensable aren't always the most talented. They're radically responsive. They help before being asked. They make others feel seen. Speed signals reliability more than perfection ever could.

3. Competence

How you deliver without destroying yourself

I ended up in a hospital with crushing chest pains. Every test clear. A nurse asked: "Is your job stressful?" I was brilliant at my job. Completely incompetent at sustaining myself through the chaos. Chronic stress impairs your prefrontal cortex, the part that makes decisions. Push too hard and you literally become worse at your job. Competence without sustainability is delayed failure.

Bigger Than Startups

Miss one element and you're replaceable. Get all three working together and you become the person they can't afford to lose.

But what’s the deeper truth here? Well, it’s that 90% of startups fail. The equity is probably worthless. The company might not exist in two years.

Your ARC is yours forever.

The startup paradox is that you're building someone else's dream while discovering who you really are. How you handle chaos, build trust, and deliver value becomes your actual product. Not the app. Not the company. You.

These aren't startup skills. They're life skills forged in startup conditions. They compound over time. They transfer everywhere. The person who masters ARC doesn't just survive startups. They become someone who can thrive anywhere uncertainty exists.

Which, increasingly, is everywhere....

What People Are Saying

"If we need a license to drive, we should need one to join a startup. Here it is."

—Dr. Gabor Soter
AI Expert, United Kingdom

"Finally, someone tells the truth about startup life. Greg’s been in the thick of it, and it shows."

—Dan Newman
Creative Director, New Zealand

"Where was this ten years ago? Seriously. Would have saved me a lot of pain."

—Rui Silvestre
Startup CTO, Portugal

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ARC.The Rules Nobody Teaches You.