We Are Spirits, in the Material World

This week's post is something different — the first ever Refound Annual Update. It was one year ago today when I hit publish on refound.com and took it live.

Here's the punch line: I created Refound because I believe we are at a tipping point moment in human history — where the line between personal and professional growth is dissolving. And, that if we look closely, we'll realize that that line is an illusion.

That realization started for me back in May of 2015. I was coming up on my four-year anniversary at E-Myth, first as its CEO and then as its Chief Brand Officer. It was a wild ride, for the first time in my career finding myself at the helm of a global brand. I started to see myself start to disengage.

I realized, as much as I was trying to say something new, that I was representing a brand and an industry that was built on a set of values and ideas about personal growth, spirituality, and the purpose of business that didn't speak to the deepest parts of me.

I wanted to do deep inner work AND have work that was an expression of my truest self AND have that work make a positive impact on the world around me AND make a great living doing it.

I began to question the core assumptions I'd been holding without realizing it. What if trying to figure out who you are on the weekend — psychologically, emotionally, spiritually — and then trying to bring that to work on Monday is the problem? What if personal development, emotional maturity, and self-actualization are impossible if they're not interwoven with the work you're doing out in the world?

The more I thought about it, the more frustrated I became with the prevailing wisdom on employee engagement and company culture. The industry is mostly treating personal and spiritual growth as a fad — a new fangled perk to do the same old thing: to get better business results. And in that way, nothing changes: The business still comes first.

At Refound, we aim to give you everything you need to have life-changing conversations with each human being on your team.