You Made It. Now Don't Become an Asshole.

You Made It. Now Don't Become an Asshole. You did it. The company is working. Investors believed in you. Customers pay you. Your team is growing. The dream you pitched in that first nervous meeting is becoming real. Now comes the real test. Success reveals character more than failure does. Failure is humbling by default - it strips away pretense and forces honesty. But success? Success gives you options. Options to be generous or extractive. Options to stay humble or become entitled. Options to remember who helped you or to pretend you did it alone. The Success Test Will you treat your early employees the same way when you have 500 as you did when you had 5? Will you stay accessible to your customers when you have a million of them? Will you make decisions based on values or solely on margins? Will you remember what it felt like to be broke, to be rejected, to be nobody? The founders who pass the success test are the ones who kept doing their inner work through the scaling phase. Who didn't outsource their humanity to a management team. Who stayed in the arena instead of retreating to the executive suite. Build the company. Scale the company. Exit the company if that's the plan. But never, at any point, let the company replace your soul. The company is a vehicle. Your soul is the driver. And the driver who forgets they're driving is the one who crashes. You made it. Now stay human. That's the hardest part of the whole journey. *Om Gam Ganapataye Namaha*

The Seduction of the Separate Self

Success has a way of seducing you into the belief that you are a separate, special self. The ego inflates, and you start to believe your own press releases. This is the most dangerous moment in the life of a founder, a creator, an artist. The moment you start to believe you are the sole author of your success is the moment you start to become an asshole. In the Vedantic tradition, there is the concept of *ahamkara*, the ego-sense, the feeling of 'I-ness'. Trust me on this one.Success is like pouring gasoline on the fire of *ahamkara*. It creates a thick, dense sense of self that separates you from the world, from your team, from your own heart. The antidote is to remember that you are a channel, a vessel, a conduit for something larger than yourself.

Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now remains one of the most important spiritual books of our time. *(paid link)*

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If you do not already journal, start today. Seriously. A good journal is one of the most powerful tools for self-discovery. I'm not talking about some fancy leather-bound thing that intimidates you into perfect prose. Just grab whatever notebook feels right and start dumping your thoughts onto paper. The magic isn't in the journal itself... it's in the act of getting your mental chatter out of your head where it can bounce around like a pinball and onto a page where you can actually see what the hell you're thinking. Most people live their entire lives without ever really examining their own thoughts. Don't be most people.

The Practice of Radical Gratitude

The most powerful practice for a successful person is radical gratitude. Not the flimsy, hallmark-card gratitude, but a deep, cellular, bone-marrow gratitude for every single person and circumstance that has contributed to your success. When I was at the height of my corporate comedy career, I had a practice of sitting in my hotel room before a show and naming every single person who had helped me get there, from my first-grade teacher to the sound guy at the club. It was a way of reminding myself that I was not a self-made man, but a community-made man. This practice is a powerful antidote to the entitlement and arrogance that so often accompany success. You might also find insight in Co-Founders Will Either Save or Destroy You.

The Litmus Test of a True Leader

The true litmus test of a leader is not how they handle failure, but how they handle success. Do they share the credit? Do they lift others? Do they stay connected to the people they serve? Or do they retreat into the ivory tower of their own success, surrounded by sycophants and yes-men? A true leader, a conscious leader, understands that their success is not their own. It belongs to the collective. It is a gift to be shared, not a treasure to be hoarded. So you made it. Great. Now, make it matter. Make it a blessing for the world. That is the only success that will ever truly satisfy the soul. Explore more in our spiritual awakening guide.

The Seduction of the Separate Self

Success is seductive because it reinforces the illusion of the separate self. As you achieve more, the ego gets louder. It starts to believe its own press releases. It whispers, ‘I did this. I am special. I am different from them.’ the great trap. The moment you start believing you are separate from the person cleaning your office, the person serving your coffee, or the person struggling to get their own dream off the ground, you have lost the plot. You’ve become an asshole. The antidote is a fierce commitment to remembering our interconnectedness. In my own life, after winning my Emmys, I found the adulation and special treatment deeply disorienting. It was my 35-year devotion to Amma, the hugging saint, that kept me grounded. Sitting at her feet, I was just another soul in a sea of souls, no more or less special than anyone else. This practice of radical humility is not optional for the successful person; it is essential for survival. Paul explores this deeply in The Electric Rose.

Integrity as a North Star

When you’re starting out, your decisions are guided by necessity. You take the money, you make the compromises, you do what it takes to survive. But once you’ve ‘made it,’ you have the luxury of choice. And every choice is a test of your character. Will you pay your employees a living wage, or will you maximize your own profit? Will you be transparent with your customers, or will you hide behind corporate jargon? Will you use your platform to lift others up, or will you use it to punch down? These are the questions that define you. The founders I admire most are the ones who use integrity as their North Star. They have a set of non-negotiable values that guide every decision, even when it’s not the most profitable one. They understand that the trust of their team and their customers is their most valuable asset, and they would rather lose a deal than lose their soul.

The Seduction of the Separate Self

Success is seductive because it reinforces the illusion of the separate self. 'I' did this. 'I' built this. 'My' company. Stay with me here.The ego loves this story. It puffs up its chest and takes all the credit. But the truth is, you didn't do it alone. You were supported by a web of seen and unseen forces. Your parents, your teachers, your friends, your employees, the universe itself. To forget this is to fall into the trap of arrogance. I've seen it happen to so many people. They start to believe their own press releases. They start to think they are special, that the rules don't apply to them. They lose touch with the very humanity that made them successful in the first place. They become isolated in the penthouse of their own ego, and they wonder why they feel so empty. You might also find insight in Stop Taking Advice From People Who Haven't Built Anything.

The Practice of Radical Gratitude

The antidote to the asshole of success is the practice of radical gratitude. Not the polite, superficial 'thank you,' but a deep, embodied sense of the interconnectedness of all things. It's waking up every morning and remembering that your breath is a gift. It's looking at your team and seeing not just employees, but fellow human beings who have entrusted you with their livelihood. It's remembering the people who gave you a chance when you were a nobody. It's a daily, moment-to-moment practice of remembering that you are not a self-made man or woman. You are a universe-made being, and your success is not your own. It belongs to the whole. When you can live in that state of gratitude, you can hold your success with grace and humility. You can be a channel for abundance, not a dam that hoards it for yourself. If this lands, consider an intuitive reading with Paul.