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Learn from this investor’s $100m mistake

In 2010, a Grammy-winning artist passed on investing $200K in an emerging real estate disruptor. That stake could be worth $100+ million today.

One year later, another real estate disruptor, Zillow, went public. This time, everyday investors had regrets, missing pre-IPO gains.

Now, a new real estate innovator, Pacaso – founded by a former Zillow exec – is disrupting a $1.3T market. And unlike the others, you can invest in Pacaso as a private company.

Pacaso’s co-ownership model has generated $1B+ in luxury home sales and service fees, earned $110M+ in gross profits to date, and received backing from the same VCs behind Uber, Venmo, and eBay. They even reserved the Nasdaq ticker PCSO.

Invest for $2.90/Share

_{Paid advertisement for Pacaso’s Regulation A offering. Read the offering circular at invest.pacaso.com. Reserving a ticker symbol is not a guarantee that the company will go public. Listing on the NASDAQ is subject to approvals.}

It’s a strange experience.
You’re making breakfast, replying to a work email, or scrolling your phone—and suddenly, there they are. That one person you can’t seem to forget.
Maybe they’re a past love. Maybe an old friend. Maybe even someone you barely know, yet for some reason, they live rent-free in your mind.
You’ve told yourself to move on. You’ve tried distracting yourself.
But the thoughts keep returning.

Why does this happen?

Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist who founded analytical psychology, would say it’s not just about them. Often, it’s about what they represent in you. The human psyche, Jung believed, is always communicating with us—sometimes by sending certain people into our thoughts again and again.

Here are four Jungian reasons someone might stay in your mind, and what that might be trying to tell you.

Why

1. They hold a piece of your shadow

2. Your projecting your inner world onto them

3. They’ve triggered a deep archetype in you

4. They represent unfinished inner work

They hold a piece of your shadow
Jung described the Shadow as the part of ourselves we keep hidden—qualities we deny, suppress, or simply don’t want to acknowledge. The Shadow can hold traits we consider “negative,” like jealousy or anger, but also positive traits we’ve been taught to downplay, like ambition, creativity, or assertiveness.

When someone keeps appearing in your thoughts, it may be because they embody something you’ve locked away in your own Shadow.
You might admire their boldness or resent their calm, but either way, they’ve awakened a part of yourself that you haven’t fully embraced.

The mind keeps bringing them back not to torture you, but to say:
“Look. This is a part of you, too.”

Your projecting your inner world onto them
Projection is another key Jungian idea. It’s what happens when we unconsciously “project” our own feelings, desires, or traits onto another person.

Think of it as using them as a screen for your own inner movie.
Maybe the love you feel is partly love for qualities you wish you had. Maybe the frustration is partly frustration at your own unfulfilled potential.

This is why simply avoiding the person doesn’t make the thoughts stop.
If they are carrying your projection, the real work is taking back what belongs to you—recognizing the qualities you see in them, and then cultivating those qualities in yourself.

They’ve triggered a deep archetype in you
Jung believed we all share a collective unconscious—a universal layer of the psyche filled with timeless symbols and patterns called archetypes. These include figures like the Hero, the Mother, the Mentor, the Trickster, and the Lover.

Sometimes, when someone stays in your mind, it’s because they’ve stirred one of these ancient patterns within you. A friend might awaken the Caregiver archetype.
A stranger might spark the Explorer in you. A romantic interest might embody the Lover so completely that it touches something much older than your personal history.

When this happens, the pull you feel isn’t just about your individual story—it’s about a much bigger story humans have been telling for thousands of years.

They represent unfinished inner work
Sometimes a lingering person in your mind is a messenger for unresolved emotions, unprocessed experiences, or personal growth that’s waiting to happen.
Jung believed the psyche has a built-in drive toward wholeness—and one way it moves us there is by presenting symbols, dreams, or even people we can’t stop thinking about.

If you haven’t learned the lesson, accepted the trait, or faced the wound they represent, they’ll likely keep showing up in your thoughts.
It’s as if your unconscious is saying: “We’re not done here yet.”

When you finally confront the lesson—whether it’s about self-worth, boundaries, courage, or forgiveness—the mental repetition often eases naturally.

In conclusion

Jung’s work reminds us that the people who occupy our minds the most aren’t always meant to stay in our lives. Sometimes, they’re meant to illuminate the parts of ourselves we’ve ignored, hidden, or forgotten.

It’s tempting to treat these thoughts like a problem to be solved—something to “get rid of.” But what if they’re not a problem at all? What if they’re an invitation?

Each time someone surfaces in your mind, you have a choice. You can push the thought away, hoping it fades on its own. Or you can sit with it and ask deeper questions:

•What part of me are they reflecting?
•What feelings are they awakening?
•What lesson, wound, or gift might they represent?

Often, the answers to these questions have little to do with the other person and everything to do with your own growth. That’s why, in Jung’s view, the mind doesn’t let go until it’s sure you’ve received the message.

And here’s the paradox: once you finally listen—once you integrate the qualities, heal the wound, or claim the piece of yourself they’ve been holding—their presence in your thoughts naturally fades. Not because you forced it, but because you no longer need them to carry that part of you.

So the next time someone keeps showing up in your mind, resist the urge to see it as an inconvenience. Instead, see it as your psyche handing you a mirror. Somewhere in that reflection is a part of yourself you’re meant to reclaim. And when you do, you might find not only more peace, but also a deeper, truer connection to who you really are.

Thank you for reading.