What draws some people to big risky ideas that might someday change the world, and what compels them to keep trying, again and again, even after repeated failures and at great personal expense?
Why are some people compelled to take big risks on big ideas, attempting to change a market or, indeed, the world in ways that others find delusional? And why do they keep trying, again and again, often after repeated failures and at great personal expense? Neil Seeman is one of those people: an internet entrepreneur steeped in North American start-up culture. He is also the son of one of Canada's most important brain scientists. Drawing on his own business experience and his father's research into the brain's processing of risk and reward, Seeman explains the entrepreneurial mindset-the world's primary wealth creation engine-is in fact a form of addiction. The highs experienced by individuals when they are solving problems or making breakthroughs are so enormously generative and exciting, and the lows so tormenting and debilitating, that they live on an unsustainable hamster wheel of constant striving and often wind up destroying the very things that they helped create. With compassion and deep insight, he suggests ways in which the vital energies of the entrepreneurial class can be directed in A more constructive and sustainable manner.
About the Author :
Neil Seeman is a Canadian writer, Internet entrepreneur and mental health advocate. At the University of Toronto, he teaches at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, and is a senior fellow in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME), The Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences, Massey College, and the Investigative Journalism Bureau. Neil is a regular contributor to Nikkei Asia,The Toronto Star, and Healthcare Quarterly. He has published his research on mental health topics in Nature, Synapse, and in other leading academic journals. He is the co-author of three books on mental health, including: Obesity and the Limits of Shame, which was a finalist for the Donner Book Prize and was selected as an “outstanding” title by the University Press Books Committee. Neil is a graduate of the University of Toronto Law School and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Review :
“Neil Seeman courageously examines the excesses of forms of entrepreneurialism unmoored from historic conceptions of innovation for the greater good. He is the first to explain how entrepreneurs, artists, and risk-takers of all types can better manage the successive bursts of dopamine swooshing in their brains.” —Lord Anthony St John, Crossbench Member of the House of Lords
“This timely book amalgamates an autobiography, frank descriptions of mission-driven or profit-driven entrepreneurs, their anguished personal and professional risks, with conceivable underlying biological drivers.” —Bertha K. Madras, PhD, Professor of Psychobiology, Harvard Medical School
“Combining scholarly analysis with dramatic personal history, Neil Seeman clearly frames the mental challenges entrepreneurs face, and offers hope for the future. A real dopamine rush.” —Myles Druckman, MD, Senior Vice President and Global Medical Director, International SOS
“Accelerated Minds is a tour de force. Seeman offers no less than a treatise on entrepreneurship, a primer on dopamine in neuromodulation, and a touch of philosophy—and he makes it all gel elegantly.” —Frederick Lowy, OC, MD, FRCP, Former Dean of Medicine, University of Toronto, and Former President and Vice-Chancellor of Concordia University
“In Accelerated Minds, Neil Seeman boldly suggests a new way of thinking about mental health among entrepreneurs. These innovators or ‘wild spirits’ risk everything to turn their dreams into reality and are responsible for much of society’s economic growth. It’s a rough road, however. Seeman offers a broad and, fittingly, entrepreneurial discussion about how to support these important individuals.” —Sonia Arrison, Author of 100 Plus, Board Director, The Theil Foundation
“If you are interested in what drives the entrepreneurial spirit, this book is for you. If you are entrepreneurial, it flags several warning signs for your business and mental health. If you think ‘phew I’m not like that,’ think again.” —Lawrence Spero, PhD, Professor of Pharmacology (retired), University of Toronto
“Seeman’s personal, professional, and scientific threads resonate and make sense of the character types and biological underpinnings of entrepreneurial behavior.... Accelerated Minds also spotlights, in vivid detail, the true vulgarity of excess in today’s entrepreneurial sphere.” —George Tolomiczenko, PhD, Executive Director, Merkin Institute for Translational Research, California Institute of Technology (CALTECH)
