When Trauma Leads to Expertise

And how it spirals downwards or upwards

The world will never recognize you for your subject matter expertise. If you are a subject matter expert, the world will only recognize your expertise proportionately to your ability to market yourself.

This can have devastating consequences for those who’ve used success or perfectionism as a coping mechanism for childhood trauma. The negative feedback loop looks like this:

1. The world/your father doesn’t recognize your value

2. You attempt to fix this deficit by “being somebody”’which leads to subject matter expertise development

3. You observe the market does not understand the value you deliver, and rewards people you consider to be only mildly competent

4. You cope with food/alcohol/drugs and/or overall resentment and antipathy for the world

5. Your coping strategy results in you marketing yourself more poorly and ultimately compounding your underlying issues

Success in life is not linear. There is always a feedback loop. The cheat code is understanding if you are in a negative feedback loop and breaking out as fast as possible, so you can spend as much time as possible in a positive feedback loop.

You may have noticed that life is either too easy or too hard. Which state yours is in depends on which feedback loop you are experiencing.