Bustr Bensn

3 engines for love and business

Engine A

Fail early, fail often. Great for brainstorming, adventure, excitement, following all leads. It’s lustful and risky. It’s about accepting all offers. Being extroverted and social. Driven by adrenaline and testosterone. Manic. Raw energy. Exploring the landscape, being open to all possibilities, playing with fire. The spark.

Engine B

Find product/market fit, the soulmate. Great for deep, creative work. Focus, passion, deep dives, working late hours. Excluding all other options in favor of one that you love. Court it, romance it, obsess over it. Driven by seratonin and dopamine. Intense, attentive energy. The overflowing spring.

Engine C

Double down and go long. Grow grow grow. Find the economies of scale. Count pennies, get in the flow, find the sustainable, long-term plan. Commit, make bold bets. Driven by oxytocin and vasopressin. Grow old together. The unbreakable string.

The 3 engines in our brain

These 3 engines are deep, old, parts of our brains. Powered by hormones and neurotransmitters that have evolved over millions of years. They come with distinct bodily sensations and are designed to help us solve particular problems.

Engine A: Test the waters, find a connection.
Engine B: Fall in love, become a team.
Engine C: Live together, build a family.

These same engines can be used to build a business, and map pretty easily to the stages of any startup as it grows from an idea, to an execution, to a big business.

The really interesting epiphany for me was that each of these engines are integrated with one another, and are impacted by our diet, our general health, our age, our sense of self, our brains, and our self-confidence.

If you wanted to, you could research to see which changes to diet, fitness, stress, and sleep can be improved to help the particular stage of life/relationships/business that you happen to be in right now. The information is out there, if you connect the dots.

This post inspired by the following TED talk by Helen Fisher, who is pretty awesome: