In a conversation with a friend, I was recently reflecting on the following three books:

1. Harlod Bloom’s  – a book about how poets suffer from anxiety induced by their relationships with their predecessors, and how some “strong” poets achieve greatness while most simply write derivative work.

2. Andy Grove’s  – a book about how paranoia allows some leaders to respond to strategic inflection points in their industries, and thus survive major internal and external shocks.

3. Kashdan and Biswas-Diener’s  – a book about how dark emotions such as anger, anxiety, guilt, and sadness can drive performance.

Taken together, they form sort of a trilogy on how harnessing anxiety (and similar dark emotions) can  lead to strong performance – and even genius.

Speaking from personal experience, I understand how dark emotions such as anxiety, need for risk taking, and status seeking can both lead to incredible breakthroughs and serious fuck-ups.

Whether it is Martin Luther King Jr, Gandhi, Mother Theresa, Thomas Jefferson, or Elizabeth I – your heroes were always in a constant battle with their dark side; sometimes they won, sometimes they lost, and sometime they harnessed their dark side for the good of others.

As a leader, the tensions are multifold: rationalization and suppression are there as poles; contentment is there in fleeting blips; and anxiety, in waves low and high, might be the closet thing to consistency.

Good luck.