Executive coaching by Calin Drimbau
Ambition is only half the work
I coach founders and operators through the moments when they feel stuck because the tools they’ve used so far keep leading to the same outcomes.
Where I do this work
The edge
It’s the edge of your comfort zone. The edge of what you’ve done so far. The edge of your emotions. You’re stuck because it’s the thing that makes you fearful, and you don’t even want to admit you’re scared of it.
Most of the time you don’t know you’re at the edge. You think you’re on top of things. It’s like believing you’re at Base Camp when you’re actually at Camp 3 and an avalanche is coming.
So you push harder. You grind against the edge and call it discipline. But grinding is the resistance to the edge. You spend enormous energy avoiding the thing right in front of you. That’s what burns you out.
The practice
The first step is noticing. Something has you on edge: the way you pitch, the way you talk to your co-founder or the energy you have for the thing you’re building. You notice it.
Nobody wants to say they’re at the edge. We’ve been conditioned to say we’re good and on top of things. I’m not saying put it on LinkedIn. I’m saying: say the hard thing out loud to at least one person who can witness you. That takes courage.
The limiting beliefs are the resistance to the edge. They sit deep in your subconscious mind and can stop you from even getting close to the jump. This is where we work out where the resistance is coming from, reduce its power, and come back with enough momentum to try.
Then you act. You jump and you’ll probably fall. The first time hurts. It’s discouraging, so you try again. You try something different: a parachute or a line strung between the two cliffs. You don’t know yet what’s going to work, so you keep trying.
This time you make it and you celebrate. Rest for a while, pitch your tent and enjoy the view. Just don’t camp there and start preaching. After a while you feel the pull to climb the next mountain. That’s the impulse to follow.
The first time you meet your edge, you feel fear. At some point you start watching yourself play the game and looking forward to your edges.
Request a CallAt 20 I managed 20 people, many of them with 30 years more experience than me. Later I managed over a hundred and sat on the boards of three companies.
As a C-level executive, I grew a business from nothing to a $100 million valuation in a single year and then to an exit to private equity, working with clients like Verizon, JPMorgan and Pfizer.
Then I raised money for my own startup and built a venture-backed business in Silicon Valley without knowing a single person there.
If I have one commitment, it’s to self-discovery. I’ve kept a deep meditation and Vipassana practice for years. I trained in Interpersonal Dynamics at Stanford, where I now facilitate Touchy-Feely.
I’ve trained with Joe Hudson and The Art of Accomplishment, gone deep into somatic work, and taken part in men’s work and plant medicine journeys.
Each path gave me a tool. Those tools let me see my own edges sooner, cross them faster, and work from excitement instead of fear.
Today I coach founders and operators one-to-one and facilitate Interpersonal Dynamics at Stanford. The people I work with are building their own companies or leading teams at places like OpenAI, Google and Anthropic.
“I’ve always been good at doing hard things. What I didn’t expect was that letting myself actually feel my emotions would unlock a whole new level of productivity.”
“Calin helped me navigate the hardest moments I’ve faced as a CEO: the ones I used to just push through. I came out of them clearer, with more room to choose.”
“You are such a good teacher. So many of the moments where you gave feedback were big turning points for me.”
“Your ability to ask a question or give an invitation that brings people back into the here-now and into an emotional state is really, really masterful.”
Working together
I work with driven people who want the next version of themselves and can feel something stopping them.
Working with me is going to be challenging. Most of the work is yours. Mine is to guide you to your edges and to what’s sitting underneath them. The commitment is to the practice, not to me.
