Too Opinionated Interview: Neil Seeman

Neil Seeman is a Canadian author, teacher, Internet entrepreneur, public speaker, and mental health advocate.  His new book, “Accelerated Minds,” takes readers into the minds of people who risk it all on big ideas they believe could one day change the world … or not.  What compels them to keep trying even after repeated failures and even greater personal expense?  Neil Seeman is one of those people, steeped in North American start-up culture.  “Accelerated Minds” is drawn from Seeman’s own entrepreneurial experience and his late father’s (one of the world’s most important brain scientists) research into the brain’s processing of risk and reward. Seeman explains how the entrepreneurial mindset, the world's primary wealth creation engine, can turn into a form of addiction. Individuals with this mindset can experience accelerating highs, but also tormenting, debilitating lows. They live on an unsustainable hamster wheel of constant striving and often wind up destroying the very things that they helped create.   Why?  “Accelerated Minds” delves into this mindset with compassion, deep insight and discovered paths in which the vital energies of the entrepreneurial class can be directed in a more constructive and sustainable manner.  Entrepreneurs need to learn how to shift gears and put a brake pedal on their overactive brains or else they will suffer. “Accelerated Minds” takes readers inside the workings of the minds of those who can’t help risking it all — and offers new solutions for entrepreneurs to manage their mental health burdens. Neil Seeman is a respected essayist (for the Toronto Star, Nikkei Asia, The Globe and Mail, and Healthcare Quarterly) and founding member of the editorial board of the National Post.  Want to watch: YouTube Meisterkhan Pod (Please Subscribe)