Why I'm training in mental performance (now)

In May 2023, two clients of my agency tell me they are leaving.

The timing is cruel: I had just hired a new team member.

Objectively, the situation is not dramatic.
The company is healthy, it will hold.

But mentally, I take a real hit.

At that moment, I understand something crucial: the more the company grew, the heavier it was getting for me to carry.

• The stakes were higher.
• The human complexity had exploded.
• Mistakes cost more.

Add to that a family life with two young kids at home, broken nights, and that feeling of never truly switching off...

The cup was definitively full.

And the impact was tangible:

• strategic decisions less and less on point
• topics left open far too long
• a permanently scattered brain
• the feeling of always running after something

For the first time, I no longer truly felt capable of turning the tide.

I had hit my glass ceiling.

And that ceiling was neither financial, nor a matter of skills.

It was mental.

The myth of the indestructible professional

For a long time, I believed I could handle everything with willpower and discipline.

Grit my teeth.
Work more.
Get more organized.
Hold on.

After all, the "great entrepreneurs" seem to do it, right?

But I ended up understanding something essential: at this level of pressure, willpower and discipline are fragile levers.

Without clarity, without alignment, without a solid mental structure, you are heading straight into the wall.

The more I talk with other entrepreneurs, founders or professionals exposed to pressure, the more I realize how common this phenomenon is.

We want to go far.
We carry heavy responsibilities.
But we lack concrete, practical methods to last.

The result: we build careers and companies that become our prisons.

If you have ever caught yourself:

• Sitting on dozens of unread or unanswered emails and Slack messages;
• Being unable to properly delegate critical topics;
• Juggling 5+ topics at the same time every day;
• Ruminating over a decision at night instead of unplugging with your family.

Then you know exactly what I am talking about.

The turning point (thanks Léon)

A year later, I am watching the Paris Olympics.

Léon Marchand, the French swimming phenomenon, brilliantly wins his races, and in one of his interviews, he drops this:

"Without mental training, I would have quit swimming."

That sentence truly resonated with me.

Not because I compare myself to him.

But because, at my level, I was living the same thing: performing under pressure, continuously.

If your daily life looks like:

• important decisions every week
• heavy human responsibilities
• permanent pressure to deliver
• that small knot in your stomach that never fully goes away

Then you are playing the same game.

What has always fascinated me about great athletes like Djokovic, Nadal or Phelps is not their talent.

It is their capacity to set almost inhuman goals... and reach them with impressive regularity.

10, 15, sometimes 20 years of major events, without collapsing.

Yet, at their core, they are humans. Like you and me.

With their doubts, their flaws, their moods.

The difference?

They do not rely solely on their talent or discipline to succeed.
They are supported. Coached. Mentally prepared to last.

And we, entrepreneurs, founders and ambitious professionals, think we are going to last 20 years on coffee and a few podcasts?

Let's be honest: it is not enough.

Mental training: the invisible weapon of modern leaders

I ended up asking myself a key question:

If an Olympic athlete needs mental training to perform over time... why not a founder?

After months of reading, conversations and reflection, I made a decision in early 2025: to train seriously in mental performance.

Not to add "one more skill".

But to understand, integrate and transmit what actually allows you to hold up under pressure, without losing yourself.

I chose to train with Thomas Sammut, Léon Marchand's mental coach, because his philosophy deeply resonates with mine:

Well-being is not a bonus. It is the condition of lasting success.

Imagine waking up every Monday morning with a real desire to go to work.

Because you know this new week will bring you closer to what truly matters to you.

And that, whatever happens, you are mentally equipped to handle uncertainty, tensions, hard decisions, without burning out.

At that point, your days are no longer nervous sprints.
They become steps toward a clear, aligned, chosen, mastered direction.

That is exactly what we explore in this training.

Among the major axes we cover:

• Clarifying what truly drives you: knowing yourself better, understanding what deeply motivates you, and building on your natural strengths to perform with accuracy.
• Using the mental tools of champions: mental imagery, anchoring, heart coherence, and more.
• Transforming your inner dialogue: what you repeat to yourself every day either holds you back... or sets you free.
• Turning fear into pleasure: going from "I must succeed" to "I want to try".
• Understanding the hidden face of performance: why, without balance, it always ends up turning against us.

Why this newsletter?

Everything I learn, I want to document here.

Through this newsletter, I will share:

• concrete tools
• deep reflections
• and above all, keys to perform without losing yourself

Because I am convinced these levers can transform the way we live, work, and move forward.

With more clarity. More intensity. But above all: more meaning.

If this path speaks to you, this newsletter is made for you.

See you in the next edition. We will get into the heart of the matter: what mental training concretely is, and why it will play a major role in our society going forward.

Thibault

PS: if you know someone who lives this kind of pressure in silence, feel free to share the newsletter with them.