The Experience Behind The 78% Club
I’m Jason McDaid, a senior fire engineer based in Galway. I’ve spent over a decade working in environments where decisions carry real consequence and the margin for error is small. I was good at the work. For most of that time, I was also convinced it was only a matter of time before someone realised I wasn’t.
At a Christmas party, I overheard my boss describe me as a highly experienced fire engineer. Within seconds, my brain turned it into a threat. I left early, and not long after, I left the company. Nothing had happened. That was just how it worked. It didn’t need evidence.
For years, it showed up in how I worked. I procrastinated on important tasks, stayed quiet to avoid exposure, and sometimes overcompensated to look more confident than I felt. I also left roles before anything could catch up with me. From the outside, it looked fine. Underneath, it was constant and didn’t switch off.
Eventually it caught up. Burnout, depression, and a point where the gap between how I appeared and how I actually felt became too wide to manage. Getting help didn’t fix everything, but it gave me something I hadn’t had before. Clarity. A way to understand what had been running in the background for years.
At its worst, this goes beyond doubt. Hidden Cognitive Strain is constant. It shapes how you think, how you work, and how you see what’s ahead. I know that experience. That’s why I take this work seriously.
The 78% Club comes from that place. When I started speaking about it, people recognised it immediately. Engineers, business owners, architects, project managers. Different roles, same underlying experience.
Today, I deliver workshops and talks for Local Enterprise Offices, Skillnet networks, and professional bodies across Ireland and the UK. The focus is practical. Clear thinking under pressure and the behavioural impact of internal doubt.
No jargon. No coaching language. Just a grounded look at something that shows up in real working environments.
If that sounds relevant to your organisation, I’m happy to talk.