Sasha Cayward was a nationally ranked junior tennis player — good enough to turn pro, until she decided that wasn't the life she wanted and walked away from the sport that had been her whole identity. A decade later, she did it again: she left the startup she'd spent a year building, with no plan for what came next. Sri caught her mid-jump — reinventing in public, betting on herself, and strangely at peace with not knowing.

This one's less a career story than a field guide to reinvention. Sasha and Sri get into choosing a career over a job, why joy (not discipline) is the real engine of high performance, and her core claim: you can't build self-belief on a dysregulated nervous system. With degrees in psychology and neuroscience — and a decade spanning founder, investor, and community builder — she ties the confidence to chase big opportunities straight to a felt sense of safety in the body, then gets practical about how founders and operators actually build it.

In this episode:
- Why to choose a career, not a job — and how the two differ
- Why joy, not discipline, drives real performance
- The link between self-belief and a regulated nervous system — and the tools that build it (breathwork, EFT tapping)
- How to "borrow" belief from the people around you until it's your own
- The "six-pack mind, muffin-top thoughts" trap that hits the most disciplined people hardest

If you're between chapters — or too scared to start the next one — this one's for you.

Sasha spent the past year building community at Hubble, a place for founders to get the advice they need. Sasha has unique insights having been a founder but also as an elite athlete. She was a nationally ranked junior on the tennis circuit.

She and Sri together document reinvention while it's happening—not the highlight reel.

📌 Want to crush 2026? Book a free clarity call with Sri to get your priorities in order and start getting unstuck.

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Follow Sri for elite leadership tips:
➡️ LinkedIn.com/in/andrewsridhar

Connect on Instagram: @andrewsridhar + @sri_actually

Intro and/or outro music in most episodes is by Paul Sridhar. 🎧

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