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Re:Narcissistic Collapse by jarym on Sunday November 27, 2022 @11:06AM (#33763862)
Pretty sure I lost my last startup due to my former co-founder having NPD. How did I cope? I had to walk away and lose everything I had at that time, deal with huge legal bills, and then watch him twiddle his thumbs while the startup folded. It also put an intense pressure on my marriage which ultimately also broke down.

Was a dreadful experience that I would never wish on anyone else and I am pretty certain I'll never trust anyone to co-found another startup with in the future.

Edit to add: advice for anyone in business with someone they suspect of NPD: tidy everything up, get legal advice, get away as quietly as possible, don't look back.

Re:Narcissistic Collapse by texasbigdata on Sunday November 27, 2022 @11:19AM (#33763992)
You basically explained a corporate, non-family, version of the grey rock technique. Nice!

Source for the curious, many more online and on YouTube (including often helpful role play videos, strongly recommend for practical purposes): https://www.talkspace.com/blog/grey-rock-method/

Re:Narcissistic Collapse by deebosong on Sunday November 27, 2022 @11:27AM (#33764104)
Someone else posted a link from outofthefog, but I came across pretty much the same set of principles as "grey rocking" but outofthefog called it "medium chill."

It took about... 5 years? Maybe more? For me to learn to use the principles well, whatever you wanna call them.

These issues go core-level deep!

But yeah, grey-rocking & medium chill are effective strategies to create & maintain the necessary distance to endure the onslaught from covert/ full-blown/ any and all narcissists. Granted, we all got bits and pieces of that dark side in us somewhere, and all of us will have to learn to address it sometime and to whatever extent it impacts us.

Re:Narcissistic Collapse by robocat on Sunday November 27, 2022 @12:57PM (#33764963)
Re:Narcissistic Collapse by leeroyjenkins11 on Sunday November 27, 2022 @12:02PM (#33764441)
Delete the gym, hit the lawyer, facebook up.
Re:Narcissistic Collapse by jennasys on Monday November 28, 2022 @01:31AM (#33770408)
Same thing happened to me. I got to a point where I had to conclude that the issues with the CEO was not something I could fix and I had to walk away knowing that I'd likely lose everything I had invested in the company. And I eventually did. And like you, the trust issues linger on. Your edit is spot on - narcissism alone in a CEO is common and manageable, but if they have NPD, get out NOW.