Episode
The Career Wins You Forgot To Count
- Published
- Apr 13, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 518
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Summary
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit moonshotmentor.substack.com You know what you’ve lost. But can you name your wins? Most people in a career transition can recite their losses on demand. The VP title. The 401K contribution. The Friday happy hours with the work family. The satisfaction of knowing what the job is and how to do it. Ask them to name their wins? Awkward silence then a short, apologetic list they immediately start walking back. “I mean, it wasn’t that big a deal.” “Anyone could have done that.” This isn’t humility. It’s your brain doing exactly what it was designed to do. Your Brain Thinks It’s Helping - It’s Not Your brain tracks threats and losses with far more energy than it tracks wins. It’s called negativity bias and a lot has been written about it. Essentially, as humans we’re wired to look for what’s not working as a way to protect ourselves. During a career transition, exactly when you need a clear and accurate picture of your professional story, your brain is actively over-indexing on the negative. The losses stay top of mind while the wins get tucked into a bankers box and put into the back of a storage container. Over time, negative bias feels like the truth. And once it does, it starts calling the shots on every decision you make — what you apply for, how you talk about yourself, what you believe you’re capable of next. I learned this the hard way. And what made it worse is that my brain wasn’t the only thing working against me. I was also using the wrong measuring stick. Another Reason Your Wins Go Missing Several years ago, when I was pivoting out of independent film and TV producing, I went after three corporate opportunities, hard. Made it to the final round for all three. Got none of them. When I dug into why, the…