Former CIA Officer Says This Unfortunate Life Experience Reveals How Successful A Person Will Be
No one wants to experience it, but if you have, there's a chance it may give you an advantage in your life.
SeventyFour | Canva Andrew Bustamante is the founder of EverydaySpy, a company dedicated to “[sharing] spy education that breaks down barriers.” And it turns out that Bustamante is pretty qualified to do that. He’s a former CIA officer who lived “in the shadows” himself. In a recent podcast interview, Bustamante shared what it really takes to be successful, and it’s probably not what you immediately think of.
Everyone wants to be successful. That’s just natural for humans. A lot of people think that how successful you’ll be comes down to how hard you work, which is true in some cases. However, Bustamante suggested that there was more to the psychology of success than that, and struggle and trauma are major components.
According to a former CIA officer Andrew Bustamante, successful people tend to have childhood trauma.
He was on the Truth Hurts Show, hosted by Brian Gold, PhD, when he revealed just how beneficial childhood trauma can be, obviously not in the moment, but later in life. Apparently, the CIA even uses it as a marker to identify effective agents.
“The CIA understands what to look for in a person before they become a success,” he said. “And that magic element, that secret sauce that they have, that so few other people realize, is that high performance is tied to childhood trauma.”
Some might be skeptical of Bustamante’s words, but he insisted there’s truth to them. “There’s studies out there that show it,” he continued. “There’s an actual chemical change in your brain during your formative childhood years that [makes] it so that you are essentially addicted to seeking approval and validation.”
Bustamante explained that it all comes down to feeling like you need to prove your worth.
“If you don’t have childhood trauma, you don’t have that chemical addiction,” he said. “If your parents love you, and everybody’s there for you, and life is easy, you actually feel like, ‘I don’t need to prove myself. I don’t need to make anybody happy.’”
When you become comfortable like that, you remain stagnant. He added. “But when you don’t have that, when Dad doesn’t pay attention to you ‘cause he’s addicted to work, that becomes a predictable, trainable element within your psyche.”
Basically, if you grew up feeling secure and loved, you’re not going to really feel like you need to make any big changes in your life. It feels good where you are, so the motivation just isn’t there. Why should it be? But if you’ve been through childhood trauma, then you know what it’s like to feel like you aren’t enough and like you have to show others how good you are. That’s why it makes you successful.
Experts have corroborated this sentiment.
Leadership development consultant Soren Kaplan, PhD, shared his own relationship with childhood trauma. His mother was diagnosed with a mental illness when he was just 3 years old, and his father did not have a strong presence in his life. His family struggled financially, so they moved frequently, creating a sense of instability.
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“As paradoxical as it may sound, the same things that traumatized me early on also delivered unique gifts that I successfully use in the workplace today,” he stated. “My unusual upbringing led me to develop mindsets and abilities to adapt to significant uncertainty. And I’ve used these assets to address some of the most inherently ambiguous areas of business: how to run startups, manage corporate innovation, and transform organizational culture.”
Although Kaplan had an unstable, traumatic childhood, he was able to leverage that and use it to his advantage later in life. That’s the hope that Bustamante wanted to give to all who have suffered. Although your childhood may have been less than ideal, it could serve you well later on.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
