Participants

UP QUOTES

“You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do.”

— Carl Jung

Individuals

An Individual UP is fully focused on upgrading you as an individual. We take into consideration your personal and professional relationships, but we don’t focus on helping those around you unless that’s directly necessary for your growth. If others are blocking your growth, we might suggest an Individual UP for them or a Team UP for all of you. 

Teams

A Team UP upgrades members of a group (e.g., startup, small business, corporate team, etc.). The shared language, tools, schedules, and deep focus on goal attainment mutually reinforces individual and collective success. Team UPs are complicated to design, but may yield a massive ROI. They often evolve with changing participant needs. 

Families

A Family UP optimizes for family flourishing. Families are complicated, but individual and familial well-being can be improved with sensible, careful efforts over time. Special consideration is paid to aligning individual needs with family needs, role expectations, resource allocations, and communication and conflict resolution norms.

Individual UPs

Let’s examine six sample individual client scenarios.

INDIVIDUAL #1

Elijah the VC

Elijah is extremely busy and has been neglecting his personal needs, health, and family for years. He deeply wants to make a change, but feels strangely stuck. Elijah does an UP focused on workload delegation, a rigorous fitness program, nutrition automation, anti-aging, and non-negotiable time for family and self.

INDIVIDUAL #2

Audrey the CEO

Audrey is a victim of her own success. As her company grows, she feels as if she’s losing her creative spark–she’s no longer as energized as she used to be. Audrey does an UP focused on personal renewal through retreats, yoga, and trips with friends. She also plans an exit from her company to start a high-impact charity. 

INDIVIDUAL #3

Nils the researcher

Nils has dedicated himself to research into reducing existential risks. It’s his passion and life’s work. He has recently found himself under immense pressure to stay abreast of the rapid developments of AI. Nils does an UP that provides immediate coaching, therapy, and personal and research assistance tailored to his day-to-day needs. 

INDIVIDUAL #4

Rima the policymaker

Rima is a senior member of an international agency tasked with encouraging global coordination between member states. This is rewarding, but complicated work. Rima does an UP that serves primarily as her personal advisory board to talk through issues. She also occasionally outsources sensitive tasks to her UP Team that her current assistant can’t handle. 

INDIVIDUAL #5

Ben the biohacker

Ben has tried everything possible to enhance himself–legal or otherwise. He’s seen some good results, but most things don’t stick and half of what he tries has unclear outcomes. He knows he needs reliable support to maximize his growth. Ben does an UP focused on a systematic optimization of his entire life.

INDIVIDUAL #6

Mia the student

Mia is a straight A student, but silently suffering. She’s running ragged trying to keep up with her classes, job, extra curriculars, family, and partner. She took on more than she can handle and doesn’t see a way out. Mia does an UP focused on time and energy management, effective studying, and task outsourcing.

Group UPs

Let’s examine three sample group scenarios.

GROUP #1

John Rock Capital

A small social impact fund has recruited an exceptionally talented team, but is having trouble both with poaching from larger funds and people leaving to directly compete. They do a Team UP focused on enhancing the individual well-being of each team member so much that they stay at much higher rates. This has a great benefit-cost ratio.

GROUP #2

The Wongs

Wei and Jing are married with two teenage children, Min and Jie. They do a Family UP focused on helping future proof their family business. They’re unsure how their business needs to evolve and how ownership and assets will be allocated over time. They each create 15 year plans with multiple scenarios and commit to annual collaborative updates.

GROUP #3

Noel, Liz & Sian

Noel, Liz, and Sian have been best friends since high school, but have come to realize that their relationship has weakened over the years. They do a Group UP focused on authentic relating, radical candor, and spiritual exploration. They begin doing annual retreats in beautiful locations with their families, dedicating part of the trips to just the three of them.